Hey Inscrutable! You have good taste... Another TU-717 lover here! Awesome radio. I had an old Marantz tuner for a while, but it wasn't doing anything special for me. So I read
http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/ and looked on EBay for what was available. I am driven by looks, so I went for the Sansui. Got it for about $250. Quick power up test with static on tuner and volume knobs and terrible misalignment and wire lead antenna still sounded better than the just cleaned and aligned Marantz by a long shot. So I sent it to Ken at Stereo Surgeons in CT. He said he does about 5 Sansuis a week! He thinks the 717 is the best value in tuner right now. He did an excellent job fixing it up and reworking some know problem areas, like replace dial lamp with modern bulb. Converted the antenna twist screws to a real F Connector. Sent me alignment before and after specs and even put new feet on it. He also replaced some caps with Black Gates. Total was about $400 including shipping. It sounds as clear as a CD, better actually. It looks beautiful and fills the house with music all day long. He is thorough, very knowledgeable and has a great reputation as a tuner guru. I would recommend him with one caveat: Be prepared to leave it there a long time, and don't expect it to return until you call and ask for it, maybe a few times depending on your nervosa level. Getting rich is not his goal. Working on radios in a stress free take your time manner is Ken's way. This is all disclosed on his website, but I still had a hard time believing it! He had my radio for 'several' months. After the work, I had trouble with hum from antenna ground looping through to amp. He helped me understand what was going on in a very detailed and long personal email. I was able to fix it easily with a transformer.
I put a Radio Shack FM antenna with 5 foot mast and gable mount up on the highest peak of the house. I get line of site to many FM stations and full blast signal strength on everything.
We have WCPE one of the best classical stations in the country only 25 miles from here. Other than the compression they use on everything, it is pretty good source. Not too much dentist music. At night they get into some decent listening stuff. It streams for free on the net, but naturaly that doesn't sound as good.. A couple decent jazz stations too, one is in Durham, WNCU. I think it is only 10kW and 40 miles away. I get it crystal clear, all night modern jazz from syndicated show Bob Parloccia. Even the car radio can't pull it in from here. I get stations in the cracks that I never knew were there, maybe they aren't anywhere close. WEEZ, you may be surprised at what you would recieve with a decent antenna. Mine is just $25 clunker with no rotator. I learned a lot about antennas, lightning, grounding, hum, etc. It was a fun project. My wife hates helping with the the 40 ladder. She is sooooo good to me.
WEEZ, if you wanna try radio easy and cheap you can try my Marantz. It is ST400. Sells on EBay for close to nothing. But mine is already cleaned and aligned by theanalogstore.com and has new input RCAs. It does not have a F connector antenna input, but does have 75 and 300ohm antenna screws. My local Radio Shack had one yagi style "FM antenna" in stock even though they are discontinued now. You might get lucky and find one, they are cheap and work good.
I would go the same route again, would not buy new. Especially after reading comparos on fmtunerinfo.com. Vintage is the best for less.
Rich
