Read the AIG FM Tuner Project Introduction

A Sleeper DX For Sure!

This is a tuner that surprised in its sensitivity and selectivity after reviewing hundreds of tuners over the years. The Hitachi FT-4000, in good-to-excellent reception conditions, pulled in 50 stations on our 300-ohm Lindsay double-dipole antenna, and 52 on our small yagi high-mounted directional antenna on the tower, but its stereo sensitivity was somewhat below the better high end tuners (to come, about 40 models in all).

In an area with lots of strong local or suburban stations, this should be a real signal puller, and sounds very good, with excellent separation. It prefers a 300-ohm antenna, and the balanced circuit therefrom does inhibit interference pickup if properly oriented (ie; slightly twisted) on the way down from outside. I found no multipath problems in reception, and surprising selectivity in what must have been a budget tuner, notwithstanding its strong resemblance to the [legendary] Kenwood L-07T, with even larger, well-lit meters for Signal and Tuning. It’s a very handsome tuner in grey, and has a few scratches or discolorations on the top, but is otherwise quite lovely.
My favourite NPR classical station, WNED-FM came in with slightly noisy stereo, very good at about 85 miles on the fly right through the mists of Niagara Falls to King City, north of Toronto. I would call this tuner a real reception sleeper.

It has front panel controls for MODE (Auto Stereo/Mute On or Mono), MPX Noise Filter (On/Off), and AM/FM. The tuning is smooth and free, if not Kenwood flywheel perfect, and the rear panel offers finger screwtaps for AM and FM, as well as captive AC power and stereo output RCA cables, making this tuner an easy plug-in to any audio system.

I’ve started it at reasonable opening price [$25.00], I think, and stand behind the Hitachi FT-4000′s surprising quality of performance. I thought it a good start to our FM Tuner Project.

That was the first review and sale, the ultimate auction hammer price being $61.00 plus shipping. A few weeks later I received this response from the buyer:

“Never owned a tuner before. I had a few receivers in the 70s that had good tuners in them. I’ve been fussing with antennas, filters, etc. of late, as I could never get very good reception even though I have a cable connection.”

“This has all changed with this unit. I can’t believe how selective and quiet it is! I have robbed you! Thank you for your very honest appraisal of this unit.”