Tandberg 3011A Tuner

[jdandy]

I recently purchased a vintage Tandberg 3011A tuner to go with my 3008A preamp and 3026A power amp. The tuner is very sensitive, pulls in distant station (50 miles) on a dipole. I'm going to have to hook it up to my Magnum Dynalab Signal Sleuth in the studio to see what she'll do with a roof top antenna. The sound is rich, clean, and very quiet background. The tuning dial is silky smooth and the memory buttons all function properly. The 3011A tuner really adds to the Tandberg stack. I am quite pleased.

[Haydn]

Very handsome tuner.

[Vintage Pete]

Very nice, Vintage Dan!!

Pete

[Masterlu]

That's a great looking tuner Dan... I didn't know Tandberg made them.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

That's a great looking tuner Dan... I didn't know Tandberg made them.

Ivan.......Tandberg has made several tuners during their day. Their 3001A tuner still commands big bucks when you can find one.

This entire Tandberg system sounds very good. The 3026A power amplifier is a MOSFET design with 150 w/p/c @ 8 ohms and and a peak current of 45 A. In combination with the 3008A preamplifier, the 3026A power amp produces a very fine performance. The 3008A preamplifier has both moving magnet and moving coil phono stages with selectable impedance and capacitance switches in the rear. The preamp also has a headphone output with an independent volume control. Manufactured in Norway, these Scandinavian audio components still look modern. It is a testimony to their original quality that these vintage components still hold their own against many current products.

[Masterlu]

You are an encyclopedia of knowledge Dan.

[Maks]

Looks great! How do those presets work with an analog dial? Servo controlled tuning knob?

[jdandy]

Steve.......I am not sure how the memory tuning works. You manually dial in the station, then add the station to a memory button. After that, no matter where the pointer on the FM log is pointing, you just touch a memory button and the tuners goes directly to that station but the dial pointer doesn't move. The moment you touch the tuning knob to seek another station the tuner immediately returns to tuning at the frequency noted by the pointer. How it remembers a station's frequency is a mystery to me. It works perfectly, but I don't understand its operation.

[Maks]

Dan, I got curious enough about this to look into it, basically it uses this method from what I could gather with some quick research:
"The AM/FM radio adopting electronic tuning systems are increasing in number spreading from car radios to home stereos. The electronic tuning system electronically controls the DC tuning-voltage to the varactor diodes in the receiver circuits, instead of mechanically controlling the variable capacitor or a variable inductance coil, tuning the receiver to the desired channel."

[jdandy]

Steve.......Thanks. That makes sense. Earlier this evening I was listening to the Tandberg tuner using my HD600 Sennheiser headphones plugged into the 3008 preamp. Great sounding tuner, even on a throw-away dipole antenna. These three Tandberg components sure look good together. This vintage system may take the place of my McIntosh MA5100 and MR74 tuner.