Yamaha CT-800 Vintage Tuner

[goatcatcher]

Item: Yamaha CT-800 Tuner c.1975

Location: Castlemaine, Vic

Price: $50 - or make an offer

Item Condition: 7/10 - good for its age; there's a bit of a gouge out of the edge of the faceplate and veneer on the right side.

Payment Method: cash on pickup, bank transfer

Extra Info:

Classic Yamaha tuner from the golden age (I'm avoiding the 'Vintage' tag because it is the same age as me). Powered up and worked last time I tried it but could do with a couple of bulbs being replaced.

 

Seems to be widely well-regarded if you do a bit of Googling, for example at tapeheads.net and this from fmtunerinfo:

Yamaha CT-800 (1974, $370, [/size]front, [/size]back) [/size]search eBay

Our contributor John M. offers this report: "I have a Yamaha CT-800 in stock condition, mine since new. It's only been in partial service for the last 17 years, since I ousted it for a Pioneer F-90. For a while, I was using the CT-800 as the main off-air receiver in an FM radio station. The frequency response and distortion compares very favourably with a precision receiver (I checked it against an Innovonics demodulator). But all is not perfecto, and I've noticed a few downsides which may be typical to the model or just restricted to my unit (your mileage may vary, etc., etc.):

"1. In a medium signal environment, with uncrowded band, it performs well... not necessarily the cleanest where the signal is weak, but it will pick something useful out of the mud. The tuning meters are helpful in that respect, and being able to bypass hi-blend is a bonus. 

2. It seems to have difficulty locking on a station, almost like you tune it to the top of a peak and then it automatically falls off the peak into the trough on either side. This is the opposite of how its AFC is supposed to work. 

3. On my unit, the feature that unlocks the AFC when you touch the knob works sometimes and not others. When it works, the tuning meter obligingly moves back towards the center position. 

4. In a very concentrated and high-level signal area (we're 200 watts, about a kilometer from the transmitter, there are six stations within two kilometers ranging from 60 kW to 150 kW, and our frequency is hit with four major third-order intermods from the big boys. Don't ask why that would be allowed to happen... it's another story) - anyway, the CT-800 sounds good when it's on frequency, but gets pulled off way too easily. 

5. Lamp replacement is fiddly, but not impossible. 

6. I wish more tuners still came with horizontal/vertical outputs."

John concludes, "I continue to think that the CT-800 sounds really nice under ideal circumstances. When bought, it was the best choice behind a CT-7000. I now regret that I couldn't find the extra cash, but I was quite young at the time." The CT-800, which appears to be somewhat similar to the CT-1010, usually sells for $50-100 on eBay and should be a major bargain at the low end of that range. The recent low was $10 in 4/08 and the recent high was $129 in 8/11, and a CT-800 with a recent alignment by Stereo Surgeons went for $207 in 11/05.

 

I bought this a while back on a whim, because I thought it was quite a handsome looking unit. It made me think I'd put together a Vint*** system to go with my grandfather's Kef Concertos, but the Kefs are now with my sister and, realistically, I don't have the space, the time or the cash.

 

No box for this one, but could pack up and post at a pinch. You're welcome to pick up or I could drop it by sometime if you live on my side of Melbourne.

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