Tuners last a really long time if you take good care of them by a good maintenance and clean up. The older ones are also much better than the newer ones.
Yeah, if it weren't for the HD-radio angle, I'd probably skip this Sony and hunt eBay/Audiogon/etc. for a high-quality 70's-vintage tuner.
Tuners do seem to be the main exception to the usual electronics pattern of ever-better, ever-cheaper.
Even midgrade tuners (and even tuner sections of receivers, for that matter) from that era seemed to be higher quality than is generally offered today even in higher-end receivers. I assume this is largely a matter of priorities - In the 70's, radio was a much more important source, while today with streaming, networks, media servers, satellite radio, etc., plain ol' garden-variety AM/FM is way down the list. Plus, it's probably consumer-driven too - In the 70's, tuner specs were a major battleground on which the manufacturers competed, while nowadays I doubt too many sales are made or lost on tuner specs.
It is a
little surprising though that virtually no receiver manufacturers have yet decided it would pay them to include HD Radio in their units - I would've thought someone would've latched onto that as the feature to set them apart from the competition. HD Radio simply hasn't yet grabbed enough 'mindshare' yet to force that issue, I assume.
Anyone here got any inside line at Sony, and wanna give us some info on when/if we can expect to see this tuner back in stock? Are we gonna see the same model re-stocked, or some 'new and improved' model? It's a little odd that only a year ago HD Radio was offering $50 rebates to move this $100 unit, but already today they bring $170 on eBay.
