Golden Age sentimentalists often allow nostalgia to colour their
opinions. They soon learn that because something is old (or glows
in the dark) doesn't mean it's good. But one antique which does
live up to its reputation is the tube-laden Marantz 10B FM Tuner,
and that's not open to discussion.

Although there were a couple of attempts in the 1980s at making
modern valve equivalents of this desirable collector's item (most
notably from Klimo and the late, lamented New York Audio Labs),
the real successor came earlier in the form of a solid-state
device. The Sequerra Model 1 of the mid-1970s, designed by Dick
Sequerra (who assisted the great Sid Smith with the 10B), was to
the tuners of its day what the Goldmund Reference is to
turntables: pure, unadulterated, cost-no-object overkill.
Naturally, this tuner was an American product, because only the
Americans have airwaves which can justify FM as a primary source.

Before Trevor Butler stabs me with his green biro, let me clarify
that statement. Even though we in the UK enjoy some of the finest
sounding broadcasts available anywhere, the most consistent,
easily-accessible transmissions are only of interest to classical
or 'spoken word' listeners, or less than 10 percent of the
CD/LP-buying public. They can therefore ignore the last sentence
in the above paragraph because they're ideal customers for the
Sequerra. All that's left for other radio users are the other
Beebs, a couple of halfway decent stations in the major cities
and a load of diabolical local stations.

The USA, on the other hand, has an FM waveband crammed to the
edges with stereo transmissions to satisfy fans of every genre.
Because of this congestion plus sound quality which can do with
whatever help is available, American radio users of the high-end,
fat-wallet persuasion can justify the purchase of overkill
tuners.

Anyway, the Sequerra soon entered the annals of hi-fi as the
best-ever post-Marantz 10B tuner, but the company itself went
through a shaky period. (Would you want to run a business based
on an FM tuner which costs as much as a VW?) In 1984, the
Davidson-Roth Corporation acquired the rights to the Sequerra,
which they re-introduced as the Day-Sequerra FM Broadcast
Monitor, the new tuner being an extensively updated version. On
looks alone, the Sequerra stops audiophiles dead in their tracks,
as does the price tag. #13,000 for a tuner? I can hear 'Fed Up In
Neasden' already penning his paean to the Quad FM3...

Enter the Day Sequerra FM Studio Tuner, the 'budget' version of
the living legend. Still absurdly priced at #3,950, the baby is a
much newer design which one or two colleagues have suggested
sounds even better than the Broadcast Monitor. The Studio, styled
like the Broadcast, features two vertical arrays of six buttons
per side, a rotary tuning dial, large red digits and the 4.5in
instrument-grade oscilloscope...just like the Marantz 10B. (Note
to Fed Up In Neasden: I'm told that this particular 'scope on its
own would cost roughly a third of the price of the tuner.) While
the less-expensive model loses the spectrum analysis facility on
the 'scope, it does replace other functions with more sensible
commands. Gone are the earlier unit's Dolby facility (heh, heh,
heh...), panel dimmer and three buttons' worth of muting options.
The 12 controls for the new model include four buttons to operate
the oscilloscope, absolute polarity inversion, contour defeat,
narrow, normal and wide IF bandwidth selection, 'mono forcing' (a
mono button to us OFTs), muting defeat and power on/off.

At the back are an IEC mains input, a US-style (screw-threaded)
75 ohm aerial input and four pairs of phono sockets. Two pairs
are for signal out, either normal or inverted, while the other
pairs -- also normal and inverted -- allow you to feed the
oscilloscope for assessing other line-level components, accessed
by pressing the button on the front panel marked 'External Vector
Display'. The normal and inverted signal-out sockets also allow
you to install the Sequerra in balanced mode with suitable
preamps.

The massive owner's manual contains an in-depth technical
description, running to six single-spaced pages, so all I'll
include here are the salient points. A sophisticated analogue
tuning system was employed in preference to digital tuning
because the company finds the trade-offs unacceptable, arguing
that digital synthesis tuning is, among other things, noisier and
less accurate. The company suggests that digital tuning has
resolution of 12.5kHz with an actual 'set-on accuracy' of greater
than 8kHz; the Day Sequerra is tested for set-on accuracy of
better than 100Hz. (Does this mean that we're going to hear a
chorus of 'I told you so' from all of those other makers who
eschewed digital tuning and pre-sets on the grounds of sound
quality?)

With sound quality as much a priority as the sophistication of
the tuning circuitry, the company went for true dual-mono audio
amplification designed by Dan D'Agostino of Krell, each channel
using entirely discrete devices and offering the aforementioned
balanced operation. The success of balanced operation in high-end
audio applications is pretty much a fait accompli for pre-amps
and power amps; Sequerra's FM Studio is, as far as I can tell,
the first balanced tuner to appear. The Studio also features six
separately regulated power supplies via a custom-made 250VA
toroidal transformer. Military spec parts are used throughout,
including 1% Dale metal film resistors, and Roederstein and Mial
capacitors.

The FM Studio Tuner, when connected to live mains, rests in a
stand-by mode, with half-illumination of the 'scope's matrix to
indicate this status. Because the tuner takes at least 30 minutes
to deliver optimum performance when switched on from cold, this
pre-warming stage is a boon; full performance is then available
within a minute. Pressing the ON button illuminates the digital
counter, the twelve legends next to each button and the
oscilloscope. Despite the abscence of presets, the Sequerra is a
doddle to tune. The large rotary control has a nicely weighted
feel, the digits are large and clear, and the oscilloscope's
tuning matrix is foolproof.

Pressing the top button on the left hand array produces the grid
over the oscilloscope. Between stations, there's a blue blur at
the bottom of the scope. As you near a station, the blur takes on
the shape of a small arc, circling up the matrix. The higher the
arc travels, the stronger the signal. For dead-centre tuning,
just turn the knob until the blue arc is centred over the middle
vertical line on the grid; the words 'stereo pilot' light up over
the station counter when you've located a stereo broadcast.

The other displays are more for assessing signal and stereo
quality rather than for tuning. Pressing 'Tuner Vector Display'
produces an x-y grid, which shows the instantaneous peak
deviation of right and left audio channels. Music programme
produces an egg-shaped burst emanating from the centre point,
while an announcer's voice yields a near vertical line; in the
case of speech with the voices at stage left and stage right, the
two lines veer in the direction of each speaker, the further
apart the better the separation. Mono broadcasts should produce a
vertical line. 'Tuner Balanced Vertical Display' is selected when
the tuner is used in balanced mode. In either mode, an absolutely
perfect stereo broadcast would show a burst in the shape of a
ball; the 'egg' effect is indicative of the limited separation of
broadcasts relative to direct sources like CD or LP.

Depending on your technical abilities, the 'non-tuning' functions
of the oscilloscope are either a great source for inducing
paranoia or merely a source of amusement as a mini-light show.
But even if the 'scope only showed the tuning grid, it's still
the best tuning device I've used since the Magic Eye on my old
Lowther. Or the 'scope on my 10B. Once you've read the owner's
manual, you'll find that the scope can tell you with great
accuracy the exact signal strength, separation, peak deviation of
L and R channels and more, the scope being expecially useful in
helping you to set your aerial if you live in an area plagued
with multipath problems.

Most of the controls are familiar and self-explanatory, but the
'Stereo Contour Override' deserves comment. Although 'blend'
facility is fast disappearing, most manufacturers assuming that
you'd prefer mono to contoured stereo, Sequerra has fitted a
contour which has been designed to achieve the best compromise
between stereo effect and noise. This is with the button in the
'out' position, so those who don't read the manual will be
listening to contoured sound aimed at achieving separation of
50dB at 1kHz and 40dB at 10kHz, while maintaining an S/N ratio of
70dB. Push the button in for defeat and you receive the
unprocessed signal -- the opposite of 'blend' controls which
operate in the 'in' position.

Conditions in the wilds of Kent didn't really provide much for
testing the urban panacaeas, but I did have ample opportunity to
try the muting defeat, finding that the Sequerra's muting is too
fierce. The review sample shut out far too many stations which
delivered listenable stereo, as well as a number that were
rendered listenable in mono. At this price, user-adjustable
muting thresholds would not be out of order.

The only real complaint, though, was the sensitivity -- or lack
thereof. The cynic whose listening room I use spent days
antagonising me with how his 'in-car Pioneer' blows away the
Sequerra when it comes to pulling in the stations. Despite a
good, roof-mounted aerial, all I could capture were the usual
locals; a phonecall from the USA revealed that the company sets
up the tuners at the factory according to the market. Dealing
with a Londoner, they had no reason to assume that the rest of
the UK was any different, so I received a tuner set up for
maximum selectivity rather than sensitivity. To be fair, this is
the way I'd want a Sequerra to operate if I lived in London,
especially with its current crop of hyperactive pirates jostling
for space. In the boondocks, though, I'd gladly trade the
selectivity for sensitivity.

Still, I had Radios 1 through 4, Invicta, Kent and a few others,
mixing unadorned speech, recorded pop and classical, live
classical, plays, etc. By keeping either of two CD players
pre-loaded with 'chart' CD singles, I also had the opportunity on
a couple of occasions to compare CD to tuner, only to learn that
the radio stations have nothing to match the Marantz CD12 or the
CAL Tempest II Special Edition. Even so, I learned that the
Sequerra is too good for most broadcasts.

As speech is a primary part of radio, I listened to a lot of chat
shows and broadcasts. It's official: Invicta sucks not just for
content but sound quality as well. Even Derek Jameson seemed more
inviting than the spitty, raspy, honky noise emanating from what
TB told me is the acknowledged turkey of UK broadcasting. Thanks,
Sequerra: you've given me another reason never to let Invicta
sully my hi-fi. But, aah! the Beeb sends voices across the
airwaves with such authority! Rich, resonant and realistic, the
three 'R's caught to full effect. No nasality, just the right
texture -- we're talking 'in the room', vershtais?

But this magazine is more concerned with music than speech, so I
subjected myself to live broadcasts on Radio 3 -- all in the line
of duty, of course. A solo piano recital revealed enough about
the Sequerra to justify its elevated price: this tuner reproduces
detail, impact, lower register weight and a sense of space and
depth like no other tuner I've used, bar the much noisier 10B.
The piano was situated just to the right of centre, its position
rock-solid and its size 'authentic'. The spatial effect was
uncanny, with the venue's character transmitted across the length
of Kent into the listening room, as convincing a display of sonic
3-D as I've heard regardless of source.

But so what? you're thinking, considering that -- classical
broadcasts aside -- British radio has little to offer besides
sound quality. Well, I did say that only the most rabid and
wealthy of radiophiles could entertain such a purchase, so the
Sequerra does have a niche to satisfy. But four kilo-quid?

Even if you could factor out the oscilloscope, the exquisite
build quality, the balanced operation and a host of other
niceties, you'd still be looking at a lot more than the cost of a
warmer-sounding, mint-condition Marantz 10B or one of the great
McIntoshes of yore. But listen to me, please: no matter how good
your 10B (and mine's a cracker), the vintage wonders cannot offer
the silent, noise-free background, the transient attack or the
drift-free tuning of the Sequerra.

Is it the best tuner in the world? Probably. Is it worth four
grand? If I say 'yes', there'll be a flood of snide remarks about
my lust for expensive goodies. If I say 'no', then I'd be doing a
disservice to the Sequerra and the fortunate few who can afford
and/or justify it.

Aah, what the hell: YES.