Parasound TDQ-150 AM/FM Stereo Tuner.

Manufacturer: Parasound Products, Inc.,950 Battery St., San Francisco, CA 94111; 415/397-7100; www.parasound.com

Price: $269

Source: Manufacturer loan

Reviewer: Thom Moon

It seems that somewhere it was once decreed that all stereo components must be about 17" wide, about 4" high, and about 10.5" deep. At least most equipment has been that size since I became interested in music reproduction lo those many years ago. About the only manufacturer to buck the norm was the old Dynaco, whose front-end equipment was about 13.5" wide.

Now comes Parasound with its new line of half-width, "custom installation problem solvers." A couple members of this line have been featured in these hallowed pages: KWN reviewed the ZAMP a few issues back, and HF recently reviewed Parasound's five-band equalizer. I've been given the chance to check out the tuner of the line, the TDQ-150.

I'll admit to not being prepared for how small the TDQ-150 is. It is truly half standard rack-mount width, at 9.5". It's also only 2.25" high and 7" deep. That's downright dinky, compared to many pieces of gear out there. Yet there's something very "luxe" about it. The front panel is 0.25"-thick extruded aluminum, finished nicely in black anodizing, with four holes for panel mounting.

That front panel contains (from left to right) buttons for power on/off, AM/FM band selection, preset down and up tuning, and manual/ seek down and up tuning. The right-hand third of the front panel is devoted to the LED readout for frequency, stereo/mono indication, and preset number.

Across the back of the diminutive unit are the primary connections: a 75-ohm FM antenna "F" connector, two AM antenna connectors, left/ right audio output jacks, and at the far right, a 3-pole, grounded IEC AC connector with integrated power fuse.

In between the audio outputs and AC connection are two unusual features; given the TDQ-150's primary design criterion as a custom installation component, both make sense. First is a DC "trigger" connector, which in no way refers to Roy Rogers's horse. Rather, if this is connected to a like output on Parasound's AVC-2500 Audio/Video controller, the tuner can be turned on remotely. The trigger responds to any 9-12 volt/0.2 mA DC signal. The other connector allows the user to connect the TDQ-150 to an infrared remote repeater unit, so the unit can be controlled via remote from another room or while it's installed in a closed cabinet.

The TDQ-150 comes with a remote that has at least one unusual feature: there are separate "On" and "Off" buttons. Parasound explains that this is to facilitate remote operation and custom installation. Indeed, the TDQ-150 doesn't have an on/off switch as such. Instead, power is routed through a relay. The "On" or "Off" signals can come from the front panel switch; the remote or, via the "trigger" feature, some other controller. The remote also is the only way the user can set the TDQ-150's 30 station presets, or directly select one of those presets, via its numeric keypad.

The TDQ-150's tuner operations are very straightforward. Other than power, one can select AM or FM and stations. There are no mute, blend, or any other such controls -- the TDQ-150 handles all that automatically. The preset buttons allow one to step through the preset stations (albeit with a second's delay). The buttons marked "Tune" serve two functions. Pressed briefly, they move up or down the dial in 200 kHz increments. However, if a "Tune" button is held down more than a second or so, the tuner will seek the next station of signal strength adequate to be received well. Overall, the operation is pretty intuitive.

Inside the TDQ-150 is a circuit board well populated with components. The front-end (RF section) appears to be an off-the-shelf Mitsumi unit. There's nothing inherently wrong with that; Mitsumi packages form the front ends of many tuners, and using such readily available circuitry helps keep the price of the tuner reasonable. Circuit layout appears to be good, with no jumpers (last-minute design corrections). The quality of the components is above average, and the output stage uses discrete transistors, not op-amps or ICs. Not exactly tweak heaven, but all this indicates an attention to detail one doesn't find in many hi-fi units in this price range.

Overall performance of the TDQ-150 is fine, especially for its price and size. This unit may look almost toy-like but it's no slouch. I did my usual station reception test on a comfortable early-fall evening (the hotter the weather, the farther FM signals carry -- but that was not a factor in this instance). In turn, both the TDQ-150 and my Magnum Dynalab "Etude" tuner were connected to an outdoor antenna. The Parasound proved to be pretty sensitive, receiving 38 signals, compared to 40 for the Etude. However, of those 38 signals, only 28 were what I consider "listenable" (at minimum, a solid mono signal, little hiss and no apparent multipath problems), versus the Etude's 33 of 40. And when it came to receiving solid stereo images, the TDQ-150's record was 14 stations, whereas the Etude had double that number. This corresponds to the units' respective sensitivity specs: the TDQ-150 is rated at 37.2 dBf for 50 dB of quieting in stereo, where the Etude is rated at 34.0 dBf. That 3 dBf difference means the Etude is roughly twice as sensitive. Of course, the Etude costs about five times what the Parasound TDQ-150 goes for, and it's designed to suck in signals under nearly any situation. The TDQ-150 is a fine performer on local signals, but its performance with distant stations is about on par with other tuners in its price range. It's a good unit for urban and suburban settings; it's not the tuner you want to own if you live 50 or 60 miles from your favorite station and want to listen to it in "glorious hi-fi steereo" (my apologies to Firesign Theatre).

OK, so the Parasound is no signal stalker. But to its credit, there was a pleasing absence of the "birdies" one hears on many tuners when the FM station to which it's tuned uses its SCA (subsidiary carrier authorization) channels for background music or data delivery services. There was virtually no discernible distortion on strong signals. And, I must say, Parasound's designers did a great job of setting the threshold for switching between mono and stereo. It seems they determined it was better for the TDQ-150 to put out a very clean mono signal than a noisy, hissy stereo one; I agree wholeheartedly. I also applaud their decision not to have sledge-hammer muting. Sure, because of that decision, you get some noise when you land on a channel that has no station on it. But to me, better that than missing an interesting distant or low-power station that won't trip the stereo decoder.

The TDQ-150, when presented with a good stereo signal, has a slightly leaner sound than the Etude. Grouped strings sound lusher on the Etude, and in some cases, I preferred the sound of the Parasound. On pop music stations (at least those that don't destroy the quality of their audio with bad processing), the TDQ-150's sound was more immediate, a little more forward, than the Etude's. There's nothing wrong with that, so long as your speakers aren't horribly forward-sounding, too. All in all, there's nothing second-rate about the sound of the Parasound.

The AM side of the Parasound TDQ-150 is thoroughly adequate, which is not damnation by faint praise. It's no signal stalker on that band either, unlike the NAD C4401 reviewed in Issue 76. But for the one AM station I regularly listen to (my one local broadcast source of jazz), it was plenty fine, with less of the "pinched-nose" sound quality I heard on the NAD. Parasound claims AM frequency response out to 4,500 Hz, which is quite wide for the AM band.

My dislikes are minimal, centering on the unit's lack of any signal strength indicator. But that's almost a given anymore for tuners in this price range.

The Parasound TDQ-150 is an appealing unit on many levels. It's tiny, yet its front panel controls are easy to use. Its remote is nicely laid out and light. Given an adequate signal, its sound on FM is about as good as it gets. And -- it's priced nicely. That combination of features and qualities make it a worthy contender for your tuner dollars. -TM