Kenwood KT-V880 (1987)
The Kenwood KT-V880 is an FM/AM/TV stereo tuner from 1987, priced at ¥45,000 in Japan. It's an odd hybrid from the late analog era - a serious FM tuner with a TV audio section added on. It was aimed at the Japanese domestic market, where NHK's FM broadcasts and TV sound were both worth pulling off the air. The export version without the TV circuitry was designated the KT-880D, and much of the documented specification work comes from that model's service manual.
The engineering is the interesting part. Kenwood promoted a "pentacle circuit" layout - a star-shaped grounding and power distribution scheme that connects each stage to the power supply at the shortest possible distance. The idea, supposedly, was to eliminate inter-stage interference through the supply rails. The FM front end uses a four-gang varicap design. The tuner also has a "direct linear reception circuit" to deal with sensitivity drooping at the low end of Japan's 76-90 MHz FM band. An automatic blend/SN control improves the signal-to-noise ratio by up to 20 dB on weak stereo signals.
The TV section shares its IF and detection stages with FM. That's cheap to build, and it meant the TV audio path got the same careful tuning. It covers VHF channels 1-12 and UHF 13-62, with VHF sensitivity rated at 3.0 µV. The front panel is thick hairline aluminum. The unit stores 20 stations in a random-access memory that spans FM, AM, and TV bands. A bilingual button handles Japanese TV's dual-language broadcasts, switching between main, sub, and both.
Measured Performance
The Japanese enthusiast site hirokun.jp published a detailed teardown and alignment report on a 1988-built example. The verdict is mixed. FM sound quality is "good Kenwood-like sound, but below average," and considerably inferior to the higher-end KT-V990. Stereo separation measured 52 dB (L) and 50 dB (R) in wide mode, but fell to 26 dB in narrow mode, which the reviewer flatly called unusable. After realignment, sensitivity and sound quality improved, which suggests the coils and trimmers drift noticeably over a decade of aging. The review also notes the two-story circuit board construction, with FM/AM on the first level and TV on the second, makes maintenance difficult.
That same source notes the FM front-end and quadrature detection sections on their unit were significantly out of adjustment when it arrived. A solder crack turned up at the audio output terminal on a second unit. The level meter needs a strong signal - level 5 antenna input - for good S/N reception, per the measured correlation table.
The spec sheet is strong for the era: FM sensitivity of 0.95 µV (10.8 dBf), 88 dB mono S/N at 85 dBf input, 0.015% THD in wide mono, and 60 dB stereo separation at 1 kHz. The FM section uses a SANYO LA1235 IF chip with quadrature detection, an LA3401 PLL MPX decoder, and an LM7001 PLL frequency synthesizer.
Today
Analog TV broadcasting in Japan ended in 2011, so the TV function is now a historical curiosity. The FM section remains fully usable. eBay listings for the KT-V880 appear regularly, often described as "excellent condition," and Yahoo! Auctions Japan shows units both working and non-working, the usual mix for a 35-year-old tuner. No significant collector premium or cult following has developed.
Known Specifications
- Type: FM/AM/TV stereo tuner (VHF/UHF TV audio)
- FM range: 76–90 MHz, 75 Ω antenna input
- FM sensitivity: 0.95 µV / 10.8 dBf (distant), 10 µV / 31.2 dBf (direct)
- FM S/N: 88 dB mono / 82 dB stereo (100% modulation, 85 dBf)
- FM THD: 0.015% mono / 0.02% stereo (1 kHz, wide)
- Stereo separation: 60 dB (1 kHz, wide)
- AM range: 531–1602 kHz
- TV channels: VHF 1–12, UHF 13–62
- Output: 0.6 V / 3.3 kΩ (FM, 100% modulation)
- Power consumption: 13 W
- Dimensions: 440 × 78 × 317 mm (W×H×D)
- Weight: 3.7 kg
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