Scott LT-112 (1965–1966)
Scott's best-selling factory tuner, sold to hobbyists as a kit you could finish in an afternoon. It measured better than almost anything else on the shelf.
Overview
Scott built the LT-112 as the kit version of its factory-wired 312 tuner, and the company was open about it. Advertising in the fall of 1965 reprinted Audio's verdict on the 312 - that it was "one of the finest tuners Scott makes. And that means it is one of the finest tuners anywhere" - and then pointed out that the LT-112 was that same tuner, shipped in pieces. The pitch worked. This was the tuner that put serious solid-state FM within reach of a hobbyist with one free afternoon and a soldering iron.
The build was engineered to be forgiving. Scott's construction book used full-size, full-color, step-by-step diagrams, and all the critical circuitry arrived pre-wired, pre-tested, pre-aligned, and mounted on heavy-duty printed circuit boards. Wires were color-coded, pre-cut, and pre-stripped to length. Scott claimed the whole job took four to six hours across five simple wiring groups, followed by a ten-minute alignment. Owners who have built both kits and factory units report the pre-alignment is what saves the project. The multiplex section came finished and tested, so the builder never touches the part of an FM tuner that needs a bench full of gear to get right.
The circuit is all silicon, which was a selling point in 1965. Scott contrasted its silicon transistor IF strip with germanium performance, claiming better stability, selectivity, and bandwidth. The front end was silver-plated, a detail the company argued would outperform and outlast conventional tube or transistor front ends. Three IF stages and three limiters sit behind it. This is period marketing language, but the topology it describes is real and is the reason these tuners still hold alignment decades later.
The front panel carries Scott's Tri-modulation Meter, and it is the most useful thing on the unit. A switch re-purposes one meter as a signal-strength indicator for antenna orientation and coarse tuning, a zero-center indicator for fine-tuning weak or strong stations, or a precision alignment meter accurate enough that Scott claimed it replaced a $500 test instrument. The alignment function is the clever part: the owner can realign the tuner at home, any time, with no external equipment. That is rare on any tuner of the period, kit or otherwise.
Around the back, output level controls need setting only once, so the front panel stays uncluttered. There are three stereo outlets, one of them on the front panel, handy for patching in a portable tape recorder without reaching behind the shelf. HiFi-Stereo (April 1966, p.32) tested the kit and noted the audio section sits on its own circuit board with a 5,000-ohm output impedance, low enough to feed the amplifiers of the day without trouble.
Sensitivity is where the LT-112 earns its reputation. Scott's own literature quotes a usable sensitivity of 1.9 µV in the September 1965 launch advertising, while the spec block printed alongside the same campaign lists 2.2 µV IHF. The IHF figure is the one to trust, since it is the standardized measurement, and the 1.9 µV number reads as a best-case claim. Either way, it is a very sensitive tuner, the kind that pulls in distant stations with a decent antenna and a bit of patience. Selectivity is quoted at 4.0 dB in the spec block, though the same advertising copy claims 45 dB. The two figures are measuring different things, so read period spec sheets carefully. Cross-modulation rejection is listed at 80 dB, which keeps strong local stations from smearing across the dial.
The kit listed at $179.95, with Scott noting prices ran slightly higher west of the Rockies. That undercut the factory-wired 312 by a meaningful margin and made the LT-112 one of the better values in solid-state FM at the time. High Fidelity (May 1966, p.67) ran the LT-112 through its equipment reports, and HiFi-Stereo (April 1966, p.32) put it on the Hirsch-Houck bench. Both treated it as a serious component rather than a hobbyist's toy, which is how Scott was selling it.
Collectors note that the LT-112 was designed to be serviced by its owner. The alignment meter means you can bring one back into spec yourself, and the pre-wired boards mean the most fragile parts of the circuit were never exposed to a beginner's iron. Values have stayed modest. This is not a Marantz 10B, and nobody is buying one as an investment. Buyers get a sensitive all-silicon FM tuner with a clever metering scheme and a build that survives. The main caveat is the usual one for kit-built gear: build quality varies with the original builder, so inspect the solder joints before you trust the alignment.
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