Some info on the Scott 310E. Try to find one for under $100, I like the vintage look, he does not.
The 310E
The 310E was made for a limited time in 1963. It is my favourite Scott tuner. I like it so much, I sold my Magnum Dynalab Ft101, in favor of the 310E in my main system. It brought in almost as many stations as the Dynalab (43 stations to 45 for the Dynalab), and did it with more musical sound. It is as drift-free as the 310C or the Dynalab, and best of all, it was cheap - $75. The 310E is more neutral than the 310C. Gone is the mid-bass hump, and excess warmth. The 310E has a more extended top end than the 310C. Its' top end extension is the equal of the Magnum Dynalab FT 101. The 310E has a slightly more spacious soundstage than the 310C, and more apparent depth than the Dynalab. While the Dynalab is certainly not raspy or hard, like many solid-state tuners (the Sony STJ-75 comes to mind), it sounds somewhat raspy compared to the 310E.
The only negative about the 310E is its looks. It resembles, not so much the middle period Scott tuners, like the 350, as the early solid-state models, like the 312. Gone are the curved corners and brass knobs. Instead we have plastic knobs with metal caps that come unglued and fall off, similar to the knobs the famous Fisher 500 series receivers. It is boxy, and squat, and even a well-finished wooden case won't help it much. Yup, it looks ugly, but sounds beautiful.
The 310E makes a very good argument for never spending more than $100 for a tube tuner. While I haven't done a mano-a-manos with Scott 4310s or Marantz 10Bs, I can't see why, other than collectors' mania, anyone would put out the big bucks for these pieces. The 310E blows away a stock Macintosh MR 71 tube tuner. The Scott receives more channels, with higher definition, more high-end extension, and better harmonic balance. The Mac sounds dark and harmonically constricted in comparison.
When I asked Daniel Von Recklinghausen, Scott's chief design engineer during the period of "classic" tube equipment, which Scott tuner he liked the best, he said, without hesitation, the 310E.