This is what tubesound.com have to say on the subject:
Some people believe that the Kenwood KT-917 is the finest FM tuner that was ever manufactured. This is truly the cream of the crop. Pulse Count Detector, high build quality, Made in Japan.
A fellow in my community decided to trade-in this KT-917 for some quality tube audio gear. He had his eye on some nice tube gear in my collection, and his KT-917 needed repaired for quite a long time. Since he was currently more enthused with rediscovering his music tastes (vinyl and CD), he decided to forego repair and trade for tube gear.
Repairing the KT-917 was straightforward. The tuner was not decoding, and some quick troubleshooting revealed a defective MC1496 IC, which is a Balanced Modulator-Demodulator designed for FM detection.
It continues at http://tubesound.com/2008/03/02/kenwood-kt-917-fm-stereo-tuner/
