This is really starting to get on my nerves. My Sony Walkman MP3 player can get FM stations nice and clear, yet the majority of my boxes (even high end ones) struggle to find them and then hiss loudly on the stereo setting. It's downright embarassing, and annoying to say the least. The tuners were the main features on old boomboxes. If they're not good at that, then what? And yes, the antennas are up, and being moved around. Does anyone else have this problem?

I would say that your typical Sony MP3 player has a more sensitive tuner, and for the most part, needs to be. This IMO is due to the aerial the mp3 player uses - the earphone lead - and that is far from optimal. Your BBX tuner is expecting to be fed FM signals via a custom, purpose built antenna designed for the job meaning the tuner stage shouldn't need to be overly sensitive. MP3 players FM circuits have to work harder as the "aerial" they use is often changing shape (when the earphone cable moves when say you do!) etc so it's far from ideal. And such earphones are a far cry from even a humble 75 ohm di-pole arrangement. I have 2 x sony mp3 units (X and S series) and find when using a big pair of cans with a long lead this sometimes helps...

I see what you're getting at there Nak D, regarding the need for a more sensitive tuner due to size limitations, antenna limitations and the like. In boomboxes, the tuner sensitivity obviously varies from model to model, and I can honestly say that my humble JVC RC-770 has THE BEST, most sensitive tuner out of ALL my boxes. I'd even go as far as saying it has the best tuner out of any box I've ever owned. It really surprised me. Even the likes of the Sharp GF-777 can't pull in stations like the little JVC can. I can't understand why some high end models with great amplifiers and speakers, were let down by the designers in the tuner department, yet some cheaper models had excellent tuners.

These old boxes are all analog stuff, and they need to be adjusted once in a while. I got many doubles and most of the time they have different tuner performance. It's worth (and fun) to exercise a bit with doing adjustments on a bad performing box.

I have thought the same thing most recently none of my box are really good at tuning FM radio that's fine I don't like the sound of fm radio any way !

I'm recording from fm right now. Some nice Saturday night mixes. But using the dp200 with digital tuner and autoreverse deck... Too lazy to turn the cassettes now lol 

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I'd second this.  It might be your tuners have gone out of adjustment over the years?  I remember having to do this with my aiwa walkman back in the day.  Bit of a fiddle with a screwdriver and FM reception improved loads. 

I think in practice your supposed to do it with an oscilloscope, but my aiwa was no minter.

A boombox radio should be pretty good, in my experience all of mine have.