A wonderful resource and wealth of information on tuners can be found at
http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/ This site goes over the specs that are
important and what performance factors you should consider in selecting
a tuner. For example, if you live in the boonies and FM stations are
distant and sparse, sensitivity is an important factor. Conversely, if
you live in an urban area with many FM stations, selectivity is an
important factor. And this site lists the current average eBay selling
prices for many tuners.

And, the most important part of any tuner is hooking it up to an
outdoor, directional FM antenna (if possible). A merely average tuner
attached to a directional outdoor FM antenna will ALWAYS outperform a
super tuner hooked up to just a folded dipole or small piece of wire
that now comes with most new tuners.

I think you'll find general agreement that vintage tuners from the
1970's and 1980's are better-built and will outperform most all the
tuners being built today. In fact, some of the premium vintage tuners
will outperform even the newest current ones from Accuphase, Magnum
Dynalab and Fanfare.

In your price range I am biased towards digital tuners rather than
analog tuners as the digital ones tend to not require alignment as
often, but any used tuner will perform better if re-acquainted with one
of the top techs listed on the FM Tuner Info site for a cleaning and
alignment, but this will add $100 or more to your purchase.

There are many good tuners to be had for under $200 on eBay and I am
particularly fond of the Sony ST-S730ES. Sony hired James Bongiorno of
SAE/GAS/SUMO/Ampzilla fame to review and make some changes to the final
design of this particular tuner and this Sony is regarded as a
particularly good-sounding tuner. And James later designed "Charlie The
Tuner" for SUMO, which is held in high esteem by many, particularly if
it is re-acquainted with James for updates.

If you must have a new tuner, in your price range Marantz and Denon make
OK tuners, but almost any vintage tuner for a similar price will
out-perform them.

Charles Epstein wrote:
Can anyone steer me toward several tuners to look into? I'd also be
interested in knowing what specs and such to be on the lookout for. Thanks
in advance. (I'm on a modest budget -- $200-400 sounds about right, though
closer to 200 than 400.) Thanks in advance.