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All time best Tuner

Little Nellie

Little Nellie

Well-Known Member
I should rename this to "All time best McIntosh Tuner"...

For some, tuner may be thing of the past. For some, it is "free" music and always a challenge to capture a far away good station. With Digital HD over the air now, don't know if Mc will ever introduce a new one in the near future. But for now, we have to settle what was made and available.

Just wonder what is your favorate tuner McIntosh ever made? tube or solid state? digital display or dial? and why you like the model you choose...

LN
 
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MR78 - MR80 - MR71 my three favorites, I have worked on the 10B (4 in the past year) and found it marginal at best, 4uV sensitivity or worse and birdies, plus it really doesn't sound alive. All 4 I worked on had a strong local station 3 or 4 places on the dial, not acceptable !!
 
MR74. Mainly because this is the first piece of McIntosh I ever owned. I have also read that it is one of the best sounding McTuners because of the group effort in its design. Richard Modafferi designed the FM IF while Miles Nestorovic designed the power supply. The MR74 used RIMO filters while many of the later designs used IC chips. I haven't listened to an MR78, but I hear that it gives up some sound quality for sensitivity.
 
Cough-Cool said:
MR74. Mainly because this is the first piece of McIntosh I ever owned. I have also read that it is one of the best sounding McTuners because of the group effort in its design. Richard Modafferi designed the FM IF while Miles Nestorovic designed the power supply. The MR74 used RIMO filters while many of the later designs used IC chips. I haven't listened to an MR78, but I hear that it gives up some sound quality for sensitivity.
Click to expand...

With the MR78 you can switch in two levels of narrow IT bandwidth (selectivity) for tuning weak, distant stations directly beside local booming (signal power) stations. This, when used with an outdoor FM Yagi and antenna rotator to peak on a distant station and `null´ the local station in between sidelobes or backlobe, will enable you to hear music on nearly each of the 100 `slots´ on the FM dial.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/g-abbey/ChicagoFM.htm

Speaking of dials, the MR78 has a classic mechanical analog dial and it's loaded with useful functions. About antennas; anyone need a Channel Master 4408 FM Stereo Probe? umm.. one or two might show up in $ and ¢. You could even stack them. :)

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/g-abbey/4408G_II.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/g-abbey/4408_stack_I.jpg


-Gregory
 
Staying with the Mc units, it is the MR77. When I bought mine new, I compared it to the other Mc units at the time and found it to meet my #1 critria, best sound quality. Not into to sensitivity, selectivity, etc mindset. #2 Mc tuner is the MR67 for the same reason as I found it to be the best of the Mc tube tuners. #3 is a Z series MX110.

If I go outside of Mc, the choice is more difficult as other criteria creep in. I love the 10b and 20 Marantzs. My experiences were different than Terry's with the number that I owned but this was years ago and possibly time has not been good to the 10bs. There is a price to pay for owning these. Then there are the surprises such as the Sherwood S3000III, IV tube tuners that for the money are so very good that unless your really need more pulling power these can really satisfy and cost is cheap for a tube tuner. My "new" Sherwood S3300 is a killer and cost about $150 including the checkup and alignment by Warren. Even he was impressed with the sensitivity.

Probably the best compromise tuner for me though would be the Philips 673/6731. A killer for dx'ing and has an excellent am section also, my first am tuner in my system in 30+ years and the 1st tuner to seriously compete with the 77 on FM for sound. These go for cheap, well relatively, though tuner guys seem to have them on the grab list. The compromise is the build quality is not up to a Mc though they seem to be very reliable and of course to most when you want to drop names, having a Mc tuner turns heads faster than saying you have a Philips tuner.
 
Brian said:
Staying with the Mc units, it is the MR77. When I bought mine new, I compared it to the other Mc units at the time and found it to meet my #1 criteria, best sound quality.
Click to expand...

Back in 1975 I can recall looking into the front panel of an MR77 in a darkened room at Soundco Electronics in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was at eye level and I could see my reflection in the glass, with the red and green horizontal indicators lit, and I knew than someday I had to own one. Was just a school boy then. Found a MR77 some 13 years later in Chicago with not a scratch on it. Right now it's safely packed away in a Mc carton.

-Gregory
 
For me, solid state....MR77....super!:banana:

Tube....the tuning section of my MX110 (MR67)...delightful!:thmbsp:
 
Big Mac said:
For me, solid state....MR77....super!:banana:

Tube....the tuning section of my MX110 (MR67)...delightful!:thmbsp:
Click to expand...

Check out the form and construction of this baby -- and the chrome flywheel:

http://www.berners.ch/McIntosh/Images/MR77_Right_01.jpg

No AM rubbish to worry about either. The STEREO and MULTIPATH indicators to
the left of the frequency scale function beautifully and really `make´ this tuner!!

http://www.berners.ch/McIntosh/Images/MR77_Front_01.jpg

Great for local listening, but you still need a decent outdoor antenna IMHO,
if nothing more than to reduce interference and distortion.

-Gregory
 
this thread is wetting my tuner willy :banana: I am wondering if I could get any decent stations here at all 3 hours north of Vancouver to justify getting a Mc tuner ... do you guys think I could pickup Seattle stations which is about a 6 hour drive south?
 
I compared the MR78 and the Marantz 10B side-by-side. The MR78 won! At an earlier time I compared the 10B to an MR71. The Marantz 10B won that comparison. The MR71 had by far the best muting circuit and the 78 has the worst though. Needless to say, I run my MR78 with the muting off! BTW: I will be getting an MR80 in the next few weeks and will be comparing it to the MR78. I can't hardly wait! :music:

AL K.
 
Having owned several McIntosh tuners, my favorites are the MR67 and the MR85 with the MR85 being the best I've ever heard. It is an elegant instrument.
 
Greg, why packed away? I can see it being offline for a short time but packed away?

Exracer, why would you want to drive in either direction to pick up a radio station. Thinking about going into business ;)? Sounds like you are in need of a really good outdoor antenna and a unit that has really good pulling power. The Mc 78 is their DX'er and the other I'd suggest is the Philips 673 or 6731. You may want to check the TIC website as the testing was as much about DX'ing as listening.
 
Of course I'm biased to the MR74 because it's what I have and use.
But, come on; after it's been handed off to Terry and he does his audio thing with it -
Wow! And it's beautiful too. (yes, I am shamelessly trying to showing off)

-Mike
 

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That website fmtunerinfo.com did a shootout.

The winner was an Accuphase T-109V.

Second - Kenwood L-02T and Burmester 978.
 
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