Let’s see your Richard Modaffari modded McIntosh gear.

[pac1085]

I emailed them with my serial number last week asking for repair history and Ryan wrote back that he will 'send the request to the tech' but haven't heard anything back yet. Hopefully they do, it would be good to know. It sounds like RM keeps a document for every device he's touched. I wouldn't be opposed to throwing them a few bucks to reproduce it. The second page with the performance test data would be particularly interesting since I could test it and compare the specs 23 years later.

 

[PE9ZZ]

My MR78 is not modded by RM but myself. Cosmetic only so far: cyan LED dial lighting and green LED front panel lighting. Even made custom PCB to mount on a bayonet base. Orange LED tuning pointer lighting in progress.

I received my unit damaged and defective. Fixed no sound (stereo decoder opamp) but so far failed to fix narrow IF reception. Tossed it into a corner waiting for inspiration. I really want to hear the narrow IF filter perform. TEF6686 shootout! Although I'm afraid the TEF chip will win as it is the product of some 50 years of engineering. Its narrow IF BW performance is sick. Got useful sound from a station on 106.3 MHz next to a strong station on 106.4 MHz.

 

[62caddy]

But RM has.

Sometimes he can be excessively dramatic.

 

[PE9ZZ]

I've seen plenty burned phenolic material (aka pertinax). Solder tab strips, tube sockets, PCB. The stuff really degrades badly over time when hot.

 

[Bushikan]

I haven’t looked inside my MR78, but here is a pic of its face (near some other gear).


I don’t know if Richard—a really interesting and engaging, great guy—put any Dole stickers inside my tuner. I think he was still biking and running then, when my brother and I spent an afternoon with him in 2019. He had a pull-up bar on the stairway to his basement (his workshop and listening room), and he did a few pull-ups each time we passed it. He was also on the American Olympic biking team. An accident/pileup ended his professional biking career and led him to become an engineer.

***
Here is Richard (pictured below), in May 2019, on his computer looking up the work he did, a few years earlier, on my MR78 and my brother’s MR71 tuners.

When we visited Richard, his enormous FM antenna pole was lying next to his driveway. I asked him if a storm had brought it down. No, he said. He’d just taken it down, himself, because he believed FM was basically over and done with. Don’t think that that statement—coming as it had from the man, RM, whom we’d each recently paid about a grand to mod our FM tuners—didn’t give my brother and me a bit of a jolt.

 

[62caddy]

I've known a few guys who gave up their audiophile interest as they entered their twilight years so part of it may be age-related. Or maybe he streams over the internet as has been becoming increasingly common.

I don't know what kind of music RM enjoys but WSKG FM in Binghamton broadcasts all classical both in FM & HD formats which I often listen to. Sometimes I won't be able depending on the weather but he should be able to get it without any difficulty.

 

[Bushikan]

My memory is that Richard was listening to classical. He had a large selection of tuners and tuner/preamps (McIntosh, Marantz, etc.) and radios around the house, but he is very practical-minded. He’s an audiophile who seemingly sees each piece as merely a tool—a means to an end—nothing more. IIRC, we were listening mostly to a Tivoli radio.

He had also just made a new, breakthrough infinite slope(?) crossover for a pair of unfinished Joseph Audio speakers (IIRC, he and JA had dissolved their business relationship at that point) that he was very excited about. They were raw plywood towers screwed together but sounded amazing. RM said that he thought they were better sounding than anything Joseph was selling, despite their looks, and was willing to sell them for $1500–but neither of us had the space for them.

 

[pac1085]

OK, Ryan wrote back with the history of my MR-74. Pretty darn cool to read! So, no mods, just a repair.

I did already replace the glass which I purchased from Audio Classics a few years ago.

 

[odcics2]

OK, Ryan wrote back with the history of my MR-74. Pretty darn cool to read! So, no mods, just a repair.

I did already replace the glass which I purchased from Audio Classics a few years ago.
View attachment 3856295

What was the cost?
Mine was $850. in 2008, per the receipt. 16 hours labor! Lots of tedious work.