MR 89 Tuner

[audiofun_21]

The HD function hasn’t been around for several years. The MR88 was discontinued over 5 years ago now. The parts required to make them were discontinued. It was $4,500 at that time IIRC.

The MR87 has slowly increased in price in the past five years, like everything. It’s last price was $5,500. It was discontinued because the parts made for the DIGITAL dial/display were discontinued.

The MR89 is the same price as the MR87. If the MR88 was still made you can be assured it would be more expensive.

The MR89 gives nothing up to the most recent tuner, the MR87, than the DIGITAL dial, that everyone likes.
It gains meters which like or not, serve a purchase and supposedly improves on the performance of the outgoing MR87.

I bought an MR87 new. My MR88 came used because it popped up locally for a price I couldn’t pass up.

HD Radio is not all it’s cracked up to be. This is not my first HD tuner, that came way of car stereos 20 years ago. It’s not high definition like many believe HD to mean. The built in XM ready functionality on the MR88 is just that. XM. It uses an old connection, it’s not Sirius/XM. If you truly care for Satellite radio, stream it with your account on a streamer of your choice or add an external Sirius/XM tuner so you can get all the programming. Something you can’t do with the REQUIRED, old, external XM dock for the MR88.

My point is, yes the MR88 does more, but it’s hardly worth any contention over the 87. If I was looking for either and they came up for sale locally, I wouldn’t pass on an 87 and hold out for an 88. Not worth it IMO.

That said, it appears the MR89 will be the better performing tuner of the 3. The MR88 will have the more features of the 3. The MR87 was the most abundant of the 3.

like I mentioned above. In my case the benefits of HD Radio have little to do with it being any higher Def than anything else in terms of overall resolution. Even listening to FM passively, a stable HD connection with compressed audio quality is more enjoyable than a poor quality standard FM signal. Not every analog FM station has their equipment in prime condition or their audio mixed down perfectly. Not to mention, again, in many markets HD Radio affords you dozens of additional listening options or more that you don’t have with analog. In fact, I find HD Radio more versatile and useful than the DTV conversion because we currently still have the benefits of analog and digital broadcast since the signals are all transmitted within the same spectrum already used by analog FM and AM anyway. As for XM… that is another lost feature no matter how you slice it. But one I personally don’t find as important since I likely wouldn’t have utilized it, if it’s truly incompatible with Sirius/XM now.

For Mac completionists who have to have every last piece and for which the expense is of minor significance, I’m sure this MR89 will provide phenomenal FM performance. Perhaps even better than the 87, 88, TM2 and TM3 based units. But the package as a whole is pretty blah for damn near 6 large considering the loss of the features and visual items important to some of us. Not to mention the previously mentioned suboptimal use of the meters that could have been better repurposed.

As for the whole argument of “the parts aren’t available” in terms of HD and now this supposedly magical tuning scale hardware… I’m letting that slide only because I’m sure some way some how McIntosh would argue that replacement technologies/suppliers would not yield “the performance they expect”. But were it most any other type of item, I would say that finding replacement chipsets or components for these types of products should not be this much of a showstopper. And I’m pretty sure the HD hardware McIntosh were using went extinct long before the pandemic, so that really doesn’t apply either.

 

[ACRucrazy]

The “loss of features” happened 5 years ago.

The 89 is a replacement for the 87, not the 88.
The 89 is a replacement for the 87 at the exact same price.

 

[audiofun_21]

The “loss of features” happened 5 years ago.

The 89 is a replacement for the 87, not the 88.
The 89 is a replacement for the 87 at the exact same price.

We are going in circles here. Clearly the 88 was the unit to follow. The 87 was already a less than ideal replacement because it lost those key features but still at least maintained the tuning scale and what made it unique. *Now* the replacement is the 89. And it has not *added* those features back, but instead was “decontented” even further by obliterating the tuning scale and a bone being tossed in with needless meters. (Literally the MEN220 if that’s still made would even be a better candidate for output meters than this). I’m not arguing the quality of the reception may be better, and that’s a plus for sure. But will it be so much better than the 88 (and 87) so as to make up for everything that it continues on without? Doubt it.

Not to mention for those that don’t insist on buying brand new the option of a used 88 certainly exists. Or any number of other highly regarded FM tuner options. This truly is a product for the die hard that must have every box in their stack be McIntosh, which are my least favorite McIntosh products. While likely a good performer, as a product release this is a miss.

 

[ACRucrazy]

Are you under the assumption the MR88 came out after the MR87 because 88 follows 87?

The MR88, a North America model only, followed the MR85. The export MR87, that works in North America and elsewhere followed the MR88.

The MR89 is a replacement for the MR87, as much as you want to hang onto that HD Radio thread.

 

[audiofun_21]

Are you under the assumption the MR88 came out after the MR87 because 88 follows 87?

The MR88, a North America model only, followed the MR85. The export MR87, that works in North America and elsewhere followed the MR88.

The MR89 is a replacement for the MR87, as much as you want to hang onto that HD Radio thread.

I’m aware the 87 was for NA after the 88. For NA reverting to the 87 was sort of a more tacit admission in my opinion that a major feature had been removed. That’s why I said “the 88 is the one to follow” as in if there were a preference, the 88 had the more desirable feature set. I get it may not be desirable to *you*, but deleting this from the 88 and the MAC6700 was kind of a notable omission for many of us.

So yes, I get this timeline. What I don’t get is the insinuation that because the HD, XM etc were removed years ago. That it should now just be okay to pay the same (more really, the same SRP as the 87 as you mentioned) amount for a *further* decontented model that now has also removed the tuning scale from the 87. Really the entire chassis is different on the 87 and 88 with their floating front panels. No matter where in the timeline the previous tuners fall… the paying the same for further and further removed features is what I specifically feel is kind of a lame expectation to be okay with IMO. I think if I had to put a dollar figure on the unit as it sits now it’d be like 2500 versus 5500.00. But they can ask 5500 because (A) “meters”, and (B) there will always be at least a small chunk of Mac aficionados who love FM radio but just have to have every last piece have a green logo on the box.

As a side note, I was surprised to find a very clean MR85 on the bay right now for just 1175.00. Tuning improvements aside, that’s a huge chasm between what is essentially the last model that is pretty well equivalent to the 89 minus the meters and digital output. I suspect resale on the 89 will be similar in a few years time for whatever few actually sell. That’s even considering the 85 is a very well regarded one in its own right!

 

[audiofun_21]

All that said. I think I’m belaboring this point too much and acting like I’m down on the brand as a whole. And that’s not really true. As disappointed as I may be with this tuner (admittedly a footnote of a product at this point)… I’m just as *impressed* by somewhat recent releases like the MA12000, 901 and MC3500 reissue. The 12000 in particular is as impressive to me as the MAC6700 was when I first became aware of it..

 

[jlovda]

And while I'm ranting, the biggest issue I have with this model is the astronomical price. $5,500 for a AM/FM tuner is just sick.

And it doesn't even have an FM band spectrum analyzer on a nice color LCD panel like modern Tek scopes.

 

[stereocuuple]

I'll just leave this right here.

 

[audiofun_21]

And it doesn't even have an FM band spectrum analyzer on a nice color LCD panel like modern Tek scopes.

I’m not sure how I feel about McIntosh diving into the color LCD info displays game. I’m not saying I’m against it… I’m just not sure how I feel about it.

That said, I do think it might be time for the two or three line information displays to evolve a bit perhaps to a full dot matrix VF display instead of the segmented dot matrix “boxes” for each character. Think of a smaller version of the DMDs that used to be on the back boards of pinball machines in the 90s. You could have a startup McIntosh logo on there etc and on a tuner perhaps a nicer graphical strength display or waveform etc.

 

[Vinyl Rules!]

I’m extremely disappointed it’s using a (presumably) cheap car radio chip for the IF section/Front End. The low S/N spec gives this away.

I looked online and there are companies still making variable FM tuning capacitors.

So why can’t the design wizards in Binghamton design a real update to the MR78 with better specs and a multi-gang FM tuning capacitor? And adding a small O-scope would have been a nice touch as well.

 

[audiofun_21]

[

I’m extremely disappointed it’s using a (presumably) cheap car radio chip for the IF section/Front End. The low S/N spec gives this away.

I looked online and there are companies still making variable FM tuning capacitors.

So why can’t the design wizards in Binghamton design a real update to the MR78 with better specs and a multi-gang FM tuning capacitor? And adding a small O-scope would have been a nice touch as well.

If that part about the tuning section is true, then it’s even more unfortunate they won’t resurrect the HD functionality. Since I was under the impression that quality control of the individual components (components which ironically are plentiful in car systems apparently) was not up to spec enough for them utilize in a high end component.

 

[7.62]

When I got the email I had to do a double take, thought it was an advertisement mistake. Sure looks like an Amplifier. I’m in the same boat as most of you. The meters need to go.