A Tuner In Your System?
 

I don't know if it is because I am old enough to remember the days of underground FM radio in San Francisco back in the late 60's, but for me a sound system just doesn't seem complete without a good FM stereo tuner. In the late 60's and early 70's my sound system's tuner was tuned to one FM station or another almost as much as spinning vinyl or reel to reel. An FM tuner was a vital part of the sound system, and considered a great source. So it comes as no surprise that I still feel a quality tuner is an asset to a good sound system. Every system I have ever assemble has included a tuner. I have four tuners now.

How about you, is there a tuner in your sound system? Do you consider a tuner an important source component? What do you think?

I have always had a tuner in my system, and always will. I believe, as you do Dan, that a tuner is an important, and very enjoyable sourse component.
I listen to my tuner FAR more than I do my CD's. Not that I consider it to be superior-of course it isn't-but it's just a matter of how often I find the time
to sit down for some serious listening. The FM tuner is nearly always playing in the background. The tuners I'm actively using now are all McIntosh-MR77,
MR78, MR80, and and MX117 Tuner preamp. They are all fine performers. I also have a Sansui TU-717 in storage.

Pete

Pete.......I have never known you to be speechless. Cat got your tongue, or did you fall asleep at the keyboard? :lmao:

I guess I dozed for a second there, Dan.... :lmao:

Pete

I'm presently listening to my MR80 (main system) and my MR78 (office system) simultaneously.

Pete

I don't use a tuner in either one of my home systems... no decent local radio around here.

I do have a, recently purchased, CT-810 Yamaha in my office...

I too remember a great time in HI-FI when no system was complete without one.

I am using them more now than ever. An MR85 & MR88 in Florida; and an MR88, MA6600 w/TM2 in the Cape.

Also looking seriously at Magnum-Dynalab! :yes:

Haven't had a tuner in any of my systems since the early 90's. I do not foresee anything changing that would make me want one.

Jim

I've been listening to five or six local radio stations for decades, a couple of them since grade school in the early 70's. No way I'm buying a lot of classical, jazz or alternative music, it's easy enough to get a small fix from the air waves. Reception is pretty good around here in the flat lands. There are some decent new HD radio broadcasts in the area, too bad they dropped the 24-hour blues HD2 multi-cast. Those corporate radio mucky mucks replaced the blues with another pop forty mix :tears:

I have an MR88 in my downstairs system, which means it can be accessed from a total of six zones. I feed its digital output to my MCD500 in the two MX120 zones.

We use it a lot.:thumbsup:

No tuner here.......:boring:

Pete.......Glad to see you back............awake. :laughin:

Rob.......I'm taking it you consider radio boring. Believe it or not, I understand how a person can come to this mind-set. There is a lot of crap on the airwaves, and the ever intrusive drone of advertising. There are the restricted play lists of Billboard's top 20 played over and over. Also, the general creative content of a great deal of new music is so void of genuine talent as to make what is heard more noise than music. I get it.

What keeps my interest in radio piqued is the remaining broadcast jewels that are still out there, still producing interesting programming, and broadcast extremely clean and uncompressed signals. One has to search for these broadcasts, and often they are easier to find at night time than during the day when eveyr other broadcaster's transmitters are cranked full tilt. After sunset the largest majority of radio stations are required to lower their broadcast power and some even have to alter the antenna patterns. It is during these hours between sunset and sunrise that many other stations, drowned out during the day, are able to come through, especially for those of us with high quality tuners and outside mounted antennas. I am a big fan of a jazz broadcast that only happens after 11:00pm broadcast from a PBS station over 50 miles from me. During the day I can barley tune the station, but at night it comes in sweet and clear.

Listening to radio for me is a bit of a passion, and is an additional hobby I enjoy. I also search the airwaves using shortwave, long-wave, and all band receivers, all with outside antennas. So DXing up and down the dial is a sport for me, and there are times when the rewards for the time and effort are remarkable. I often listen to an English speaking broadcast from China, and enjoy Radio Havana broadcast from Cuba. Radio is a blast.

Listening to a tuner can be great fun, but I also realize it can be boring, offensive, and irritating with so many cookie cutter formats that are pushed in our face by corporate broadcasters whose target is more advertising dollars. When the FCC lifted its ban on the maximum number of radio and television stations any one company could own, and corporations like Clear Channel and their like began purchasing every station they could get their greedy corporate claws into, the quality of programming, signal integrity, and the public interest went down the drain. Despite this, there are still privately held radio stations, and even some public radio stations that are programming for a discriminating audience, and broadcasting excellent signals. You just have to hunt for them. It's worth it.

I had a Magnum Dynalab 106 but retired it when I got Sonos. Just about every FM station out there streams its signal thus it can be played via Sonos. Hooked up to a good DAC Sonos puts out amazing sound.

I have both my MR88 & Sonos connected via toslink to my MDA1000. It is effortless for me to tell the difference between them. The MR88 is quite awesome.

Ivan.......I agree. The MR88 is an amazing state of the art AM/FM/HD/XM tuner. The digital output is something I wanted to be able to use when I had the MR88, but had the Sonos and the MS750 occupying both my digital inputs on the MCD500. Everyone who has commented on using the MR88 through its digital output has had only praise for its performance.

I have several tuners but have not used them in a long time. The problem is not their quality/performance but the lack of interesting local programming. Internet radio, despite its marginally decent quality, simply has so much more content to offer.

Kal.......I like seeing a tuner with the other gear in my rack. I like turning and feeling the weighted tuning knob and dialing in a station. I like the analog aspect of terrestrial radio. Tuners are like reel to reels to me. I consider them sexy to look at even if I'm not using them. For me, a system without a tuner is incomplete. That's just me.

That's me too Dan!!! :thumbsup: :yes:

Pete

One of my babies.....

http://i732.photobucket.com/albums/w...F9204-Copy.jpg


Pete

I have always had a tuner with exterior antenna. Using an old Soundcraftsman AM/FM tuner from about 1987 it still works great.

That's a great looking baby Pete. :yes:

Thanks Ivan! :D

Pete

Curt.......I saw the Soundcraftsman tuner in one of your photos under the Nakamichi ZX-7. She's still making music after 23 years. That's a good thing. :thumbsup:

Pete.......Every time I see that spectacular McIntosh MR78 tuner I become green with envy. :D


http://www.factzoo.com/sites/all/img...-tree-frog.jpg

:lmao: :lmao:

That's okay Dan...you'll be getting even shortly :yes:

Pete

Curt....I'm a Soundcraftsmen man myself...I guess I have about 5 of their Equalizers.

Pete

Oh, I do agree with all that and my tuners are still on the racks and connected. I just have no real use for them.

I know some people are fortunate to have a local station that plays music that they like but I do not (anymore).

I guess I'm lucky in this respect. There are a few good stations in this area.

Pete

Pete.......Since you posted the MR78, I'm going to show off my MR74.


http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...IntoshMR74.jpg

Oh yes Dan, your MR74 is a beauty...and I've heard many good things about its performance. When I saw your MR74 in person I noted its spotless condition. I'd like to have one of these in my fleet, too. :yes:

Pete.......She's a beauty, and sounds very good. I like that the MR74 also tunes AM frequencies.

Yes, that it is an AM/FM tuner is also a plus...though my MX117 features AM.
However, I rarely use that system to play music or radio-mostly I use it with TV at night. It is a decent sounding system though...

Pete

I don't even know where I'd put an MR74 but who cares? :dunno:

Pete

i have a Magnum Dynalab MD90 in my system, which recently replaced a Denon TU-800. The Denon is a very good tuner, even by today's standards (I've had it since 1989), and a former Stereophile Class B component, but the MD90 sounds better. I do give up AM, but so far haven't missed it, as I have other AM sources in the apartment.

What is a tuner?
 

I have four tuners sitting, unused, on a rack in a storage room, I have a 5th, a McIntosh MR78 that I had updated by Richard Modafferi, also sitting unused (but in a safer place - under the bed).

I don't guess I've hooked-up a tuner in 10 years. Should I consider doing so?

Why, of course you should! :yes:

Pete

I think I'm blessed - here in Minneapolis we have three stations that sound really good - the Minnesota Public Radio classical outlet KSJN, the MPR contemporary outlet, KCMP, and the Minneapolis School district's Jazz station KBEM. All sound excellent on my McIntosh MR-77. At our lake house 100 miles from the city, we have a MAC 4300V that sounds just as good. "A Prarie Home Companion" live broadcasts sound absolutely fantastic!

Tom

I guess it is because I live in such a small town.:fishing:

I have an old McIntosh tuner in storage in my basement, I think it's an MR-64 but I may be remembering wrong. I bought it used in 1971 and used it until the Soundcraftsman. The Mc developed problems and McIntosh could not repair it. It came back from the factory looking like new though. It's so old the multiplexer is a sub chassis.