oldest friend

[cleeds]

The component that's been in my system the longest is the McIntosh MR80 I bought brand new more than 40 years ago. Since then, every aspect of the system has been upgraded multiple times, but the Mac endures.

The MR80 has needed service about every 15 years or so. Most recently, it started looking really sad as the panel lights started blinking off one by one until it was just about dark. When a few of its switches starting acting funky, I brought it in to Steve Leung at VAS NY, and now it is working just tip-top.

I stream. I play CDs and LPs. I have tape. But I also still listen to FM, so I plan to keep the MR80 until something better comes along. Which hasn't happened yet.

(I realize it's cheating and a little cheesy to use a b&w image for the "before" photo but, honestly, that's how sad it looked to me at the time.)

[IMG]mac tuner before and after 2 sm by newsguy123, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Formerly YB-2]

Great tuner and Steve is a great tech to work with. Glad you've got it 'singing sweetly' again. A most worthy tuner.
Steve is going to go thru my Sony TA-F6B once I get it up to him (he's about 100mi north of me).

[Antonmb]

That's very cool. I have some vintage 60s and 70s gear I inherited, but nothing I've bought myself has lasted 40 years. Well done.

[Maks]

Looks great, enjoy the tunes!

[cleeds]

Thanks, everyone!
The only thing that would improve this tuner for me would be if it could receive some of the stations and jocks it did when it was new. But I think the folks in Binghamton haven't conquered the time/space continuum yet.

[Maks]

cleeds, that is the most unfortunate part about radio today. I'm a tuner fan (MR88 and Modaferri hot-rodded MR-74 owner), but there's just so few stations that are worth listening to. A lot of my listening is done on a public station at a nearby college and some of the shows are obviously recorded ahead of time, the sad thing is some of them are at such horribly low mp3 bitrates it makes XM radio sound great by comparison. I've read plenty of posts over the years from people who have absolutely nothing worth listening to in their market so I suppose I could be worse off than having maybe half a dozen that I enjoy.

[dkorbal]

Originally Posted by cleeds

Thanks, everyone!
The only thing that would improve this tuner for me would be if it could receive some of the stations and jocks it did when it was new. But I think the folks in Binghamton haven't conquered the time/space continuum yet.

But Dennis Quaid has.......Frequency

[FreddieFerric]

The work Steve did looks terrific Doug. Congrats on getting the old girl back to tip top condition.

[cleeds]

Originally Posted by Maks

... that is the most unfortunate part about radio today. I'm a tuner fan (MR88 and Modaferri hot-rodded MR-74 owner), but there's just so few stations that are worth listening to. A lot of my listening is done on a public station at a nearby college ... I suppose I could be worse off than having maybe half a dozen that I enjoy.

I couldn't agree more! Since this tuner was new, deregulation and consolidation have changed the entire radio industry, and not for the better. Like you, I have found a few bright spots and while I don't listen to FM nearly as much as I did 40+ years ago, it's still worthwhile to me. A system without a decent tuner just seems incomplete to me. I'm olde skool.

[Weirdcuba]

That is a beautiful tuner. I have a Magnum Dynalab 108T SE and love it. As stated, it's just sad that there aren't more great radio stations spinning live music from the studio, but I have a public station, a community station and a couple college stations that fill the bill. It's my least used source, but I still love it.