McIntosh MR74 and MR88
 

I happened to read a thread on another site that I will not mention the URL. This person had a MR74 tuner and just bought a MR88 tuner. After setting it up he could not believe how much better the MR74 sounded. It wasn't as good pulling in signals as the MR88. Have others had this same experience with the MR88?
Sometime in the future I will be getting a Mac tuner. I was under the impression the MR88 was the one to get. Back in the late 70's I had a MR78 that was really nice.

~Mike

This should be moved to McIntosh section for more eyeballs.

That seems very strange to me.
The MR88 might have a defect.

Mike, I wasn't sure where to post it. Have you had time to critique your new MR88? I do Like the ability to control it from my C2300. That would be a plus. Reading the other tuner posts I recall you also have an MR73?

The guy that sold the MR88 went with the Logitec squeeze box instead.

Mike.......I owned an MR88, and compared it to my MR85 and MR74 tuners. It sounded very good. It was not a case of the MR74 sounding so much better. All tuner have many things going against them that are beyond the ability of a listener to control. The signal quality that is broadcast is the key issue, plus it is vital that a quality antenna is used, preferably a multi-element outdoor Yagi on a rotor. Many people own fantastic tuners, and then connect them with a dipole or other crappy little afterthought antennas, then blame poor performance on the tuner.

The MR88 is a premium tuner with advanced DSP tuning that allows it to eliminate mutipath distortion, a common FM stereo tuning issue, especially in cities with many reflective building surfaces. In my opinion, unless you have certain knowledge of how the tuner was installed, and the quality of the antenna, an opinion about a tuner's performance can be taken with a grain of salt.

The MR88 can output its digital signal straight to a DAC, and that is another wonderful feature. The only reason I parted with my MR88 is because I live in a very rural area of Florida with few quality signals available, and no HD FM signals at all, so my MR85 stayed in the system, and the MR88 was sold. It did not leave due to poor performance. It is an advanced tuner that sounds excellent when fed from a high quality antenna.

Ever since I put an outdoor Magnum Dynalab antenna on my MR88, I'm floored. Not only by the quality of the music, but the astounding number of great stations I receive.

Ivan, which model do you have?

The ST-2 but don't pay retail ;)

Magnum Dynalab - ST-2 FM Antenna-Audio Advisor

:goodpost:

As usual, well said Dan!