I finally wrapped up my MR80 refurb today. The last item was replacing 4 ancient opamps (2x LM201 and 2x LF356) in the audio path with more modern and quiet Burr Brown/TI OPA132's.

The background noise/hiss is now completely gone. There's a few compensation caps that need to be removed to accommodate this swap so PM me if you're interested. This was an awesome upgrade!

Great to know!

While I'm not the Glen that Tom purchased his MR80 from, it is a terrific tuner and, when refurbished, the best of later models from McIntosh, including those offered to this day. Mine was completely gone through by Terry DeWick and now resides down in Kiwi land (NZ).

Well Now. What can I Say.
I sure wish that I could hear it today. It was the best I have heard when I had it.
Nice, Nice, Nice.

Thanks Glen.

It worked great for many years before I had it serviced. When I have more time I will definitely look at upgrading the audio path with more modern op amps. I have re-amped (re-oped?) my MAC 4300V with OPA 2064's and wow did it make a difference.

Tom

Sorry for all the necro bumps lately since I've been gone, but this MR80 looks amazing! It's always nice to see people still caring about this gear. Makes me really want to dig my MR74 out of storage and replace the MR88 for a few months.

Have Terry DeWick go through your MR74 and do a recap & alignment and you will then use your MR88 only for HD radio. The MR74 will be that much better.

My MR74 has been tuned and modified by Richard Modafferi, so it is no slouch. Overall for right now the MR88 works the best for me, it picks up the hard to reach channels far better than the MR74.

Congrats! I owned one for several years many years ago. I wish I could have liked it. I tried very hard. I found the Narrow mode the only audiophile quality mode and through it, the sound was excellent. Super Narrow severely compromised sound quality. However, wandering presets and only 4 with no decent remote or tuning dial limited my enjoyment. The MR 7083 had a similar sound quality and was much user friendlier. The MR 87 represents a genuine advance in Mac tuners IMO. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the MR 88 and HD but HD is MP3 quality sound. A good FM analog signal is by far better than MP3.

Again, congrats on the beautiful piece. I am sure your experience with your MR 80 is superior to mine. But the sound quality and its beauty were its redeeming qualities.

MR 80 Restored!
 

Charles - forgot about this thread. Thanks for reviving it.

The MR 80 sounds the best out of all of the McIntosh tuners I’ve owned and better than any of the handful of other tuners that have visited my systems over the years.

This MR 80 has been very solid and lives in our Wisconsin lake home 85 miles as the crow flies from Minneapolis. I have a roof mounted 6 element yagi. Works great.

I agree the super narrow is only useful for DX or situations where there is a strong adjacent channel station.

I have not yet done any upgrades or mods to the tuner so I have that to look forward to.

Tom