Sharing the Joy of the MR-78 tuner
 

I am in my home office tonight. Why am I still here when I could be in the other room watching football? Because before the game I turned on the vintage system listening to the local college radio station playing jazz night. Right now listening to a smooth and easy Jimmy Smith and before that to the guitar groove of George Benson. I believe very few equipment sounds better than the McIntosh MR-78 Tuner from 1976. I am enjoying this through the McIntosh C-28 preamp (1976), the McIntosh MC275 VI amps (two of them at mono each) and vintage Klipsch Cornwall ones (1982). The MR-78 Tuner has one of the most analog sounds I have heard which is similar to vinyl but cleaner. I love it even more than my main 2 channel system McIntosh MR-88 Tuner. Just seems so much more cleaner and more life like. Just wanting to share my joy listening to 40 year old equipment that still brings so much pleasure.

Jim.......I know exactly what you mean. The McIntosh analog tuners are remarkable in their ability to capture and reproduce the essence of music, especially from a station broadcasting a quality signal with low compression.

Reading your comments about your MR78 makes me nostalgic and miss the MR74 I just sold to Vintage Pete a couple weeks ago. That's a sweet tuner, too. A quality tuner is an essential source component in a sound system as far as I am concerned. I have never had a two channel sound system that did not include a good tuner.

I agree with Dan on this. A good tuner needn't be expensive, and a really fine tuner can last a lifetime. I bought a McIntosh MR-80 when it was new and still use it. It's been serviced a few times over the years, but even that wasn't expensive.

Of course, the quality of FM radio itself has declined a lot over the years. There's a lot of heavily processed audio, and most of the stations have very limited playlists. Still, there are some stations that break the mold - often the non-comms - and FM still has the potential to be hi-fi, especially on live broadcasts.

Back in 1970 when quadrophonic recordings were trying to gain a foothold with audio enthusiasts, there was a special FM broadcast of Austin City Limits, a weekly live broadcast on radio affiliates across the US. I lived in San Francisco at the time and on this particular Friday night Austin City Limits was broadcasting a special show in discreet four channel quadrophonic sound using two FM radio stations, one broadcasting the front left and right channels and the second station broadcasting the rear left and right channels. I remember carrying my whole sound system and tuner to a friend's home and setting it up for the rear channels of that broadcast. We each tuned in the respective FM station affiliates that were participating in the history making broadcast and listened to a remarkable radio show in four channel sound. I can't remember who the artists were but I do remember how excited we were to get the four channel broadcast working on two separate sound systems in one room. It was exciting.

Today we think nothing of 5.1 channel surround sound. The advent of digital technology has brought about many incredible audio improvements, but enjoying a quadrophonic broadcast back in 1970 that involved two separate FM radio stations contributing to the four channel presentation was a huge deal. It was a pioneering event and we were thrilled.