It will be interesting to hear this baby. DSP can bring a lot to the table that an excellent analog tuner would be hard pressed to match. That’s one of the things that make the Accuphase tuners sound so good - their digital signal processing. If the RF front end is as good as McIntosh knows how to make it, then adding a digital FM discriminator, digital filtering to get rid of all the HD and SCA crap, and stereo decoder would be the bomb in terms of audio quality.
I wish they had kept a linear tuning dial and used the meters for signal strength and multi path. McIntosh owners already probably have two sets of meters on their gear anyway.
Why do I hate Hybrid Digital (HD) radio? Let me count the ways.
* Creates on channel interference increasing noise especially in older timers.
* Increases first adjacent channel interference.
* Has higher distortion and lower fidelity than analog FM. I personally find it fatiguing.
* Uses proprietary codecs, the details of which have never been published.
* Is a proprietary format owned by a single entity with all licensing revenues going back to that entity.
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Main System:
Amati Futura Mains
Amati Homage VOX Center,
Proac Response 1sc Rears,
Three MC2301's for L,C,R
MC 602 for the rears
C 1100, MX 151, MCD 1100, MR 80
Nottingham Dais with Wave Mechanic
Sumiko Palo Santos Presentation
SurfacePro 3, RPi 4, ROON, WW Starlight Platinum USB, Schiit Yggdrasil, Benchmark DAC3 HGC
MX 151, OppO BDP-95, JVC RS-500 DILA projector, 106" diagonal Stewart Luxus Screenwall Deluxe with Studiotek 130 G3 material.
Lake House:
Ohm F, MC 275V, C2300, MR 77, Rega P3
OnDeck:
McIntosh MAC 4300v
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