Will my vintage Mcintosh tuner wind up being a paper weight

[W9TR]

Thanks guys for the positive comments. I think everyone is confirming that it really does depend on where you live.
I'm fortunate to have decent FM options because at our lake house there is no viable alternative to terrestrial FM.

Tom

[Weirdcuba]

I absolutely love FM and FM tuners.

When I returned to audio in a serious way a few years ago, I did not originally purchase a tuner as I also assumed that FM was dead. After the rush of all of the new boxes subsided, I remembered that there was a bluegrass show on Monday nights, a celtic show and a different blues show on Friday night, a jazz show on Saturday night and an emerging piano artists show on Sunday night that I frequently enjoyed via the (dare I say it) Bose Wave Radio in my bedroom.

But, I knew that there was definitely lots less quality FM than there used to be. So I hunted around a bit on the FM forum here and bought a used Sony XDR-F1HD. It was a great little digital FM tuner that also got HD, which allowed me to explore the HD offerings in my area. That led me to some Best Buy version of rabbit ears, which led me to putting up a real outdoor FM antenna. All steps on the slippery slope. I loved having FM back in my life in a serious way, but didn't really care for the sound of the HD channels (sounded quite clear, but too compressed). There wasn't enough interesting content in HD in my area to overcome the SQ issues for me, but I really loved the thought of an FM tuner.

The Sony was a nice little tuner, but it wasn't befitting of the rest of my system. As stated in several other threads, I am not mechanical at all and don't really know of a class A repair shop in the Atlanta area and had heard that older tuners simply required a good workover from time to time. That brought it down to either (expensive) Accuphase (when Ivan's beautiful specimen wasn't available in the for sale pages), the MR-88 or the offerings from Magnum Dynalab. I preferred the pure analog offerings from MD and bought a 108T and simply haven't looked back. It's a fabulous tuner and I'm even thinking of having it upgraded. It is by far my most used source - it simply sounds wonderful, so smooth and delicious and analog.

So, I think my experience underscores many of the good points that have been made in this thread. There aren't as many good stations as there used to be, the sound quality isn't generally as good as it used to be, but there are some good stations that still care about quality and if you're so inclined and live in the right area, you should be able to find some good stuff. HD is only so so, for various reasons. I also think (old guy disclosure) that there is less good content on the airwaves generally and the content that is there is often compressed and pre-programmed, which removes what can be a magical relationship with a DJ. I obviously don't think that FM is going to go away any time soon (after having spent several thousand bucks on a bunch of new equipment), but agree that it is not the healthy medium that it once was.

Then again, all audio media is more diffuse than it used to be. CDs are diluted by the resurgence of vinyl, which is diluted by the streaming services, which is diluted by downloads/Sirius-XM/internet radio, etc., etc. Which brings us all the way around to AM. Yes, there's little AM of interest in my area other than spanish language/sports talk/news talk/religious/and practically nothing of musical interest. EXCEPT the mighty WMLB AM 1690, which is an independent station that has real DJs and plays the most wonderful eclectic stuff I could ever imagine. If I won the lottery, this is the station I would start on the FM dial. In the SAME hour, they will play Townes Van Zandt, Billie Holiday, Van Morrison, read from Moby Dick, have someone by to talk about theatre in the area, go back to the Rollingstones and the Waylon Jennings and Rodriguez, etc., etc., etc. - it makes me feel better to listen to this station.

So, at the end of my sermon, I hope that everyone with these wonderful aging FM tuners will pull them out of the closet and look for interesting stations (maybe even as interesting as AM 1690 in Atlanta), cause their ratings to increase from 4 or 5 listeners on any given night to maybe even 8 or 9 or even double digits, and convince the powers that be that FM is a great thing that deserves to co-exist in what will undoubtedly be a multi-stream audio world.

[jdandy]

Jim....... . .

[GaryProtein]

FM radio is a wasteland. I'm keeping my MR78 purely for sentimental reasons.

NPR is the only thing worth listening to.

The music played by over 95% of the stations is crap, overmodulated crap, distorted crap or "music" that no one with an IQ over 85 (yes, even marginal intelligence) would want to listen to.

[jdandy]

Gary.......Why sit on the fence?

[W9TR]

I agree that it is unlikely that FM will disappear soon but I don't understand your position that it will be more difficult to transition from than going to digital TV.

Jim,
An FM transition to all digital will NOT be technically more difficult. All it takes is an act of congress. It won't be worth it - the juice isn't worth the squeeze. It took an Act of Congress to legislate the DTV transition. The stakes were incredibly high. This quote is from the FCC's DTV Transition Web Page:

"An important benefit of the switch to all-digital broadcasting is that parts of the valuable broadcast spectrum have been freed up for public safety communications by groups such as police, fire departments and rescue squads. Also, some of the spectrum has been auctioned to companies that will be able to provide consumers with advanced wireless services, such as wireless broadband."

It's brilliant - lead with the Police and Fire Departments and then get to the real reason which is freeing up huge amounts of spectrum that is being auctioned off to the wireless carriers. Terrestrial TV lost 100 MHz of its allocated 400 MHz in the DTV Transition. That spectrum was auctioned off to wireless carriers. ATT and Verizon built their current networks on approx $20 Billion of that spectrum freed up and auctioned off in the first wave of spectrum sales in 1998. The next wave netted $40 Billion. The remainder is yet to be auctioned, but this is beachfront property and will be priced accordingly.

FM currently occupies a measly 20 MHz of total spectrum. A total digital transition probably wouldn't free up a lot of that space. Besides, FM is in an undesirable neighborhood for mobile wireless - the frequency is too low to make handsets operate efficiently. So I don't think there will be any action on digital FM anytime soon.

Tom

[Vintage Pete]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Despite some having no interest in terrestrial broadcasts on AM/FM radio waves, I find listening to radio enjoyable. Living in a rural area of north Florida isn't exactly the best place for a wide selection of stations but using high quality tuners and external outside antennas I am able to enjoy quality signals from stations that broadcast as far away as 60 miles on the FM band, and occasionally as far as 100 miles on the AM band. Most of my listening is done in the evening except when I am in the vehicle. I routinely find quality jazz programming and even alternative, pop, and oldies music that sounds very good. For me, a tuner is an essential source component and has always been included in every sound system I assembled. Long live FM.

Anyone who knows me knows my position on FM Tuners, especially vintage McIntosh Tuners. Not only do I agree with Dan's comment that an FM Tuner is an essential source component that has always been a part of any system he has assembled, I would would go a step further to say that I wouldn't dream of setting up any future system without one either. Now of course there are those who don't take the same position, and that's fine. To each his own....

Originally Posted by 62caddy

In all honesty, I listen to FM far more often than I spin vinyl nowadays.

I'll just add to 62caddy's comment as well...not only do I listen to FM more than I spin vinyl (no comparison at all here), I'll take it a step further. In my house, FM radio is by far and away the most listened to of any source component. Anytime I am here, at least one system is on (sometimes more) and FM plays continuously. (I'm listening to it in my office right now). It is used far more than my digital sources, which are played only for a sit down session, usually a half hour or less per session. Unless I'm spinning a CD during one of those sessions or watching TV or movie, the FM sings continuously.

Anyone thinking of tossing their vintage McIntosh (and a few others) tuner to the curb, send them my way. I'll take very good care of them...

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Vintage Pete

Anyone thinking of tossing their vintage McIntosh (and a few others) tuner to the curb, send them my way. I'll take very good care of them...

Pete.......That's funny but I don't think you should hold your breathe while waiting on a FedEx freight truck to backup to your front door with a load of old McIntosh tuners any time soon.

[Weirdcuba]

Hopefully, that truck will stop at my house before Pete's.

Maybe they will be a door stop some day, but right now, fm is my most frequent source. Everything changes - cassettes occupied the same position at one point.

[Vintage Pete]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Pete.......That's funny but I don't think you should hold your breathe while waiting on a FedEx freight truck to backup to your front door with a load of old McIntosh tuners any time soon.

I think you're right Dan!