McIntosh Tuner: MR7084

[Volks]

Does anyone have any experience/history with the McIntosh Tuner: MR7084? If so whats your opinion/view of it?

I am not into Radio much, but I have always wanted a Tuner and there is one for sale for $699 CAD / $542 USD in great shape.

[62caddy]

MR7084 was one of the slim line of McIntosh units for installations in which space is limited. Not a bad little unit but not in the same league as its bigger brother MR7083 or earlier MR80 which are more sensitive and offer greater selectivity therefore will provide a greater number of usable stations as well as dealing better with the most distant ones.

Of course the quality of signal(s) from the desired station(s) available will have significant bearing on whether a better tuner will be beneficial in your location.

[Volks]

Originally Posted by 62caddy

MR7084 was one of the slim line of McIntosh units for installations in which space is limited. Not a bad little unit but not in the same league as its bigger brother MR7083 or earlier MR80 which are more sensitive and offer greater selectivity therefore will provide a greater number of usable stations as well as dealing better with the most distant ones.

Of course the quality of signal(s) from the desired station(s) available will have significant bearing on whether a better tuner will be beneficial in your location.

Great Info.Thank you...............do you think $542 USD is a good price for it?

[62caddy]

Originally Posted by Volks

Great Info.Thank you...............do you think $542 USD is a good price for it?

MR7084 seems to be trending around $500 on the auction site in good condition so he's not unrealistic. Manuals should be present at that figure.

[Stahle]

I have an MR7084 in my system and it works fine. It is able to capture all of our local stations and then some. I purchased it because I wanted a McIntosh tuner that matches the current pieces and I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Also, since I so rarely use a tuner, I wasn't concerned about finding the best one that McIntosh made. It does use bulbs, but I have only had to replace them once over the entire life of the unit.

When looking for an MR7084, you might notice that there are two different versions. The early version has a red standby button and a permanent power cord, this is the one in the photo that you included in your post. The later model McIntosh replaced it with has a black toggle power switch, a modern removable power cord, and a power control in/out so that it can be turned on and off with your preamp. I purchased the later model and have had two of them over the years.

One important item to note is that the transformer on the MR7084 does tend to hum but it is easily fixed if it does. This is because the transformer is housed within the MR7084 in a second metal box that has a removable lid. The hum comes from the transformer's proximity to that lid. We discovered this was the issue because when we plugged the MR7084 in while the transformer cover was off, there was no hum. As soon as the cover was placed back over the transformer compartment, the hum returned. If I then pushed hard on the transformer cover, the hum disappeared. I was able to completely remove the hum from both tuners by placing a dynamat type of self adhesive material onto the transformer housing cover (NOT THE TRANSFORMER ITESELF). You'll see the box that I'm talking about if you take the top off of the MR7084.

Below is a picture of mine.

[Formerly YB-2]

Nice!! And a great match to the C15 preamp.

[Volks]

Originally Posted by Stahle

I have an MR7084 in my system and it works fine. It is able to capture all of our local stations and then some. I purchased it because I wanted a McIntosh tuner that matches the current pieces and I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Also, since I so rarely use a tuner, I wasn't concerned about finding the best one that McIntosh made. It does use bulbs, but I have only had to replace them once over the entire life of the unit.

When looking for an MR7084, you might notice that there are two different versions. The early version has a red standby button and a permanent power cord, this is the one in the photo that you included in your post. The later model McIntosh replaced it with has a black toggle power switch, a modern removable power cord, and a power control in/out so that it can be turned on and off with your preamp. I purchased the later model and have had two of them over the years.

One important item to note is that the transformer on the MR7084 does tend to hum but it is easily fixed if it does. This is because the transformer is housed within the MR7084 in a second metal box that has a removable lid. The hum comes from the transformer's proximity to that lid. We discovered this was the issue because when we plugged the MR7084 in while the transformer cover was off, there was no hum. As soon as the cover was placed back over the transformer compartment, the hum returned. If I then pushed hard on the transformer cover, the hum disappeared. I was able to completely remove the hum from both tuners by placing a dynamat type of self adhesive material onto the transformer housing cover (NOT THE TRANSFORMER ITESELF). You'll see the box that I'm talking about if you take the top off of the MR7084.

Below is a picture of mine.

Good to know! Thank you so much........Beautiful Pic!

[Stahle]

Originally Posted by Volks

Good to know! Thank you so much........Beautiful Pic!

Glad to help!

[Stahle]

Just an FYI, I replaced the end caps on mine with updated ones which you can buy from McIntosh. If you do the same with no modifications, the width overall will be about 1/4” wider because the new style end caps are each about 1/8” thicker. I trimmed the upper and lower glass mounting brackets to account for this because I was directly stacking mine onto the C15 and wanted an exact match. I then deepened the slot that the glass goes into on each of the new end caps by 1/8” due to the wider glass. If you don’t have it stacked, then doing all of this is overkill because no one would ever notice it being wider. If you want more info on this I can help with that too.

[jdandy]

Mike.......I owned the McIntosh MR7084 for a number of years and was disappointed in the performance. I purchased it new without auditioning it. In the city areas the tuner work fairly well but when I built my home in a rural area of north Florida the tuner proved to have poor sensitivity. I had it connected to a Magnum Dynalab ST-2 outdoor antenna, which by the way I still have and use with my MR88 in the studio, but the tuner just wasn't sensitive enough to pull in the stations I wanted to hear. Some stations I could tune with the radio in my vehicle outside, but come inside and try to tune the same station on the MR7084 was fruitless. I eventually sold the tuner and bought an MR85 that I still own and use in the living room system. The MR85 and the MR88 are fabulous tuners, but I would not be interested in owning another MR7084. Save your money and buy a MR85 or MR88. You'll be much happier.

Here's a photo from my living room system back in January 2008. It was the McIntosh MR7084, C40, MCD205, Sony DAT60ES, Nakamichi CR-7A, and a McIntosh MC300.