Listening to my MR85

[Charles]

Well, it's Christmas time. That's about the only time I listen to my Mac tuner. I have a nice antenna mounted to my chimney that has been there for at least 20 years. Anybody interested in sharing about their tuner? What kind do you have?

Also, I went to the Mac website to look at the new tuners. It looks like an upgrade for me just might be in order. They look very interesting for the first ime in years. Anybody own one of the new Mac tuners?

[miner]

I have been thinking about the possibility of a vintage Mc tuner and am curious to the responses that will come.

[jdandy]

Charles.......I have three McIntosh tuners, and MR88, MR85, and MR74. They are each installed in a separate system and I enjoy listening to them, often late night jazz from the University of Florida's NPR station in Gainesville. The MR88, McIntosh's newest tuner is in the studio system. The MR85 is in the living room system, and the MR74 is in my vintage system with the MA5100 integrated amplifier. All three tuners are excellent.

[Maks]

There are a handful of MR88 owners here, I own it and an MR74 that's currently in storage. Both are great tuners with different sounds. The MR88 is much better at picking up fringe stations, which is huge for me. The additional HD content is nice to have and I got an XM antenna for it as well. XM isn't the greatest quality but there's some fun stuff on there.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Maks

There are a handful of MR88 owners here, I own it and an MR74 that's currently in storage. Both are great tuners with different sounds. The MR88 is much better at picking up fringe stations, which is huge for me. The additional HD content is nice to have and I got an XM antenna for it as well. XM isn't the greatest quality but there's some fun stuff on there.

Steve.......I subscribed to SiriusXM satellite radio for a while. Two things made me decide to cancel my subscription. First, I didn't spend enough time actually listening to satellite radio to warrant the annual cost. Second, I was disappointed in the way XM compresses many of the channel's signals to the point of sounding like low quality MP3's. I find myself listening to HDFM on the MR88 and regular terrestrial stations off the air and that is free.

[Jerome W]

Charles....

I had a MR85 next to my MR77 for a bit more than a year.
Each time that I listened to the 77 I asked myself "why the H... did I buy the 85 ?? the 77 is better in every area, and by a large large margin...."

So I sold the 85 and I am left with the 77.

[MC352]

I have a MR78, that gets used Sunday mornings for my classical easy listening sessions. I used to own a MR85, and a MR77, and ended up keeping the 78.

[Yamaki]

My MR77 fills the bill in my secondary 2-channel system. Love the display, the sound and the sensitivity of this tuner. My dipole antenna pulls in strong signals and we are blessed with a LOT of well turned out FM stations to enjoy in my area.

[JPrest]

I have two MR71's a MR67, MR74. Sold the MR85 soon after purchase. Vintage McIntosh tuners require cleaning and removal of Selenium and a re-cap. About $350.00 to fix one up. Then they are quite and smooth. I prefer analog FM to 128k Internet streaming. Luck to have several good stations in Minneapolis.

[Maks]

A vintage Mc tuner is a great purchase IMO. I wouldn't have upgraded from my MR74 if it wasn't for the main station I listen to being fringe. My MR74 was modified to have about the same DXing capability as an MR78. If I listened to only local stations the MR74 would be great and sounds excellent. The fact I have it in storage for the future instead of selling it says a lot.

The MR88 is a great tuner IMO, I know a lot of folks poo poo digital tuners and HD, but I enjoy the content and DXing. The AM antenna is pretty good on it, too.