MR88 Tuner

[Maks]

I think I've fallen victim to the "different is better" syndrome. After additional time over multiple sources I'm back to preferring the balanced outs even w/the Remedy in place. I think this all goes back to the tuner chip outputting an analog signal, nothing against the Remedy but the digital outs are going through an ADC only to be put back through a DAC.

[jdandy]

Maks.......My MR88 is connected to the C1000C/P preamp with balanced interconnects and to the K-03 DAC with Toslink optical cable. That way I can switch back and forth between the inputs for direct A/B comparisons. Right now I am favoring the digital output.

[Maks]

Looks like I'll be sticking w/the balanced connections. I'll try the Remedy out on my MCD500 next.

[BWB75]

I have a Marantz component tuner and I just love using it to listen to the radio here in DC. There is a classical station, a jazz station, and a not half bad news station that I pick up just fine and sometimes it best thing to do is pour a whiskey over ice and let someone else curate the music.

The Marantz is not winning any awards in sensitivity but it sounds pretty good. Antenna is an MD ST-2 (omni with a coil at the bottom). This works wonderfully, notwithstanding the "review" on fmtuners.com, which trashes it based on its design without ever having used it.

A store an hour or two away is willing to offer credit for a trade on a Sonus Faber Musica integrated and Phonomena II phono stage to sell me a new MR-88 for $2,750. This seems pretty darned good, to me. My beloved SF amp will go to a good home and I'll get a steal on a brand new McIntosh HD tuner...

The question is whether the difference in performance is worth it. And, let's not kid ourselves; the MR-88 sitting atop the MA-7900 integrated will look really, really cool. That said, I will also move at least two more times in the next 4 years, though probably within the US, and who knows that the radio will have to offer wherever I may go. Once that is over, there will hopefully be a forever house where I can mount an antenna way up high. For now, though, its the ST-2 in a city apartment window.

Also, for at least a few more years I will I have to get up earlier than I would prefer and go do stuff other people tell me to do in order to bring in money. $2,750 is not a world changing event, but its not exactly budget dust either, to me.

Is this a plunge you would recommend? Is the MR-88 that good? The McIntosh Integrated was expensive for me, but wow was it ever worth it. I would buy it again in a second. If the MR-88 is like that...

[Weirdcuba]

You have to be the judge of value/budget, etc., but I suspect you will be blown away by the MR88 and have it in your system a long long time. It might be the last tuner you ever own as there's not much else out there that would be "clearly" better. It's also fabulous looking, particularly with your mc integrated. I too enjoy letting someone else do the curation periodically and am so glad I have a great tuner for it.

[Maks]

If you enjoy radio, the MR-88 is absolutely worth it. You can check my other thread where I considered getting a new tuner for more information about why I enjoy my MR-88 so much. The MR-88 looks and sounds amazing in addition to doing an excellent job at pulling in those far away stations with minimal noise.

[BWB75]

The manager at a reputable audio dealer informed me over the weekend that McIntosh intends to discontinue the MR-88 in favor of the new MR-87, which is essentially the same thing without the Hybrid Digital capability. Has anyone else heard about this?

Does this suggest that McIntosh believes HD radio will disappear? Lots of stations seem to use it, at least for the moment, though new hardware to listen is becoming difficult to find. I would hate to see the format go away, as almost everyone reports a great experience listening to it. That said, there are costs to stations for using it and the broadcasting gear is expensive for stations to buy. In other words, its not free and without demand from consumers I guess it could go the way of Betamax.

Might the MR-87 cost less?

[cleeds]

Originally Posted by BWB75

... McIntosh intends to discontinue the MR-88 in favor of the new MR-87, which is essentially the same thing without the Hybrid Digital capability ... Does this suggest that McIntosh believes HD radio will disappear?

According to the company - which is now DTS but used to be iBiquity - "HD" doesn't stand for Hybrid Digital, High Definition, or anything else.

While I don't know about McIntosh's plan for HD Radio, the technology was virtually dead-on-arrival. Yes, it works for some, mostly those who live close to the station's transmitter. But because a station's digital signal is a fraction of the power of the main signal - typically no more than 4 percent, I think - it has much less coverage area. When the digital signal gets dicey, the receiver switches to analog, which can be annoying if the two signals are not in sync, which is common. (That's a solvable problem, but many broadcasters don't care.)

Broadcasters haven't put much resources into HD channel programming, and some have discontinued use of HD altogether. Consumers haven't shown much interest in the technology, especially in the US, so I'd say HD's outlook continues to be very bleak.

[Weirdcuba]

All reports are that HD has been struggling. No idea whether mc revises their line of tuners, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if HD ceases to exist as an FM format. Never did it for me, but ymmv. It's part of the reason I went with the 108T, rather than the mr88, although that was about as close of a call as there can be.

[Maks]

Originally Posted by BWB75

The manager at a reputable audio dealer informed me over the weekend that McIntosh intends to discontinue the MR-88 in favor of the new MR-87, which is essentially the same thing without the Hybrid Digital capability. Has anyone else heard about this?

Nonsense. The MR-87 is a "world" version of the MR-88: http://www.audioaficionado.org/mcint...r87-tuner.html