jlovda,
I am one of the moderators in the Yahoo FM Tuner Group: That "expert" is known in our group to have an intense dislike of anything McIntosh, particularly McIntosh tuners.
ity:
He has stated in previous posts he had an MR77 that was "gone through" and "aligned" by a McIntosh-certified tech, but AFAIK, he has never ID'd the tech. :screwy:
And he has written numerous times this "gone through" MR77 was a sub-par tuner with mediocre audio quality compared to other tuners he has listened to. He is partial to Sherwood, JVC, and several British tuners, and I believe his current "reference" is a Roksan Caspian tuner (
http://roksan.co.uk/roksan/products/no_35/doc/d_35_1.pdf).
My own experience with M77 tuners has been the exact opposite of this individual, so I believe he either has a hidden agenda
or he had a very poor sample of an MR77 that was not adequately "gone through" and "aligned" by his supposedly McIntosh-certified tech. :sadwave:
As for the second part of your question, my permanent home is in a remote area of the Blue Ridge Mountains that does not get any off-air TV signals, but with an APS-13 and an antenna amp, I can select from a variety of college radio stations located in TN, NC, and VA.
I currently have over 20 tuners I can pick from at home (most listed at
http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/6137.html). Other tuners I have had in my system since the 1970's but did not keep include:
Accuphase T-100 (unmodded)
Accuphase T-101 (unmodded)
Adcom GFT-1A (unmodded)
Amber Model 7 (unmodded)
Crown FM1 (unmodded)
GAS Charlie the Tuner (supposedly set up by the great JB himself)
Kenwood KT-815 (unmodded)
Marantz 10B (unmodded)
Marantz 20B (unmodded)
Marantz 120B (unmodded)
Magnum Dynalab FT-101A (unmodded)
McIntosh MR73 (unmodded)
McIntosh MR77 (Modaferri updated)
McIntosh MR78 (updated but no significant mods)
McIntosh MR78 (Modaferri modded & updated)
Mitsubishi DA-F20 (unmodded)
Nakamichi 430 (unmodded)
Perreaux TU-3 (unmodded)
PS Audio ST-1 (unmodded)
Quad FM3 (unmodded)
Quad FM4 (unmodded)
Sansui TU-919 (unmodded)
Setton TUS600 (unmodded)
Sequerra Model No. 1 Broadcast Monitor (unmodded)
Sony ST-5000F (unmodded)
Sony 730ES (unmodded)
Tandberg 3001A (unmodded)
Technics ST-9600 (unmodded)
Technics ST-9030 (unmodded)
Yamaha CT-1010 (unmodded)
In my system, to my ears, the best sounding of all of these tuners was and is the McIntosh MR74. Mine has been was refurbished by both McIntosh and Terry D about 10 years ago and it is now again at Terry's for a capacitor upgrade and re-alignment. I did not find the MR73 or the MR77 or the MR78's to sound as good as my MR74. I have not listened to an MR80 as I believe it has too many issues relating to the presets. However, I must admit I am curious about how good the MR88 is, but I'm not willing to spend that much when I have so many other good tuners.
After the MR74, I also like the sound of (in no particular order) Bill Amon's modded Denon TU-800, the Marantz ST17U (unmodded), the Marantz 125 (unmodded), the McIntosh MX117 (McIntosh rebuilt, and soon to see Terry), the Pioneer F-91(unmodded), the Scott LT-112B (unmodded), Sony ST-333ESXII (unmodded), Punker X's modded Sony XDR-F1HD, and Punker X's modded Yamaha T-85.
If you want my extended thoughts on the MR74 and other McIntosh tuners I have listened to for extended period (
NOTE: you will need a Yahoo account to open these links), click on
http://yhoo.it/1s9gm7R,
http://yhoo.it/1uMRV3E,
http://yhoo.it/XmhI3G, and
http://yhoo.it/WQwa4a.
After I completed my research on McIntosh tuners for these posts, I penned an article for The Absolute Sound on the history and development of the MR78 that was subsequently republished in
McIntosh .... For the Love of Music ....
As always, YMMV, but I really do like my MR74.