[Dilbert]

FM cable feed via Rogers (through my BDA-1) in my area is nowhere near the same quality as off the air direct from my pooged Onkyo T-9090 tuner. I suspect Rogers are rebroadcasting and using an inferior tuner to receive the signal. Either that, or it's a station feed of questionable quality.

The Rogers satellite music stations are another matter. I find them to be nearly CD quality.

My 2 cents.

Bryston make a tuner? I wouldn't bother. Everything is going internet or cable based digital.  I am glad I sold my Modaferri modified McIntosh MR78 years ago.

 

[95Dyna]

FM cable feed via Rogers (through my BDA-1) in my area is nowhere near the same quality as off the air direct from my pooged Onkyo T-9090 tuner. I suspect Rogers are rebroadcasting and using an inferior tuner to receive the signal. Either that, or it's a station feed of questionable quality.

The Rogers satellite music stations are another matter. I find them to be nearly CD quality.

My 2 cents.

Bryston make a tuner? I wouldn't bother. Everything is going internet or cable based digital.  I am glad I sold my Modaferri modified McIntosh MR78 years ago.

All I can say is with guys selling every make of 30 year old modded tunas for next to nothing that sound and perform better than anything made currently and with everything going internet and cable digital, those guys over at Magnum Dynalab, Fanfare, Day Sequerra, Sony, Accuphase and McIntosh must be the biggest bunch of uninformed marketing dweebs on the face of the Earth.

[werd]

FM cable feed via Rogers (through my BDA-1) in my area is nowhere near the same quality as off the air direct from my pooged Onkyo T-9090 tuner. I suspect Rogers are rebroadcasting and using an inferior tuner to receive the signal. Either that, or it's a station feed of questionable quality.

The Rogers satellite music stations are another matter. I find them to be nearly CD quality.

My 2 cents.

Bryston make a tuner? I wouldn't bother. Everything is going internet or cable based digital.  I am glad I sold my Modaferri modified McIntosh MR78 years ago.

Its mp3 protocol on most fm now. Very narrow bandwidth with very few that actually can benefit from a decent tuna. Forget the tuna its done deal with. highspeed streaming is the future and it still sucks, gotta get that up and running.

[95Dyna]

doug s.:

You may be right, but I'm going to try and audition the new 88 in home against my 717 and see what happens.  I've gotten the bug lately on anything MAC....must be the blue lights and meters.  I'm easily amused

James:

Overall that might be a difficult comparison to make.  The audio quality of any source is of primary importance but, at least for me, when I turn on the tuner the last vestiges of the little kid left in me continues to be amazed by a box that pulls music and voices out of the thin air.  Some of us never grow up!  The comparative audio?  The sound coming out of a tuner just seems to be more alive, immediate and personal.  Go figure!

I'm with you 1ZIP, there's just something about radio that is magical or mystical.  That new Mac tuner has my eye too.  I took a look at it when auditioning the MCD500 and it is a good sounding and looking piece.  It has great flexibility with HD and satellite prep included.  I think you can force analog on it as well.  Also digital outs so if you have a BDA-1 you can try it out and compare it to forced analog.  Let me know what you think when you audition.

Thanks,

Bill

[doug s.]

Hey guys,

I am not a critical tuna listener but I have been listening to my cable feed on our BDA-1 DAC - signal is a 48k/16Bit PCM feed.

How would you compare the quality turners of old and today to the internet and cable box offerings?

james

i have not heard cable radio, but most who have, say it sucks, compared to quality analog fm broadcasting.  there are a wery few internet stations that have a signal that's not  compressed so badly as to appreciably negatively impact sound, but i have never heard these stations.  if you go to the yahoo fm tuner forum, you can ask, and folks will tell you which internet streams sound decent.

werd's post above, is the first i have heard, where someone says that a satellite music station is "near cd quality", so maybe there's hope in the future, between this, and the handful of internet stations attempting to broadcast high-bandwidth signals.

doug s.

[doug s.]

re mac tunas, there's a mac employee who participates over at audiokarma; even he says mac's best tunas are in their past.  tuna freaks say the best sounding s/s mac tunas were the mr74 & mr77; the mr78 while a dx champ, isn't as good sounding as the first two.  even richard modafferi has said this. 

my experience w/mac tunas is as follows:  my modded to the gills mr65b was a nice sounding tuna, w/decent reception for a tuber.  it was almost as nice as my sherwoods.     my refurb'd mr77 and stock mr74 were in the bottom 5-10 of all tunas i have listened to over the years - flat narrow soundstage, so-so detail, ok extension and dynamcis, but nothing special.  yust all-around boring to listen to.  many agree w/me, but i do know quite a few folks who think the 74/77's are nice sounding tunas...

ymmv,

doug s.