[Review] Magnum Dynalab FM Tuner

Discussion in 'Hi-Fi and General Audio' started by kenneth cooke, Jul 17, 2006.

  1. kenneth cooke

    kenneth cooke

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    Magnum Dynalab FM Tuner

    I have recently been searching for a new FM tuner. I considered various options and finally settled for a Magnum Dynalab MD90 and what a superb tuner it is. The performance on BBC Radio 3/4 is stunning in fact I do not think I have heard better radio reproduction in fact it shows up poor recordings. I am a big fan of Late Junction on Radio 3 and anyone who is familiar with the program will know the eclectic nature of the music played. The MD 90 handles all these music styles with ease. I enclose the following review for anyone interested

    Absolute Sound Magazine
    Review of the MD 90

    The MD-90 is Magnum Dynalab's entry-level solid-state tuner. And it's a traditional tuner in the classic sense. It's FM-only--a music lover's medium. Its RF front end is an in-house analog design that alloows the listener to tune in stations via a large flywheel knob wuith a precision unavailable on digital tuners. To that same end, the MD-90 offers a well-lightened trio of meters--multipath, signal strength, and center-tune. Aditionally it has toggles for stereo/mono, mute, and wide/narrow IF bandwidth. The MD-90 also has an extensive factory-installed options list that includes balanced outputs, a basic remote control that stores five presets, and even a triode-tube output stage.

    The MD-90 has a warm midrange with an almost tube-like buttery smoothness. Thanks to the blackest background of any tuner in the survey, it defined images with almost topographic relief. The MD-90 had a more complex, weightier sound that never bleached out or grew lean even in the upper octaves. all genres of music benefited by its vibrant range of tonal colors and the breadth of its dynamics. A large part of this was fue to the minimal amount of background hash i observed===the least of the group. voilins had an almost butterscotch sweetness yet registered the full range of the instrument's tonality, full-bodied and deeplu burnished on Dvorak's Violin Concerto in A Minor during "Sunday At The Philidalphia." The cello in the Schumann Cello Concerto in A monor {FM 105.1} had a more stable image and a righer, deeper, more resonant sound.

    The key attribute that elevated the Magnum Dynalab MD-90 to another level of performance was its focus. On Berntein's Divertimento for Orchestra, percussion images rarely wavered in position. Details were decisive with no ghosting artifacts dogging the outline of instruments. The soundstage felt bolted down with a torque wrench. The Magnum also had the lowest noise, tuning in weaker stations at the edges of the FM spectrum. Even the "quality" of frequency noise had a distincly less sibilant edge than that of the other tuners. As good as this performancy was, however, even the MD90 can't fully escape the bonds of the RF medium. Macro-dynamics were soemwhat attenuated and signal noise at low levels, though quite acceptable, will remain a distraction to those reared on hi-rez sources like SACD or DVD-A.

    The Magnum Dynalab is of a different world than the Classe and Acram. It demands involvement. It establishes a ritual of tuning in a station just so, checking for signal strength, and monitoring multipath. This will be too much work for some, compared to the Clase's and Acram's carefree simplicity, though the Magnum's smooth remote control operation and station preset flexibility make leaving the couch optional. The mix of performance, features, and build quality of the three tuners was perfectly allied with their respective price points. For "no fuss, no muss" performance the Classe and Acram are top contenders. But if flat-out Fm performance is the overriding factor, the Magnum Dynalab is tuned to your frequency.
     

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    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 20, 2006
    kenneth cooke, Jul 17, 2006
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  2. kenneth cooke

    denney10

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    Hi

    I also have the MD90 and agree that it is a great tuner, but I do not think I am getting the best out of it.
    What areial are you using? I have just got a standard Antiference aerial stuck on the top of my TV roof aerial.
    The problem I have is that I am in a poor reception area and both TV and FM aerial are diplexed? together into 1 coax down to the living room.
    Should I get separate runs of coax and would this improve matters?
    Any help would be appreciated.
     
    denney10, Jul 29, 2006
    #2
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