I had an opportunity to buy a Magnum Dynalab MD208 receiver a year ago. Being unimpressed with it after two or three days of listening, I had been using it with a backround (fm) system. After reading reviews in 'phile and others, which reported that it took months for the amp pre-amp to settle in , and seeing it's class "A" rating this year, I decided to give it a long term audition.
It is now, at least temporarily, in my main system. There is not question that the fm section outperforms the MD Etude separate tuner I was using. As far as the amp section is concerned, it doesn't quite produce that last bit of emotion that my Aleph 3 and Audible Illusions L1 did, but makes up in part far more power and dynamic enthusiasm. Since I am moving into a much larger house, and plan to use a pair of Maggie 3.6, as well as getting back into vynl, the Aleph 3 just would not cut it. I am so impressed with the 208 that I 'm going to give it a try with the new speakers in this larger listening room. On the used market, this unit is an absolute steal at $1500-1700. Check it out.
