How is it ? that a tuner smokes the table ???

This is an interesting thread for the most part, I certainly learned quite a bit from those who could describe the radio broadcast chain. Never knew the details but I did know there was a lot of variability based on the station and engineer.

For instance I live in the NYC and Philly metro areas. I listen to two classical stations (among others) that each broadcast the Metropolitan Opera live on Saturday afternoons:
WQXR 96.3 in NYC and WWFM 89.1 in Mercer County NJ. The differences in quality of the broadcast are very noticeable with WWFM winning hands down. Not to say QXR is wretched but WWFM betters it by a country mile.

Of course having the same broadcast material played at the same time helps a lot in the A/B comparison. And the MD-108 don't hurt either.

I listen to a LOT of FM but I am fortunate to live within these two large markets, and there are a lot of good stations.

Cheers all.

sorry gentleman I had made an error regarding my preamp, I said it was form issue, dAudio Express Oct 2005 which is incorrect, its actually from AudioXpress Febuary 2004 issue and the article title is "A Low-MU Triode Preamp"!!!

thanks and sorry for any inconviences,
Regards Jim.

In defence of my original stance that the tuner smokes anolog front ends I would like to state this fact.

Although the dynalab 108 tuner is a very good tuner, it is based on their older design, and if you could only hear/imagine the 109 is a totally new design and I would say in a completely different league from the sound of the 108!

And yes, I know nobody said that the 108 was better, but my point is, for all of you that have the 108,
congradulations because it is very good, but the 109,
I am just stating and am quite sure will destroy any anolog front end in the world regardless of cost.
IMO.

And to this day cant understand why, it makes no sence
but is just so. imo?

I don't think its unusual for a tuner to sound "intimate" as you describe. With good source material at the station, dynamics can be pretty good as well. I could relate similar experiences using Tandberg, Carver, and other tuners with a good source station and source program material (particularly live broadcasts as someone above mentioned) as well.

However, the frequency response is rolled off at the top end due to format limitations, right? For some who find a hot top end annoying, this can actually be deemed a good thing.

So I don't necessarily find it to be that surprising. A tuner as costly as that Magnum Dynalab should blow away most anything else as well I would expect at that price.

can't argue with what you said Mapman, this old dude struggles to hear above 16k anyways.

but it is surprising to me because many analog front ends here and world wide easily surpasses the $10,000.00 mark and still is
unable to match the tuner for sound.

What is also surprising to me is the signal on vynal is probably more direct , than a signal passing thru the air
with all the interferences, not to mention all the processing, and reprocessing to analogy and ranes as the
highest quality source I know of or experienced.