Analog Tuner Existence.....

HD radio in Wikipedia kinda says no.I myself hope it doesn't
happen unless they improve the sound. I tried the Sam Tellig
recomended Sony. A big disappointment to me.The highs aren't
there,maybe to cover up the analog hiss. The highs are also
bad on HD FM. My analog tuners put the HD FM to shame.The
soundstage is narrow also.On the plus side,there is the side channels
you could pickup with HD only.I receive to few AM stations
to say for sure,but I've heard better dial-up,(low bit-rate)
streams over the internet. I hope the two could live together.
Try one with a 30day trial if you could.As far as high end tuners
going out, I would like to know too.

Thank you for your input. I am considering a used MR 85 Mcintosh tuner, and am a little gun shy for obvious reasons!

There are so many excellent tuners out there for $200-$400, why buy a collectors piece and worry? I have had an MR-71, a full Audio Classics mod MR-77, a Fanfare 1A, etc. over the years. I now have a Marantz 7001, and a Sherwood 3000 lll, with less than $400 in both.
The Sherwood seems the sonic equal of my MR-71. The Marantz is not the equal of the solid sate Macs in sonics, but it beats the pants off them in quieting on distant stations. I now hear my favorite college station with a dead quiet background, whereas with the Macs it was always subject to noise and cut out.
Read more and spend less.
cheers,

Trumpetbri,

The radio situation is a bit different than TV. Most TV users have cable, so the transition to digital didn't affect them at all, and the TV industry was willing to risk pissing off a few customers to bring in a system that benefits them and their advertisers. Make no mistake, the TV move was all about advertising; more side channels and bandwidth utilization equals more ad revenue.

Contrast radio, where virtually all listeners use the broadcast signal. Until HD capable radios reach critical mass, there's no way stations can go exclusively HD, as they'd cut off a huge piece of their audience. Radio stations are going to HD for the same reasons TV did, and none of them have to do with helping the consumer.

It will be analogous to the introduction of FM; it took 20 years for FM to really take off. I would expect analog broadcast signals to be around for a long time. That said, I completely agree with Samujohn that it makes little sense to invest in a high buck tuner at this point. A decent $200 tuner with a good antenna will squeeze pretty much all you're going to get out of an analog broadcast signal these days, even the ones that use little or no compression.

Tune in with something reasonable and relax; I haven't owned a TV in 15 years and my Yamaha T-85 is plenty.

David