I think the MR-67 sound is at least as good as the MR-71 given a good signal and far better bargain. The MR-78 has a dark, lifeless sound compared to the tubed MR-67 and MR-78 assuming you have good tubes in them (e.g., NOS gold pin Mullards or Telefunken) and have them properly aligned. Several McIntosh representives, at the McIntosh Labs design center, have told me the MR-78 and MR-80 are really designed for DXing purposes (getting distant FM stations or those in conjested FM areas) with those after the MR-80 are really just convenience tuners. They told me that without question the MR-71 was the last of their tuners where sonics was the top priority. Does convenience = not meeting sonic expections so we can sit on our butts and get dumber or at least less appreciative of good music? If so, maybe we should not buy anything designed for sonic pleasure since we would be able to watch our guts grow watching TV or non-sense Hollywood Plot movies where we have no expectations. Furthermore, according to the December 2001 News Release from the US Department of Health and Human Services: Obesity will soon replace cigarettes as the greatest cause of serious preventable disease. Convenience corporate propaganda is at the center of this non-sense. Electric can openers, 4000 lb SUVs used to hual remote clickers back and forth to the grocery stores and malls, fast food for slow people (remember that 1960s song that goes "...in the year 2525 will not need our hands or eyes...", get the drift here), remote control of everything (garage doors, TVs, stereos, etc). Convenience proliferation is marketed as a sign of making it. Making what? Making a new market for the Drug Companies to combat preventable disease or should we say designed disease? Get off our american gluts, work out, eat right, get healthy, and get a non-remote tube tuner! Darn IT! LOL :)
By the way, I recently purchased a near mint Citation IIIx tuner and retubed it and it is simply a sonic joy closely comparable to anything tuner wise (as most know I have owned/reviewed tens (few hundred now I suppose) of tuners over the years.
