Reviews  

I am a radio fan, and happily, here in Britain, we're still blessed with a first class radio service, especially for those into classical music or speech, on the BBC's 'flagship' Radios 3 and 4. For my money, both these services well deserve the services of top quality FM tuner, provided you're into their content and have access to a decent FM signal. To my knowledge, Magnum Dynalab is the only tuner specialist on the planet. It's a well-established company based in Ontario, Canada, has no connection whatsoever with a UK amplifier brand of similar name, and probably deserves wider recognition here in Britain.

The tuner we received was the MD100, which comes in a hands-on-only version at $1,500, or with an additional (retrofittable) remote control option at $1,800. These are high prices for any tuner, but the MD100 is actually one of Magnum Dynalab's less expensive models, sitting second up a four-rung hierarchy. Since there's an MD102 for several hundred pounds more, and an MD108 complete with valves for more than $5,000, this MD100 can't really be expected to approach the state of Magnum Dynalab's are, though the $1,500/1800 price tag demands serious performance. The company makes great play of the fact that its tuners are equipped with its own analogue front-ends, as distinct from the digital synthesis approach which is much more common these days. It doesn't entirely eschew digital techniques however-there's a microprocessor inside, presumably for the remote control, and the tuner frequency is indicated on a central orange illuminated numeric display. What you don't get are any fancy RDS data read-outs, not that you'd expect to find them on a tuner like this. What is decidedly unusual is finding an analogue tuner equipped with remote control, over tuning and a handful of pre-sets. This may or may not matter to the reader, but it's something this reviewer has been looking to find for years. Physical appearance is classic transatlantic traditional, combining a chunky thick alloy fascia with sheet steel casework. Ours came in matt black throughout, though fascias in silver or gold are listed options.

Either side of the frequency readout, two good size swing-needle meters dominate the fascia, indicating signal strength/multipath and centre-tune. They're brightly enough illuminated to cope with daylight, if perhaps a shade too bright when the lights are down low. A row to toggle switches perform a number of functions, though you may need a torch to figure out what does what. The rear panel has an IEC mains input, and aerial input, and audio outputs. The aerial downlead needs an F-plug with screw thread (widely used for satellite receivers) rather than the traditional Belling Lee, while the audio out I on unbalanced phonos or balanced XLRs. There's also a small jack socket and toggle switch associated with the remote control.

Ergonomically this is a truly weird one, on first acquaintance at lease, though it proved easy enough to get used to its idiosyncrasies. Most remote control tuners will also respond to their front panel controls, but that's not the case here. With the MD100 you have an 'either/or-button-not-both' situation, depending on whether you switch the unit on from the handset (activated by a thoroughly confusing and ambiguous rear panel switch), or by the front panel toggle labelled 'Power'. Yes, under remote operation, power is switched 'off'! Fascia controls are dominated by a large tuning knob with a good analogue 'feel'. Besides the curious Power switch, there are toggles for mute on/off, mono/stereo, selectivity (disingenuously labelled BW1/BW2, since 'wide/narrow' is what's meant), and to switch the left hand meter between signal strength and multipath detection. To enhance perceived value, specialist hi-fi makers tend to supply remote handsets which are either exceedingly complex, or unnecessarily heavy. Magnum Dynalab's example is a simple, compact but very hefty affair. It has seven buttons to perform nine tasks (so keep the manual handy), and while it performs as advertised, the reception angle for handset response seemed rather small.

There are five presets-ample in my book-though their volatile little memories get forgetful if power is interrupted. And switching from one to another is a 'pop'n'squelch' affair, as the tuner jumps in and out of its normal muting without any additional disguise. An irritating coincidence for me was that the Naim pre-amp 'mute' remote command caused the MD100 to select presser 4-remote control can have its snags!

The action of the up/down tune buttons is effective but alarming, as the scan is accompanied by a loud mechanical chattering from the mechanism inside the tuner. Hardly slick, but entirely functional, the more so as tiny steps are available and also audibly detectible. A hi-fi tuner has two quite separate tasks to perform. Helped by the antenna, it has to receive the signal, the whole signal and nothing but the signal from the airwaves. Then it has to take that signal and extract the maximum musical content, which is where the hi-fi bit really comes in. the requirements for each are significantly different, so a tuner with best RF performance is unlikely to come with the best sound quality, and vice versa. I'm a hi-fi rather than a radio enthusiast, so I took it to a couple of the latter for extra views on the reception side. "decent enough in content and performance, but nothing special" pretty well summed up their overall reaction. The variable selectivity was welcome, but a rather 'tighter' narrow band would have been preferred. As is still all too often the case, the signal strength meter saturates much too early too early to be of much practical help, while in contrast the centre-tune would have been more useful with rather greater sensitivity. Weak signals bring in a degree of mono blend and high frequency rolloff, which can become somewhat distracting when the signal is pulsing-the way it does when an aircraft passes across a long distance transmission path, for example. However, long distance DX-ing will be irrelevant to the majority of hi-fi enthusiasts. Musical communication skill is the truly important bit, and here the MD100 turned out to be a thoroughly impressive performer.

It had the good taste to arrive just as the Promise season was getting under way, and did an outstanding job of conveying the full richness and warmth of the Alberta Hall experience. The whole scale of the sounds seemed bigger and fuller than I was used to hearing, yet there was no trace of 'thickening' or 'heavyness'-it all sounded superbly natural and somehow 'right'. My regular tuner for well over a decade has been a Naim NAT01, which has happily seen off all corners to date. By the end of one evening with the Magnum Dynalab, I was seriously contemplating its purchase, and not just because I've always wanted an analogue tuner with remote control. The Naim simply sounded a little thin and weedy by comparison. It did perhaps have a slight edge in delineating leading edges, which has always been a Naim strength, but also seemed to lack the body, the weight, the harmonic richness and the sheer dynamic literacy of the MD100 through the lower registers in particular. Maybe this judgement was down to the relatively small and bright loudspeakers I had in the room at the time I took the IMLab Micro Utopias out and brought the bog Tannoy TD12s in, only to come to a broadly similar conclusion.

Magnum Dynalab's tuner sounds almost vinly-like in its overall warmth and generosity of spirit, and I suspect that it is a quite deliberate strategy. Out of interest, I did a quick test using a small, good quality IW 'local area' stereo FM transmitter, in order to compare the sound via the radio against a good quality source. The MD100 did a pretty decent job across the band, and seemed significantly sweeter than most at high frequencies, but it did also add a little extra low end weight, no question, which is not, strictly speaking, quite playing the hi-fi game. But it's a small discrepancy and one that in no way spoils the sound of this fine tuner. Nor is it sufficient account for the powerful sense of realism and authority that found me eager to select 'radio' in preference to other sources, for the scant few days that the tuner was with me prior to copy deadline. Behaviour is the ultimate arbiter of one's true and subliminal reaction to a piece of hi-fi kit, and I was seriously discomforted (not to mention pissed off) when it was snatched away for photography-right at the height of the Proms season, forsooth! I'm missing it, as I write, and very much looking forward to the carrier bringing it back tomorrow. The MD100 is a bit too oddball to be given an entirely clean bill of health. Its ergonomics are peculiar and certainly lack slickness. But the bottom line has got to be the performance, which is perfectly adequate in radio terms, and truly excellent from a musical point of view. And I still want one (though Branko is threatening to come down and seduce me with a MD102). And given the wealth of classy material still provided by Radio 3. I still reckon such a hefty investment in an FM tuner is well worthwhile.