McIntosh MR500 Vintage FM Tuner - Serviced

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This is my personal MR500 that I bought to match my C36 & MC7270 from the same 1980's era of McIntosh.

This was the system I listened to hour after hour, days on end during work in my smaller office from the start of COVID through most of the pandemic.

(Click here to view the MC7270 listing. C36 sold out days).

It's been sitting with little use for over a year now from the amount of short and long term gear we test at the shop.

After a lot of thought I've decided to list this for sale to find a happy new home.

I listened to a most of my music through this amazing *little* tuner which certainly punches above its weight.

And I've been more than fortunate to audition basically each and every tuner that we list. Believe it or not this MR500 is very close up there with some of the best in terms of stereo separation and dynamic range (MR78, Sequerra, Tube tuner on MAC1700).

It lived its entire life inside the original McIntosh wood cabinet which is why the exterior has survived looking so good. Only some minor scratches under my ownership during a move/from a DAC that lived on top a very short time.

We have an official replacement MR500 McIntosh box on order from the factory that we should receive soon. Local pickup is also welcome from our shop in Glen Rock, NJ 07452.

Also included with your purchase is the original owner's manual plus two McIntosh 5-Year Service Contacts printouts on the original and most elegant paper stock.

SkyFi Testing Notes:
• Tuner performs wonderfully with excellent dial tracking, reception, and stereo separation.
• Scan function tested and working normally.
• Station resets tested and initially not storing any saved stations.
• Determined Original Ni-Cd rechargeable batteries no longer holding a charge. We installed a modern fresh set of the correct-type rechargeable batteries, let the system charge overnight per the manual, tested again, and all presets have worked normally since.

SkyFi Cosmetic Notes:
• Very clean inside and out with only some scratches from the top cover and faceplate notes below, earning this a 7/10 instead of a 8/10 vintage survivor.
• Some light bubbling mostly on top section of front faceplate glass. Likely due to heat over time since this was installed inside its wood cabinet for most of its life.
• Tuner front digital dial readout section carefully dissected and cleaned by our in-house guru. Dust collected there over the years and this restored proper light output.

McIntosh MR500 Digital FM Tuner - Owner's Manual

Click below to add our recommended matching cables from Kimber Kable, all brand new as SkyFi is an official Kimber dealer.

Kimber Kable - RCA Interconnects - Better

Kimber Kable - RCA Interconnects - Best

The SkyFi Testing Process for Tuners:

We start with a visual inspection of all internal components to make sure that there are no signs of heat stress or damage. Capacitors are checked for telltale signs of predictive failure including bulging, shrunken wrappers, or physical leakage. We also inspect the PCBs for discoloration from resistors or transistors that may have been running hot. On vintage units we often spot check select capacitors for value and ESR. Vintage analog tuners also have moving parts related to the tuning gang and dial string. These parts are inspected for smooth operation.

If the unit passes visual inspection it is bench tested for a handful of key performance parameters using a Sencore SG80 AM/FM Stereo Analyzer. The SG80 allows us to “simulate” an ideal radio station using precision test signals instead of music. This device, in conjunction with an oscilloscope allows us to properly evaluate the following parameters:

1.  AM Reception (Where Applicable)

2.  FM Mono Reception & Tuning Meter Function

3.  FM MPX Reception (Stereo)

4.  Dial Tracking - How accurately the tuner dial or display indicates the actual frequency of the broadcast being received.

5.  Stereo Separation - A properly working stereo tuner will have minimal crosstalk between the left and right channel.

6.  Sensitivity & Signal Strength Meter Function - By lowering the output of the SG80 we can simulate weak stations and determine how well the tuner will be able to pull in weak distant stations. This adjustment also helps us verify signal strength meter function.

If the tuner has acceptable performance related to the parameters above we connect the unit for listening tests with a simple dipole antenna. We listen for audio reproduction quality of local stations and evaluate how many stations the tuner can receive while we sweep through the dial. We are looking to verify that the tuner can decode stereo on strong local broadcasts and pick up a wide variety of local stations at the bottom, middle, and top of the frequency band. At this point we also test convenience features such as muting, filters, built in oscilloscope function, etc.

We finish up with an extended listening test on our long term test rig. We tune in a strong local station and monitor for drift over a 2-3 hour period.