Price Paid:  $995.00

Summary:
Have owned this tuner for 2.5 years, of which one year it spent sitting in the box. Suddenly it has stopped working-not a sound out of it. Why would a tuner quit? My $20 clock radio has run for 20 yrs!! So I phone up Magnum and they start quoting me a list of shipping costs and costs for condescending to look at the unit, etc, etc, etc, etc.... AMAZING-sell $1000 tuners(or tuners costing 5 times that much) that are embarrassingly unreliable, then start quoting me how much it will cost to fix it...They should pay me. Like my clock radio, my $150 digital Pioneer tuner has been working for 15yrs without a single hitch!!! Apart from the disappointment and embarrassment of being duped by this company, the "improvement" in sound, in absolutely no way warrants the extra cost over a cheap mainstream unit. If you live in an urban area do not waste your money on any of these tuners...put it into some other component. I'm sending this back-they can keep it-my faithful Pioneer is now in system-where it always should have been

Strengths:
Pretty light meters

Weaknesses:
Unreliable Costly and inconvenient repairs.

Similar Products Used:
Fortunately none-excluding my far more reliable and far cheaper Pioneer tuner.

Price Paid:  $425.00 from used

Summary:
I got this to go with a second system, but I've been
able to spend a week a/b'ing it against my Adcom (gtp-600)
tuner/preamp with an aps-13 outdoor antenna.
I consistantly get a decent stereo signal from an indie
station 150 miles away despite a local station on the
adjacent channel. With the Adcom you can't even tell
the weaker station is there. I've gotten a useable mono
signal from Philadelphia (>200 miles, over the Catskill
mountains.)
The "thwp-thwp-thwp" sound you get tuning across the
band is a retro-trip lost in a world of digital tuners
with presets and muted seek tuning. This tuner has a lot
of tactile and visual aesthetic value.
The S/N ratio is very good. This leads to the only annoyance I found. With a dipole antenna I almost always
get a little bit of multipath distortion, worse with strong signals, which might get lost in the background hiss of a "mortal" reciever. A directional antenna (or a house without foil-faced insulation!) cleans this up.

Strengths:
weak or crowded signals, low noise audio

Weaknesses:
no included remote or presets

Similar Products Used:
Adcom, Marantz

Price Paid:  $650.00 from Internet sale

Summary:
This is just a great purchase. Sound quality and build quality unmatched. MD is a great company KNOWN for it's customer service. They offer many updates, tune-ups and other great services for customers with older products. They can make older products look brand new with new faceplates and other cosmetics improvements. But the sound quality of these analog tuners will never be matched!

Great sound, great value. I'm very pleased with this piece!

Strengths:
Sound dynamics, Great MD build quality

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha, other MD tuners

Price Paid:  $800.00 from Audio Advisor on clearance

Summary:
In the very tightly packed Boston-Providence market, pulling in stations can be a challenge. With the FT101A it's easy!Being able to detune a station is important for clean reception. I've used both an ST-2 whip antenna and a rotatable roof antenna each offered suberb performance.
And, after drawing in all of those stations, the sound is very musical,not the flat one-dimensional sound of many tuners. This tuner is well-built and offers a lot of value for the money.

Strengths:
Clear, clean reception. Excellent selectivity in a crowded FM market. Great sounding.

Weaknesses:
No preset buttons, but who needs them.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha, Nikko

Summary:
If you are looking for conveniences (presets, auto-seek functions, etc), don't stop at the Magnum Dynalab FT-101A. If you want the best sounding tuner for your money, listen closely to this unit. My previous tuner, a Carver TX-11, was awful (something I realized within weeks after it was purchased).
Now that Magnum-Dynalab has discontinued the FT-11, the 101A is at the bottom of a very impressive roster of MD tuners. I've owned and loved my FT-101A for years, and it simply isn't worthwhile for me to move up the MD line. This is a remarkable device; however, if you can afford to get the Etude (or better), go ahead and splurge.
A couple of caveats: I also own Magnum-Dynalab's ST-2 antennae, which is a 'whip' antennae attached to a short cylindrical module about the size of an adult fist. The ST-2 comes with a 25' coax cable, and works wonders on reception -- if you are used to using a cheap dipole or junky interior antennae, I strongly urge you to spend the $85 on an ST-2.
I also picked up (for a pittance) Magnum-Dynalab's Model 205 Signal Sleuth, which is a radio signal amplifier. The ST-2 antennae connects to the Model 205, which amplifies and cleans the signal before passing it on to the FT-101A. This combination is stellar. Very highly recommended.

Strengths:
Clear, open sound, excellent reception, non-fatiguing

Weaknesses:
none of any merit

Similar Products Used:
Carver TX-11