On March third, Jay Bee, Flingpoo and I got together to celebrate a once in a century kind of event in addition to the (late, but that's obvious, right?) first year birthday celebration for the esteemed audio Web rag. I'm surprised that it survived, for its owner has been running with his back against the wall for all of year zero of the Audion.

Aside from a baby Griefkit that Doc. had done surgery on (and wanted an opinion of same), the meal comprised of a clinical evaluation of a Magnum Dynalab FT11 straight from the nowhere land northwest of Pearson International Airport where Magnum has its factory, and where the tuner had been returned for much needed servicing.

Who could listen to music with jets flying overhead?

I suppose if you live in Rockaway, with some frequency. There may be some sort of analysis that compares ordinary music listeners experiences of music with jet noises in the background and do they care much about tuners?

Good question indeed! My guess is that if Mr. Dynalab and Mr. Magnum are ordinary listeners then they are proof positive that living and working underneath a fly path is counterindicated for any sort of audio related construction, modification, subjective testing, etc. DX champ aside, the Magnum Dynalab FT11 will prove a disappointment for all but the least critical listener.

 

Here, Jay Bee cradles his expensive-to-repair FT11. The build quality is nice. The tuner is a bona-fide analogue unit. It utilizes a varactor as its tuning capacitor. Drift caused by four out-of-tolerance capacitors made it necessary for Jay Bee to drive to Brampton East thrice!

The FT11's intermittent drift did not prevent me from doing DX tests. My two signals of choice are WNED FM Buffalo 94.5 mc., which is 100 miles to the south, and CHRY FM Downsview 105.5, a 250 watt university radio station which is 10 miles to the north and west of Jay Bee's and my receiving location. Close to the urban canyons of Deer Park's stretch of St. Clair Avenue, nothing that resembles line-of-sight is in evidence. No TV signal broadcast from the CN Tower, a mere 3 miles away, penetrates the near solid block of government buildings and office towers. Nothing. Radio reception is nasty, except, surprise! CHRY and WNED. Both signals are weak, but clear. Both supply sufficient stereo information to maintain a useful signal. No surprise here. Both stations are unaffected by downtown Deer Park because there is a clear line-of-sight for both. In my listening room, multipath plagues any signal from the CN Tower, and moving from one part of a listening room to another distorts the signal as one's body becomes a reflector. The signal that my tuner receives at its antenna won't be line-of-sight, so I can only tune in the best among a choice of multiple paths. The FT11 quickly obtained and produced listenable (if noisy) stereo on my selected test signals. Compared to the Scott 344, the FT11 provided better stereo performance on WNED, but offered no improvement to the 344's slightly noisy stereo on CHRY. With some antenna finesse, I improved (somewhat) my reception of these two signals. CHRY is certainly a station worthy of such attentions: It is the best source of reggae music in Toronto, and its audio signal is unembellished. Yes!

All other issues aside, it comes down to... Newton gives the nod to the Scott 344 receiver.

Jay Bee holds up a Jiffy Thrift Shop tuner that he claims to have listened to while his Magnum Dynalab was in the shop. Jay Bee thought that the two tuners sounded similar and that neither sounded at all like the Scott 344 (or the Advent tuner). The vintage radio is a dual chassis Stromberg Carlson. It is superior to the Jiffy tuner in every way. Neither is a match for the Scott R74S, or any Scott 342-367B type AM section. Since all matters Audion come to rest with the question 'is r.f. performance more important than good sound? If the Jiffy sounds similar to the FT11, why buy the FT11? Why pay fifty times more to listen to a Buffalo station if all you get to listen to is a bloated midbass and 'toffee-like' highs?

Jay Bee won't reveal what his motivations were for purchasing a second-rate tuner. It may have been a simple case of 'nothing else but Jiffy and I can't stand Jiffy, even in the car.' I know that I have felt that way. I saved my money every time I had a look-see at the price that Mr. Magnum Dynalab proposed to charge. 'Why bother listening,' I thought. 'I can get a Scott 310E for the same moolah, Abdullah.' I berated Jay Bee as follows. 'Listen Jay, you've got to get a grip, man, you're out of focus. Sell the FT11. Buy a Scott tuner. Save you money.'

Wu Flingpoo stopped by. He confirmed that there was a sameness to the sound of the Jiffy and the FT11, and that he wasn't surprised.

Party well under weigh, we turn to festooning, and (with relief) move on to the next item of the evening, a Griefkit overhaul that Wu had just completed. Nay to our opine, Flingpoo pours cognac out of my wineskin sac, on to my floor.

Newton participated in many listening sessions during the making of this review