Great Time at Da Vinci Media

[slowGEEZR]

thanks for the info I will do some research. here is a night view please excuse the mess of wires and what not. right now I am using a Rotel analog preamp I am debating on what Mc preamp to get

I love my BAT, so I suggest one. Also, BAT has a nice bright blue power light to match the rest of your stuff.

 

[adanny]

Fish, nice piece !

FWIW, other "275" owners have reported big improvements with rolling in replacement tubes (Genelax Re-issue Gold Lion's for example).

I would suggest you get some 'seat time' with what you have now so as to more easily discern a difference when and if you do. I was quite pleased when I did this to my Rogue M-150's.

Hi Twich

I see you have both the Rogue 150s and the Plinius. Would love your observations on the differences between the two. How did you decide on the Rogue as your preferred tube amp?

I am looking to upgrade the amp but am not sure which direction to go yet - high end SS, tube or ICEpower. I have Summits, large room, love mid-range clarity and high end ever so tad on the bright side of neutral

thanks

 

[User211]

another thing that helps is it is out of the surround sound loop the prepro was just messing things up. it is on its own set of wires and preamp this has also made a huge difference.the other sweet thing about this amp is that it can be changed into a mono block and paired with another for twice the power !

Absolutely! My philosophy is always remove all unnecessary stuff from the signal path... it just messes things up. Equalisers, any digital processing, too many components etc always degrades the SQ - it can't do anything else but.

For this reason I use an Air Tight passive pre. I'd recommend a Music First, though. Absolutely great piece of kit and not massively expensive http://www.mfaudio.co.uk/passive_pre.htm. This thing blows really expensive active preamps away...

Or if you want something cheap that's close to it, check http://www.hificollective.co.uk/kits/glasshousehome.html. Dollar exchange rates will help alot here.

See Neil's MC275 in the recommended amps section for tube recommendations.

 

[Gordon]

Nice score fish! I had a pair of the 275 Mk4's at home for audition with the 501's. I was that close to returning the 501's until reality set in for me. I just knew I could not resist rolling tubes and the hit it woulld put on the wallet. So instead of fighting that urge, I returned the 275's. They do sound nice though!!!!!

Gordon

 

[tonepub]

Nah, the passive pre's never have any dynamics compared to a great active pre and you almost always get impedance mismatches that compound the problem....

Can't drive cables of any length either.

Get a great active pre and you'll never regret it.

 

[User211]

Nah, the passive pre's never have any dynamics compared to a great active pre and you almost always get impedance mismatches that compound the problem....

Yeah, that's the common belief. I like 'em, though.

Anyway, the Music First is transformer coupled... and according to Dave Price of Hi-Fi News, it's the best preamp ever made. Now he could be talking poop, but much of the UK hi-fi press has also come to the conclusion it is an absolute killer...

Even the cheapie I recommended is transformer coupled. That's supposed to get around impedance issues.

I'd own one if it had r/c. Can't live without it!

Hey Fish - and other McIntosh heads - this month's Hi-Fi News May 2009 has a long 4 page article on McIntosh in general.

 

[FISH_MAN]

Nah, the passive pre's never have any dynamics compared to a great active pre and you almost always get impedance mismatches that compound the problem....

Can't drive cables of any length either.

Get a great active pre and you'll never regret it.

I think I am going to go with you on this one Tonepub. thanks for the heads up though user211

 

[User211]

No problem Fish - follow your own instincts... that pre is killer, though

 

[FISH_MAN]

No problem Fish - follow your own instincts... that pre is killer, though

the main reason for passing it up is that
- no tone controls
- I would like to have multiple phono stages built right in mm & mc
- no remote control this is a big one for me
just to name a few

I believe that it probably is a clean unit and sounds really nice though user211

 

[User211]

Yeah - it's very inflexible. And should you ever need to drive long lengths of IC, it probably would suck.

 

[FISH_MAN]

I think I have audionervosa

I have been so impressed with the MC275 I figured why not finish it of with this after I have hooked it up and have some time on it I will give you guys my impressions.this is the C2300

 

[tonepub]

So did you pull the trigger and take one home?

 

[FISH_MAN]

So did you pull the trigger and take one home?

that's on my dinning room table. by the way thanks for the extra input it helped my decision a lot

 

[tonepub]

Great, now you can get two turntables....

 

[FISH_MAN]

it will make A/B comparisons easy lol

is setup easy I know you reviewed it any tips?

 

[Gordon]

WOW! Another new member of the black tux, blue pocket and green tie club!! I had the C2200 and was very happy with it. I understand the phono stage is supposed to be the hot lick on the 2300.

So why the BIG and recent jump to McIntosh?

Gordon

I'm not sure if it is the manual, but you can turn off the phono stage to save life on the tubes if that is important to you. I had mine turned off for over 3 years and when I swapped out the tubes from the line and phono, I had a fresh set of tubes. Since your spinning records now, it may not be a big deal.

 

[FISH_MAN]

I just felt as though the mac stuff has something timeless about it and I new if I wanted to move down the 2 channel road I needed to step up.it says in the manual that a tech needs to change the tubes what's up with that?

 

[Gordon]

Besides, it's only money, we'll make more! Hopefully.

If you go over to AK at the Mac section, do a search on 2300 tubes. Many guys over there have rolled without a tech. The hardest part is there some type of sticky black goo (technical term) around the top that makes it seemingly impossible to remove. Care and patience will reward you with the inner magic.

Gordon

 

[tonepub]

It's really easy to change the tubes....

I'd just suggest a thorough read-through of the manual, there are a lot of features that you might want to take advantage of.

Mac Stuff always runs their tubes pretty conservative, so you should expect about 5000 hours (or more) from a set of stock tubes. I wouldn't waste any time rolling expensive tubes until you are completely familiar with it's sound.

With the price of NOS 12AX7's these days, you might be perfectly happy with the stock tubes. They certainly are much more reasonable to replace. If you listen to your system about 10-20 hours a week, the tubes should last about 5 years at least!

 

[FISH_MAN]

It's really easy to change the tubes....

I'd just suggest a thorough read-through of the manual, there are a lot of features that you might want to take advantage of.

Mac Stuff always runs their tubes pretty conservative, so you should expect about 5000 hours (or more) from a set of stock tubes. I wouldn't waste any time rolling expensive tubes until you are completely familiar with it's sound.

With the price of NOS 12AX7's these days, you might be perfectly happy with the stock tubes. They certainly are much more reasonable to replace. If you listen to your system about 10-20 hours a week, the tubes should last about 5 years at least!

sweeeet! as eric cartman would say lol

I will stick with the tubes I have