MC275 VI Stock Tubes Opinions
 

I did some searching and didnt come up with much on this. Are the stock tubes really good or is a replacement in order pretty quickly? I replaced the stock tubes in my c2300 pretty quickly with tele tubes and it sounds great. I just wondered what the consensus is. :scratch2:

thanks

parkcitygolf... Welcome to AA! :wave:

parkcitygolf.......Welcome to Audio Aficionado. :wave:

The current tubes supplied in McIntosh gear are Russian manufactured tubes. They are considerably better than the small tubes (12AX7 and 12AT7) that were made in China that McIntosh used for a few years. It is my understanding the small tubes used now are from JJ Tubes and the KT88's are Electro-Harmonix. Both of my C2300 preamp purchases and my C1000T preamp came with the Made In China 12AX7 tubes which I immediately changed to Telefunken and Gold Lion tubes. I think if they had came with the JJ tubes I might have stayed with them, at least for awhile. Better quality tubes never hurt a component's performance in my opinion.

Dan: You may have covered this before but what is a good way to determine if someone has China made or Russian made tubes in their C2300?

Jim.......In my case the McIntosh 12AX7 tubes had the McIntosh logo screened on one side and the words Made in China screened on the other side of the tube. I don't know if the newer McIntosh labeled tubes coming from the JJ Tubes factory in Russia actually are screened with Made in Russia but that is where the factory is located. If they don't say Made in China on the tube you can probably safely assume they are Russian made.


https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7658/...448ec0e64d.jpg . . . . . . https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7666/...806df1d83d.jpg

I would agree to look at replacing the signal tubes first, you would be amazed at how big a difference it makes just replacing the 12AT7's with quality tubes, I prefer the Genalex A2900, But NOS RCA 6201 also sound good and are much more affordable.
Good Luck,

When I replaced the stock power tubes with Gold Lion kt88s, a layer of glare was instantly removed. When I replaced the small tubes with a combination of NOS Siemens and Telefunken tubes, a degree of focus and purity was imparted.

I say replace them all! The Gold Lions are relatively cheap. Also, jdandy has had great luck with Gold Lion 12ax7s in other Mac products, so that's an option you might explore.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Should I wait a bit before switching or should I just go with these and get the party started?

http://www.amazon.com/Genalex-Gold-L...ords=bnb+tubes

What are the recommendations for the big tubes? Or should I stick with them for a bit as well?

parkcitygolf, I owned two MC275 v6 amps set up in mono about 6 months ago. I listened to the stock tubes only for a couple of hours and then replaced all of them with NOS upgraded tubes which I had. They were SED 6550's for power, and a combination of Mullard CV4024, Tesla E83CC and Dario Miniwatt 18ECC signal tubes. I have heard that Gold Lions are a great match also. I have them in my C2300. I noticed an immediate improvement in sound quality when I made the switch. I also preferred two MC275's in mono over one in stereo. My hearing may be biased since I also preferred the sound of the MC601 mono amps over the MC275s which I no longer have.

I still have my stock tubes in mine and they sound great. System MC275Vl, C2200, D100, Dynaudio Focus 160 and Sonos. Very simple and excellent sounding.