Charles.......Have you ever checked to see if the 12AX7's in the C2300 are the McIntosh branded JJ's or the McIntosh branded Made in China tubes they used for awhile? The Chinese tubes that came in my first C2300 and second C2300 were less than satisfactory to me. I now use Gold Lion gold pin 12AX7's in my line stage and NOS Telefunken ECC83 smooth plate 12AX7's in the phono stage. It produced a huge improvement in a lower noise floor, and a superior sound across the entire frequency range. If you are running the Made in China tubes, I would replace them no matter how many hours are on them.
If the 12AX7's are the McIntosh branded JJ tubes, you can expect 5,000 to 6,000 hours, perhaps even a bit longer before they begin to get noisy.
__________________
Dan
STUDIO - McIntosh C1000C/P, MC2301 (2), MR88, Aurender N10, Esoteric K-01X, Shunyata Sigma spdif digital cable, Sonos Connect, PurePower 2000, Stillpoints, Furutech Flux 50, Michell Gyro SE, Michell HR Power Supply, SME 309, Ortofon Cadenza Black, Wireworld, Sonus faber Amati Anniversario
LIVING ROOM - McIntosh C2300, MC75 (2), MR85, Magnum Dynalab 205, Simaudio MOON Neo 260D-T, Schiit Audio Yggdrasil, Aurender N100H, Shunyata Sigma USB cable, Micro Seiki DD40, Ortofon Cadenza Blue, Nakamichi BX-300, Sony 60ES DAT, PS Audio P10, Furutech Flux 50, Sonos Connect, Stillpoints, Wireworld, Kimber, PMC EB1i, JL Audio f113
VINTAGE - McIntosh MA230, Tandberg 3011A tuner, Olive 04HD, Sony DTC-59ES DAT, McIntosh 4300V, JBL 4312A
|