Quote:
Originally Posted by MCenthusiast
A tube versus solid state signal path is one difference between the various MC phono stages and dual mono is another that the MP1100 shares in common with the C1100.
I've also been curious about the differences between the C1100 internal phono stage and the MP1100 since McIntosh seems to be primarily targeting owners of the C1100 and it appears to simply be a more feature rich offering of the same design. Unfortunately, one that still lacks the ability to adjust gain as I would like for low output mc cartridges.
It's worth mentioning that sister company ARC does not not include a phono stage in their high end line stage offerings like the REF5 SE and instead requires customers to buy a separate phono stage. That appears to be where McIntosh is headed as well with the availability of separate line, digital and phono stages. Look forward to reading reviews of this and the D1100 but a four box pre amp set up will be overkill for most of us. I'm still enjoying the sound (and value) of the C1100's built in phono stage
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With Aesthetix having a 3 box IO and AR requiring 4 boxes for their special edition phono and preamp it seems the growth of boxes is unstoppable.
I guess since people are not using crazy equalizer sand other audio bling the separation of components of a piece of equipment is in order.
Perhaps we can look forward to separate input box, output box, line stage, phono stage, power supply and transformer.
We could mix and match each aspect of a component to our own sensibilities. [emoji4]
I will predict the McIntosh C2000!