Quote:
Originally Posted by MCenthusiast
Using the McIntosh website compare feature, I'm reminded that the MP1100 offers a modest increase of up to 64dB of gain versus 60dB with the C1100 (the ability to select lower gain may also be useful for higher output mc carts). The phono THD spec improves from .05 to .02 as well.
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Your post got me to thinking. If the selectable gain of the MP1100 represents a modest increase from 60 db to 64 db, and the THD spec is improved from .05 to .02, could it be an identical phono circuit? I was curious. I spoke with my McIntosh dealer today I asked him about it. He said the designer of the new phono circuit is Ron Evans and getting it right was one of Ron's last (latest) challenges at McIntosh. (It made me wonder if Ron had retired but I didn't ask.)
It was Ron Evans and Sidney Corderman, I was informed, who designed the miraculous PowerGuard. Ron, whose name was not immediately familiar to me the way for instance Sidney Corderman, Chuck Hinton, Gordon Gow, Frank McIntosh and Ron Cornelious are, but he too is one of the pillars of McIntosh.
Also, by way of confession, I had read an announcement published in Europe which quoted the price in pounds or euros and I did the calculation back to USD and it was about $12,000. I imagine that's true overseas. But I wasn't thinking that the product might be priced higher overseas than here for a variety of reasons: import fees, tariffs, taxes -- whatever. Bottom line, I was informed the MP1100 retails for $8,000 USD for those of us here in the states.
At any rate, my dealer had visited with Ron Evans about this very product earlier in the week. I was informed that the phono circuit in the MP1100 is
not identical to McIntosh's other offerings. It is new and improved. I'm not an engineer. I don't know. But I am relaying that I asked specifically about this matter, we talked for quite some time, and was informed that it is a better phono circuit than McIntosh's other offerings.
I have a question for the technically-oriented folks on this thread. Would 64 db gain be sufficient to mate with an Ortofon SPU Royal GM/A? Here are the specs on this cartridge:
Output Voltage at 1000 Hz , 5cm/sec. 200 uv (0,2 mv) .... this is very, very low output cartridge
Internal Impedance, DC resistance 6 ohm
Recommended load impedance > 100 ohm
I ask because if all this is good, and I could replace my SUT, then the proposition of mating the improved phono section, the MP1100, to my eight-years-old 60th Anniversary C22 preamp is intriguing.