[Jerome W]

George,

I can connect easily to your impressions. Although I did not hear the new C1100 preamp, I actually have zero interest in it.
The only McIntosh preamp that I really loved and that I could own again was the C1000P.
I found the C1000T to be good. But pretty far from the performance of the P.
With experience to other designs from other brands, tube or SS preamps, I came to the conclusion that, except for the C1000P, McIntosh just does not play in the same park as other high end preamps. Even when used with Mc power amps which is the pinnacle of "something is wrong".
I heard the Sasha 1 years ago during a few hours.
The power amps were the 601's monoblocks. And they were first paired with the C2300 preamp. With stock tubes. The sound was not appealing to me. It was pretty flat and often aggressive. Something I rarely heard in a Mc system !
Then the dealer said "would you mind if we try a little ARC preamp ? ".
"Of course not ! ".
We then heard the 601's with a "small" LS17MKII preamp.
To say that the system just came to life is an understatement. Everything was better.
We tried other power amps, including the ARC REF250's, and the Accuphase A60. I preferred the 601's to the huge 250's, by a wide margin.
But the A60 killed them all. Just a much better match with the Sasha.

That day, I really understood the sentence widely spread in some audiophile groups "McIntosh is for power amps. Audio Research is for preamps".
Of course I know that many at AA will disagree. And I respect their opinion.

But including at my own place, I heard so many Mc preamps failing to play in the same park than similarly priced competitors or even cheaper ones, that I completely lost my interest in McIntosh preamps.
Exception once again for the C1000P.
And I still have dreams about McIntosh power amps !