[MCenthusiast]

Originally Posted by MisterBritt

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.

Our systems are quite similar. I'm now using a pair of contemporary MC75's with Canterbury SE's as well. I alternate between Kleos, EMT and Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum cartridges. The Koetsu is.3mv and might benefit from the additional gain of a step up. Your cartridge is lower output still. I don't think the 4 db increase of the MP1100 would be enough to drive your SPU optimally and Auditorium23 makes excellent step ups. I use one with a Garard and EMT JSD6 in my vintage system.

I agree that while the Mc phono stages may well be of similar design, there are too many differences between them: specs, tube versus solid state and dual mono versus stereo to credibly state that they are the same. The MP1100 appears to be the most refined of all.

Since you have dual mono amps, a move to a dual mono pre-amp like the C1100 might be a compelling path for you to entertain. I think you'd see more significant gains across the board. Look forward to hearing what you decide to do.