An other visit to Jean Marc's place !

[Jerome W]

Hello folks,

It is always a pleasure to pay a visit to Jean Marc's home ( aka jmajma).
Jean Marc's system is pretty well known here. A fabulous complete McIntosh 1000 series set up. An Avid Acutus / SME V / Lyra Delos cart. And the wonderful Alexia speakers.
And Jean Marc just bought a Line Magnetic 845 integrated " to have fun".
We listened to the LM integrated, then we listened to its power section only with the C1000T as the preamp, and then back to the full Mc combo with the 1.2K monoblocks.
Jean Marc also bought a Pro-Ject tube phono stage with two outputs to be able to play vinyl both through the Mc system and the LM integrated.
The sound through this phono stage was clearly limiting the system compared to the C1000 onboard phono stage. You have to invest quite a lot of money to find a phonostage that will play at the level of the C1000 or better. I followed this route also.
The LM amp is beautifully built. Sounds very good.
Until you compare it side by side with the McIntosh system. Then you realize how far the LM is from very high end reproduction.
It's cool to have fun with unexpensive and exotic gear. But when reality strikes again you just realize why McIntosh is McIntosh : timbre accuracy, weight, dynamics : it's all there ! The Line Magnetic is good for what it is. A joyful little amp.
Your system is fabulous Jean Marc ! I enjoyed it a lot, as always.
IMG_6935.jpgIMG_6937.jpgIMG_6938.jpgIMG_6939.jpg

[jdandy]

Jerome.......Always enjoy hearing about your visits with Jean Marc. His sound system is fabulous. Your description of what makes McIntosh McIntosh, timbre, accuracy, weight, dynamics hits the nail on the head. I enjoyed your post and the photos.

[FDPDK]

Jerome , it must have been an really interesting visit and also fun to play around with that equipment. Photo´s looking good a great setup.

[80B]

Jerome,
Great to see you gentlemen getting together again, and Jean Marc's system is absolutely first class!

[PHC1]

Fantastic system Jean Marc! Jerome, thanks for sharing the pics and your impressions. Always a great thing to get together with friends and enjoy our hobby.

[For The Love of Music]

No doubt he’s an enthusiast, nice setup!

[Antonmb]

Jérôme and Jean Marc, thank you for sharing.

[tweet]

Jerome,
Thanks for sharing. Jean Marc's listening room and system is beautiful. Nothing like a day of enjoying good music and admiring audio equipment with our fellow audiophiles.

[vintage_tube]

Thanks for the post Jérôme -- beautiful room/gear Jean Marc. Nice you two got together again.

Best Sirs,

Bob

[Jean-Marc jmajma]

Thank you very much Jérôme and my friends here on AA.

This was a very very good afternoon with our friend Olivier too.

But to be fair, Jérôme, I have to say we compared what's not in the same league.

And moreover, The Line Magnetic 518iA (845 based, class A polarization, etc) has not been used more than 50 hours and the ProJect PhonoBox Tubes DS2 is brand new, so they cannot yet be judged. They are not broken in.

Here is a Stereophile Review on this Integrated amplifier:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/...ated-amplifier


I just wanted to add this beautiful amp (in the dark it's wonderful) and I wanted to be able to have 2 different amp systems on my speakers (I bought too Dynavox box:https://www.ebay.fr/i/263513098540?chn=ps&dispItem=1 )
and I wanted to be able to have the fabulous AVID ACUTUS on two preamps, this is possible with the ProJect:
https://www.son-video.com/article/pr...SAAEgKAI_D_BwE

I can use the Line Magnetic alone , integrated amp.
I can too have Mc preamp and Line Magnetic amp section.

What I cannot have (any clue?) is AVID on McC1000P preamp AND on ProJect to Line Magnetic.

So in the next months I'll be able to play with all these configurations and enjoy each system.

But today was very nice with my friends, thank you again Jérôme .