No luck with McIntosh tube preamps for me

[lwschwartz]

Originally Posted by fortherecord

What do you mean by shallow in sonic terms?

When I close my eyes and listen shallow means the orchestra seems two dimensional and at the level of the speakers. When I moved up to the C500 from the C2300, the orchestra seemed deeper and sounded like it extended into the room in front of me. When I moved to the C1000, I lost a bit of it. I have MC402's, MC501's, MC602's, MC207's, MC1201's, and MC1.2kw's and it seems to be in the preamp and not the amplifiers. I have listened to all of these with the XRT1k's and XRT2k's and the 1k's sound a bit more musical than the 2k's but they benefit more from the f113's. The best combos seem to be the C500P, MC2301's and XRT1k's, and the C500T, triamped XRT2k's with MC1.2kw's on the low end and MC602's for the mid and highs. The next closest is the MC207 with the XRT2k's as long as you don't need to reach out and touch the T-Rex in front of you in theater system.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by lwschwartz

When I close my eyes and listen shallow means the orchestra seems two dimensional and at the level of the speakers. When I moved up to the C500 from the C2300, the orchestra seemed deeper and sounded like it extended into the room in front of me. When I moved to the C1000, I lost a bit of it. I have MC402's, MC501's, MC602's, MC207's, MC1201's, and MC1.2kw's and it seems to be in the preamp and not the amplifiers. I have listened to all of these with the XRT1k's and XRT2k's and the 1k's sound a bit more musical than the 2k's but they benefit more from the f113's. The best combos seem to be the C500P, MC2301's and XRT1k's, and the C500T, triamped XRT2k's with MC1.2kw's on the low end and MC602's for the mid and highs. The next closest is the MC207 with the XRT2k's as long as you don't need to reach out and touch the T-Rex in front of you in theater system.

Your experience with Mc gear is just awesome.
I also use a SS preamp with the 2301.

[Chad.Wagner]

Originally Posted by lwschwartz

When I close my eyes and listen shallow means the orchestra seems two dimensional and at the level of the speakers. When I moved up to the C500 from the C2300, the orchestra seemed deeper and sounded like it extended into the room in front of me. When I moved to the C1000, I lost a bit of it. I have MC402's, MC501's, MC602's, MC207's, MC1201's, and MC1.2kw's and it seems to be in the preamp and not the amplifiers. I have listened to all of these with the XRT1k's and XRT2k's and the 1k's sound a bit more musical than the 2k's but they benefit more from the f113's. The best combos seem to be the C500P, MC2301's and XRT1k's, and the C500T, triamped XRT2k's with MC1.2kw's on the low end and MC602's for the mid and highs. The next closest is the MC207 with the XRT2k's as long as you don't need to reach out and touch the T-Rex in front of you in theater system.

A great summary. I have often wished I could do a test like this.

[bradleyc]

When I switched from a C46 to a C500C/T about one month ago, the soundstage depth became more 3-D, but it's difficult for me to explain how the perceived changes in depth were taking place. My speakers (La Scala II) had a forward presentation with the C46, nothing like the old La Scalas where the music is all over you, but it was definitely a forward depth of sound. With the C500T the soundstage depth has remained slightly forward but to a lesser degree, but now extends more to the sides and back behind the speakers. I'm extremely satisfied with these changes, but still wonder how sound now seems to be coming out from the sides and behind my sealed enclosures...

additional info: reflection of sound has been ruled out, this happens even when my 501's are peaking at under half a watt. No I'm not going crazy other than spending a lot of cash and acquiring lots of gear, just another bad case of the LuFlu LOL

[drbryant]

I find this thread very interesting. In Japan, we would as a rule never match power amplifiers with a preamplifier that is something like 1/10 the price of the power amps. I'm not sure that it's justified, but the common wisdom is that components of the same class work best together. I think it comes from the tendency of Japanese to think of things in "sets". Just some random thoughts from across the ocean.

[Jerome W]

BTW Serge,
Did you make your choice on a preamp or will you be using the pre section of your cd player ? In that last case, how will you listen to your TT. ?