C1100 vs Reference 6 vs No 326s

[gadawg]

As I was auditioning speakers last week also had a chance to compare 3 well known preamps and wanted to pass along my observations. The rest of the system was ...

Wilson Sasha 2
McIntosh MC-601
AR Dac9
Berkeley Alpha USB
Windows Laptop with Roon
All Transparent IC and SC

Firstly ... I was there primarily auditioning speakers and brought my preamp so the system would be the same minus the room! So here goes ...

McIntosh C1100 ... the first time I heard the setup was with the C1100. Right from the start I didn't emotionally connect with this combination which surprised me quite a bit. I had heard something similar with the older C1000 and really liked that combo. The best way to describe what I heard was that it seemed a bit overdone on the top end. Could have been the cable combination as well. Something to note though is that I had been auditioning ML 15a's as well and with the C1100/MC-601 combo it seemed bright and flat. Even my wife described it as flat sounding. Anyway ... that was what prompted me to bring my Levinson in for a listen

No326s ... The brightness that I heard with the C1100 if you could call it that was immediately gone. Bottom end was better defined and the sound stage really exploded. The music now had more body and was a much richer sound without being overly lush. Detail was similar but with more space and a much blacker background. This combo was by far a better combo. Again not sure why but we all agreed.

Ref 6 ... This combo is NOT supposed to work well from what I've read. I talked to an employee from Audio Research at a Sales Event last year and he mentioned that he thought the combo worked fine. That said ... it did more than work fine. It was by far the best I've ever heard the MC-601 sound. The sound stage height exploded and while I didn't realize that there had been a lack of presence before ... now with the Ref 6 in the chain it was a real eye opener. Much more 3 dimensional than before and just sounded more real to life. Less like a recreation of the event and more like the event. It was startling how much more open the Reference 6 was than the Levinson. There were areas that sounded very similar between the two ... detail retrieval, harmonic texture, and surprisingly ... the bottom end. Yes ... the bottom end sounded just fine with the Ref 6 and the MC-601. Not fuzzy at all just good extended tight bass.

So ... I guess I know what my next step is once I recover from the Sasha purchase!

Again ... all of this is only valid with the setup I listened to in the room and with the cables we were using. So ... long and short of the story is just because you have and love the MC-601's don't rule out the Ref 6 if you are shopping for a preamp. You might just be surprised.

George