New Member: McIntosh Gear and General Questions

[For The Love of Music]

Hello -

Not knowing better, I stayed out of Hi-Fi when A/V came along mainly for simplicity. Looking back when I was growing up, my parents had the Marantz/McIntosh systems with the tuner knob you could twist and watch the dial glide across the FM and the big JBL speakers always sounding warm and powerful. 35 years later here I am.

I made the decision to begin my new system with McIntosh’s C2500 and the MC452. For source, I am using an Auralic Aries as a bridge between my MacBook Pro running ROON and Tidal Masters. Speakers are Focal 1038’s and the sub is from JL Fathom 112v2 Sub. Nordost Frey power and speaker cables.

I updated the firmware on the C2500 to the latest version as it was having issues holding the last know source and settings - it worked. However, on occasion within the display at start up or when tracks are over, it will display the word “Silent”, and other times it will show the spelling as semi-reverse, i.e “nt Sile”

Does anyone know why this does this, I am not sure if it is driven from the Auralic to create this or internally within the MC2500?

The more I am learning about DAC, Lossless, MQA etc I am now wondering if a new player would make sense to replace the Auralic Aries Bridge or if what I have is fine for now and sit back enjoy and ease into this instead of the upfront, need to have it all, then end up never satisfied.

I am new to forums, but not life itself. I would appreciate any comments on the system: problem solutions, gear selection and recommendations, or other general. No offense to any comment.

Thank you!

[80B]

Congratulations on getting back into the hobby - I jumped in after a long hiatus myself. Never seen the issue you mention with my C2500, before or after the tube warmup message when my Mac Mini is my direct source.

Having a video of the phenomenon to show your dealer may be the best course of action. You've got a great setup and if there's no impact to the sound, it's probably nothing to bother over, just a display glitch.

Enjoy that great system!

[damacman]

Whatever you do, DON'T plug a turntable into that C2500! You may never leave your home again . . .

You may like to email Chuck Hinton at McIntosh and ask about the display - if anyone would know an answer, it would be he. CHinton@mcintoshlabs.com

Good luck and enjoy!

[jameslrock]

You arrived with an excellent system. The C2500 and MC452 are a great duo. Congrats and hope you get the display cleared up quickly.

[For The Love of Music]

Thank you for the welcome, comments and reference, I am excited to be in the HiFi community as not one of friends could care less on this hobby.

Couple things I did not mention, I grew up what is defined as Classic Rock and like the sound not to match the music. I am a Jimi Hendrix, Stones, Zeppelin, Who and similar.

Question now, is the DAC; I read about MQA and realize its new and controversial. Is there a huge gain, with a Cary or PS audio that has these options at $5K over what I have now?

Theres a point, where diminishing returns quickly come into play with this and want to be smart before making purchases.

[Dr Tone]

Originally Posted by For The Love of Music

Question now, is the DAC; I read about MQA and realize its new and controversial. Is there a huge gain, with a Cary or PS audio that has these options at $5K over what I have now?

Theres a point, where diminishing returns quickly come into play with this and want to be smart before making purchases.

IMO, There's lots of room for DAC improvement even in just the 3k range.

[clpetersen]

Originally Posted by For The Love of Music

Thank you for the welcome, comments and reference, I am excited to be in the HiFi community as not one of friends could care less on this hobby.

Couple things I did not mention, I grew up what is defined as Classic Rock and like the sound not to match the music. I am a Jimi Hendrix, Stones, Zeppelin, Who and similar.

Question now, is the DAC; I read about MQA and realize its new and controversial. Is there a huge gain, with a Cary or PS audio that has these options at $5K over what I have now?

Theres a point, where diminishing returns quickly come into play with this and want to be smart before making purchases.

MQA seems to be gaining ground, though it remains controversial. There is/was a good discussion on MQA on the Bryston thread in this forum.

Tidal and Roon will play MQA and do the initial software-based decode. This should get you most of the MQA benefits.
I believe you can learn a lot about MQA without immediately needing a dedicated DAC.

[JMD]

I've owned an Aries for over year and it is a very good streamer so for now until the products from all of the companies that introduced new ones at the Munich Show hit the market in the Fall I would sit still. Same with MQA. If you haven't already become a part of the Beta testing program for Auralic and try their version of MQA style decoding. As they were one of the Original partners in the MQA group they certainly know how it is done. I personally haven't found enough material on the Tidal MQA list that interests me to fully test it.

[Vince11281]

If you were in the market for a new streamer/DAC I would recommend you give Lumin a look... I currently run a Lumin D1 with an upgraded power supply and am very happy with it. Lumin sounds very analog compared to others I've auditioned. They start at around $2k and go up from there

[For The Love of Music]

Thank you all for the Information, it helps narrow the process.