Direct or preamp - what do you do?

[Garth]

I can not answer the original question fairly as 99% of the time I have had a preamp in the signal path. The few times I tried it with out a preamp I was not impressed but I never put a lot of effort into making it work with out a pre amp.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by audiohippo

Very nice. I called every McIntosh Dealer and mainstream audio shop today coast-coast in Australia and no luck on finding a C2300.

Is there an alternative or do I just wait? Not interested in the C2500 with DAC.

Nick.......You might want to give Audio Classics in Vestal, New York a call. They are just down the road from the McIntosh factory and often buy excess McIntosh gear when there has been a model change. They may have both new and pre-owned C2300's and can change voltages for you if necessary and ship to Australia. Give Mike Sastra at Audio Classics a call.

[audiohippo]

Awesome thanks

[EfeTe]

If you are not able to get the 2300 in Oz (pity!), personally I'd wait a few months for the new MC250 to come out and test it out if at all possible.

[audiohippo]

Originally Posted by 1KW

Sorry for the long post but I may be able to help as someone who has owned both the C220 and C2300 (purchased brand new) , both connected to the same pair of MC501's . I changed the stock C220 tubes to various other and finally settled with telefunken tubes . The C2300 had new gold lion tubes placed and that was it. The bottom line in my opinion, the C 2300 is a much better sounding pre amp hands down than the C220 and offers numerous uprades in functionality which I think Dan covers in one of his C2300 reviews. I did not realize what I was missing with the C220 until I tried using my MCD500 built in pre amp. direct fully balanced to the Mc501's. The sound without the C220 in the chain was sharper, cleaner, brighter, imaging was better; everthing sounded more transparent. I am speaking about pure digital with the C 220 now. As for the phono stage, the C220 only has a MM phono pre amp. which I found to be full of hash noise when the volume control was turned up to 45 or above and I could hear it on quiet passages . I tried changing to different tubes in the C220 and for a while I was known as "2uberoller" on this forum. The telefunken tubes were by far the quietest I tried but it was still not great. I had the C220 for a few years . I started to think about getting a new pre amp. after listening to the MCD500 direct to the MC501's for several months . I became more aware that I would only listen to certain "audiophile" type recordings like Patricia Barber etc. and rarely my favorites like: the Rolling Stones, Led Zepplen and other rock groups due to listener fatigue. In fact I noticed my listening sessions were not as long period, listening to my stereo without a pre amp. . While the music MCD500 direct to the 501's was more transparent, I missed the midrange sound of tubes in the chain. I was considering biting the bullet and buying a C500 or a used C1000, but I was not sure about not having tone controls and I had a space constraint in my built in wall unit that would not accomadate a 2 box pre amp . Dan told me if he had to do it over again he would have kept his C2300 and never bought a C1000T . That was quite a comment since to me the C1000T was and still is one of the best pre amps. on the market. I finally took Dan's advice and have been very happy with the C2300 both for digital and vinyl( using the quieter MC phono pre amp .) . I now listen mostly to rock music agian and have been buying a lot more vinyl than digital music and listen about 60 % vinyl to 40 % digital now.

Awesome information!

Almost identical to my situation.

Thanks

[audiohippo]

Originally Posted by EfeTe

If you are not able to get the 2300 in Oz (pity!), personally I'd wait a few months for the new MC250 to come out and test it out if at all possible.

Mc250?

[cma29]

I use a passive preamp to optimize impedance matching between source and amplifiers and talk about it here

[scirica]

Paul just posted recently on this very topic. Worth going to the PS Audio site and finding it.

Here's the most recent one: Here’s a thought | PS Audio

[EfeTe]

Originally Posted by audiohippo

Mc250?

Yes maybe others can shed some light but that is the one I'm waiting for Mac to announce

[audiohippo]

Originally Posted by EfeTe

Yes maybe others can shed some light but that is the one I'm waiting for Mac to announce

Is it a new preamp? Without DAC?