Inherited 21 piece of vintage McIntosh and need help building a system

Hi,
you are extremely lucky to have inherited this gear. Go to Jeff Day's Blog, he writes for Positive Feedback as well as 6 moons. Jeff has a lot of The McIntosh stuff you have and writes often about it. Jeff also have used audio classics as well as vintage tube amps.com. Again all your stuff is valuable. Lotta' good Mac restoration out their. Start with Jeff Day.

I meant to say, vintagevacuumtubeaudio.com above. Mikirob 

I’m starting to dig in and turn things on and see what functions as is and what needs some work.

If any of the components have not been powered up in several years, and certainly if they have not been powered up in a decade or two, they should absolutely not be simply plugged in and turned on. The AC voltage that is initially supplied to them should be brought up slowly, over a period of perhaps 8 hours or so, using a Variac or other device that can provide variable AC voltage and that has an adequate current rating. That would allow electrolytic capacitors to "re-form" gradually, reducing the likelihood that you would be greeted with a lot of hum when you try to put the component to use. It would also reduce the likelihood of secondary damage occurring as a result of an existing defect, especially if you periodically check for signs of anything overheating as the voltage is brought up. Things to look for would include electrolytic capacitors or transformers that get hot, and power tubes whose plates glow red.

Also, as a general rule tube power amplifiers, tube integrated amplifiers, and tube receivers should not be operated without a speaker or equivalent load being connected, especially if the component is processing a signal.

Regarding your original question, many excellent comments have been provided above. While I’m familiar with just some of the components you’ve listed, I would particularly second Effischer’s singling out of the MC60 amplifiers and the MR71 tuner, which I know to be excellent performers if in top condition and/or well restored. And I and many others here can vouch for the vintage Grace cartridges he mentioned.

Good luck as you proceed. Regards,
-- Al

You are a very lucky man. You have some nice tube pieces and the MC60 and 240 are prized amps. Keep them.

1-start with your favourite music source; vinyl, cd, radio
2-decide how much space you have for listening
3-I would keep the mac speakers and sell the utahs
4-keep the mr74 tuner--at least until you decide if you will listen to fm radio.  Sell the mr 67 and mr 71 and mx 112
5-keep the 2 c 20's and sell the 2 c8's and the c 28
6- sell the 2200, 2002, 1700, 1900
7-keep the mc 60's and the mc 240 and you will be able to switch these later for listening comparison.
8-sell the ma 5100, mc 250, sansui, dynaco and HK
9-keep the linn and sell the pioneer
10- Now comes the most important recommendation:
       USE the profits from the sales to have the mc 60's , mc 240, and the mr 74 to have the Mac factory upgrade all of these--and hopefully you have the original boxes they all came in as those boxes are worth their weight in gold!!!@
12-When that is done, you will have a system of the highest quality and maybe some cash left to buy a mac cd player and maybe some really good interconnects as well as speaker cables.
13-finally- you could order a set of caps to upgrade the speaker crossovers and have someone in Boise area solder them in.
Some here will disagree with my all-tube selections but wou cannot go wrong with this assessment