New McIntosh C22 - Upgrade Transparent Balanced Musiclink Plus


Just purchased a McIntosh C22 mk V preamp.  I am using a ML No. 333 amp that I purchased 20 years ago, as well as, using the transparent balanced and speakers cables that I purchased on the same time.  Looking for advice if I should upgrade the cables?  I don't plan on changing out the amp for atleast a year or if if i need to recap.  Most likely I will add a MC312 for MC462 amp.

goducks44

Tubes OP. I've been a Mac guy for 50 years. C22 is a very nice piece. If you're going to use the MC, MM phono sections same goes for that. Telefunkens, RCAs, Blackburns, or the PSVANE Art Series. ECC83 12AX7.

Just a pair, not all 6. In the "Main" position only. Matching and having matched valves is the secrete to great sounding Macs. Folks cheap out on the valves and then wonder why they sound OK vs GREAT..

Matched means top to bottom and left to right.. The key to fidelity with Macs

Very interesting, because I think it sounds good but not GREAT!  I was using a a McIntosh MA252, which I really liked but it didn’t have power needed/wanted.  I was somewhat under whelmed when I first plugged in the C22. 
 

I am using the MM phono with a Linn LP 12.

Transparent newer cables at the same level you are using will out preform the older model.

@tony1954

Good music lasts.

Why are there so many "oldies" stations these days? Because the 60’s and 70’s were the golden age of popular music. It’s not nostalgia, it’s that the music was just that great.

 

Good music certainly does last.

People all over the world are still enjoying music written hundreds of years ago. Virtually all of the classical genre that has survived was written before we had any means of playing it back at home for ourselves.

That’s quite impressive, isn’t it?

Even from our own lifetimes, we can be fairly certain that some pieces of music will last as long as the human race does.

The 1960s in particular remains endlessly fascinating. That miraculous decade more or less featured everything that followed since.

On the other hand, if you take away the recency effect it’s hard to see which albums from the last 20 years will make the cut a century from now.

But then you could also argue the same for other art forms such as painting, sculpture, literature, television, film etc.

 

It would appear that human creativity has now moved on to other equally profitable areas of endeavour.

There’s already millions of attention seeking YouTube channels for example and new computer games coming out every week.

Then there’s the worlds of business, politics and finance...

 

That old Warhol comment about fame has never seemed more true.