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Sound of Mcintosh MC275 vs. MC7205 thx

Hi Folks-
I've been using an Mcintosh MC7205 solid state amp and love it - just having been using it as a stereo amp until I get the rest of my speakers. I have an MC275 Mk4, which I was going to use for my reference system, and hooked it up to compare it's sound with the MC7205. I was surprised to find that I much prefered the sound of the MC7205. Channel separation and soundstaging seemed much better, and the bass was much more lush. Perhaps there may be some cabling issues with my MC275 that I need to upgrade. For a preamp, I am using a Rotel RSP-1068.
I would appreciate any of your thoughts on this. I am kind of befuddled, because I thought the MC275 would sound as full and lush as the solid state MC7205.
- thanks for any wisdom,
Ted.
lovepianos
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
mcintosh products are not lush.

i just finished an audition of the c 220 (tube) preamp and i own the 275. if you contact the company they will tell you that the design goal is one of neutrality.

it is possible that the probablem you are having with the 275 is the stock tubes. they are horrendous.

i would like to replace the kt88,s, but am not sure what to replace them with. get rid of the 12ax7 tubes and 12at7 tubes, and experiment with nos tubes.
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
Lovepianos, Tennis is quite right about the stock tubes (horrendous ;--) But they're not so bad you couldn't enjoy the amp's wonderful attributes. If your result is missing both image (higher freq) and bass, I'm inclined to believe there might be an impedance mis-match between the Rotel and the 275. That said, the 275 has a fairly high input impedance (I think! It doesn't say in the manual) and should accept most preamps.

If you want to try other tubes, see my report on tube rolling w/ the MC275 at:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1175279050&openmine&zzNsgarch&4&5#Nsgarch
.
lapierre
547 posts
 
Nsgarch, thanks for the information Nsgarch on Tubes. Very useful. I'm still breaking in my MC275s so I will keep that in mind as I start to refine my system.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
hi nsgarch:

you have more experience with this amp than i do. i have about 25 hours of use. how does the amp change, sonically, over time ?, after 300 hours, does the amp sound more robust, with less treble emphasis.

what about the tubes, you mentioned a bunch of 12 volt tubes, without specifying what you or your friend's experienced with each tube.

i would like to reduce the treble energy and get more emphasis upon the upper bass and lower midrange, as well as create a more distant presentation. any ideas ?

thanks
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
Tennis, are you driving your amp with balanced or SE IC's?
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