Would a Parasound JC2 be a good match for a Mc30?

Being new to tube amps,always make sure you have speakers hooked up to the amps,and correctly.If you turn on a tube amp without the speakers hooked up,It can destroy the output transformers.Others here hopefully can steer you on the correct path for hooking your gear up,plus preamp suggestions.

Good advice from Hifitime.

I don't see any reason why a JC2 wouldn't be a fine match for MC30's.

Re hooking them up, I'm pretty certain that you can ignore the two sockets on the side which look like 8-pin tube sockets.

There is a conventional rca jack for connection to one channel of the preamp outputs. I think that is what you are referring to as "1/4 type socket," because it is approximately 1/4 inch in diameter. However it is more properly called an rca jack, to which a conventional interconnect cable is connected. The term "1/4 inch jack" is normally used to refer to one type of headphone jack, which is different than an rca jack.

The black terminal of the speaker would be connected to the screw-type terminal on the left side of the amp which is labelled "com." The red terminal of the speaker would be connected to either the 4 ohm or 8 ohm screw terminal on the amp, whichever is closest to the nominal impedance of the speaker. If the speaker impedance is somewhere in between (say 6 ohms), try both the 4 ohm and 8 ohm terminals and see which one sounds best.

If the amps haven't been turned on in several years or more, their ac power input should be brought up very slowly, over a period of at least several hours, using a variac. And when they are initially turned on, make sure that the plates of the large power tubes are not glowing red, which would indicate an internal problem that might lead to serious secondary damage if the amps are operated in that condition for too long.

Here are links to the manual and schematic:

http://www.berners.ch/McIntosh/Downloads/MC30_own.pdf

http://www.kbapps.com/audio/schematics/tubeamps/mcintosh/mc30.html

Good luck! I once owned a pair of MC30's, and they are classic amplifiers.

Thanks HIfitime.....unfortunately I did switch on one amp with no speakers to see if the tubes lit up. I left it on for about an hour - hope I didn't damage anything - is an hour a long time with no speakers hooked up?