McIntosh Preamp

I have a C2300. I like it very much. If you go with a tube pre, then replace the stock tubes with Gold Lions, Psvanes or Mullards. You will be even more happy if you do that.

Joe

Hi Hififile, are you saying that you preferred the sound of your previous McIntosh setup to the current one? I would not be too surprised, sometimes newer is not better.

Alberto

I have an MC275 and was considering a C220 or a C2200. Both are great and I loved the sound they put out with my amp and speakers. Whether that combo is too tubey will probably depend on what speakers you drive.

However I ended up getting a Lamm LL2 Deluxe preamp. To my ears it sounds a lot better than either of the Mc preamps. The downside is poorer ergonomics: no remote, no meters, no electronic input level matching, etc. So I opted for a unit that deployed all the budget on the sound rather than other features. Not everybody's cup of tea.

But the sound is fantastic!

I hope this helps.

Lewinski01,
You made the right choice, sound quality trumps convenience and features anytime(asuming you can`t get both in one package).

I had the C2300 with both the MC275 and the MC402. I agree with the poster above to change the stock tubes. If you aren't doing vinyl, then you only need to replace the two line stage tubes. I preferred Telefunkens for the line stage and MC phono stage.

I think the C2300 & MC275 combination sounded the best. I used it with Quads and it was a really nice system. The solid state amp was a little more veiled, by comparison.

The C2300 has a lot of flexibility, including changing cartridge loading on the fly, defeatable tone controls, stereo/mono, etc. I never had any use for the meters and could have done without them. Overall the preamp is transparent, doesn't have its own "tube" or "solid state" sound, is dynamic and very quiet. And it is built very well.