Well, I actually was lucky enough to find a used C48, and my observations are very similar to Mglenn's. But the biggest thing I noticed was that the sound was very clean and very spacious as compared to my former C37, which has the same specs as the C48. All-in-all, it's a terrific looking and sounding preamp. The volume control is very quiet and smooth, which was a big concern of mine, as I worried it might be like the C42's. It's not. It also has the 5-band equalizer, as compared to the 8-band Mac seems to like now, and even it's new stablemate, the C50, is using the 8-bander. The phone jacks have gone back to 1/4", vs 1/8" Mac's been using for awhile.
I can see me keeping this baby for a long time, heartily recommended.