I finally got a Mcintosh amp


Hi All,

Well, after all the yearning & anticipation of getting My first Mcintosh piece. I have to say that my impressions of the MC 2505 were that of disappointment. The Amp itself was in excellent cosmetic shape for it's vintage. No Rust pitting, about two or three very minor dings, and a hint of of the common Bubble around the headphone jack (the VU meters were more a washed out green then Blue - could be from age??).

After the inital inspections, I preceeded to hook up my preamp, Cd Player & Paradigm Mini's. I then got out a few of my reference CD's and started my little work out....... Where's The "Airy highs and or midrange", where's the "inticingly broader soundstage" or transparency? Lastly, where the hell is the bass response (these where all the question I was asking myself)?

Per reviewers of these Vintage Mcintosh pieces. They're supposed to be "Tube-like" in sound. I don't think so...(Never hearing tubes before, I was under the impression that Tube sound is all those things and flat out more musical). Anyway, if this MC2505 is "tube-like", then My Rotel RB 976 is as well. Only My Rotel has better bass & Dynamics, even in it's 60watt X 2 capacity.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to diss Mcintosh or their costumers. I still Lust after that sound of the Mc122+Mc15+Mini Monitors, that I heard at My dealers showroom about a year and a half ago. I guess Mcintosh has gotten better in the later years of production. So, needless to say that the MC2505 went back. I'll have to save up a few more dollars to get the Mc amp I really could live with (Namely One from at least the late 90's or above).

Cheers,
Jalen
jalen01
If you want to get the real Mcintosh you need the tube mono MC 40 or get the MC240, you can run direct out of your cd player into the amp and get real pure tone and all of what you thought you could ever hear.
I have a McIntosh MC2100 and I think it sounds great. I have owned a tube amp before and I think this Mac has a warm tube like sound. I do have a tube pre amp maybe that's the difference. This amp is definately not lacking in bass.
I bought a Mac 2100 solid state Amp recently, paired with a C-28 preamp, and it could not produce the booming sound thru my ML-2C McIntosh speakers that my "El Cheapo" Stereotech Receiver could produce, so I unloaded them on ebay - I do know that the MC-30 amps, and probably the other tube amps of the same vintage, are better sounding if you can afford them - but it just blows me away how good that Stereotech sounds - I've been wondering if the MAC 1900 receiver sounds just as good(I bet it does)