2. amps-preamps
  3. 130893-102001

Inherited 21 piece of vintage McIntosh and need help building a system

Hello.  I was fortunate enough to inherit a huge collection of mac stuff from my uncle, but although an audiophile, I'm out of my element with vintage stuff.  Here is a list of what I have to work with:

C28 preamp

two C20, stereo tube preamp

two C8's mono tube preamp

MC2002, Solid state amp

MC2200, Solid state amp

MR67, FM Stereo Tube Tuner

MR 71, FM Stereo Tube Tuner

MR74, tuner

MX 112, tuner preamp

1700 tuner

1900 tuner

MA5100, integrated amp

two MC 60's, tube amp

MC 240, 40WPC amp

MC 250, 50WPC amp

Sansui 500A

Dynaco SCA-35

HK A220

 

Linn axis turn table

Technics SL-1950 turntable

Mac XL10 speakers

Utah A70-A speakers


Any suggestions on what the best pairing would be out of these?  I can't use all of it so some will be posted once I get a system built.

Thanks for the help,

Brent



128x128brenthardy
effischer
560 posts
 
Second Audio Classics as a reference source and the advice on the speakers.  Look those over very carefully before giving them a try, and then only at a very modest level to see if they still have any life left.

That said, the first basic rig I'd put together would be the C20, 2 x MC60 and MR71.  For speakers, a set of pre 1975 Klipsch or Altec Lansing would do nicely IMO.  I don't personally care for either of the turntables.  The only suggestions I would offer there would be belt drive with a Grace F8, F9 or comparable Ortofon MM cartridge.  A Grace arm would be a perfect compliment, table permitting.

Your uncle had a great sense of value and thought very highly of you indeed.  My condolences on his passing and congratulations on his elegant bequest.
donvito101
278 posts
 
FYI: The 1700 and 1900 are receivers. They both include amp,preamp,and phono sections!
brenthardy's avatar
brenthardy OP
2 posts
 

Thank you all!  I'm starting to dig in and turn things on and see what functions as is and what needs some work.  I'm in Boise, ID and I haven't found any help from the high ends shops so I figured I'd start here.  Concerning the speakers, those are just want were passed on.  I can hook up to several different pairs of Martin Logans, Polks, or cheap Bose but I thought I would stay in era.  I have pugged in the XL10s and they still sound good. 

My goal would be to pair the best parts together for single system that I can play via cd or digital sources.  I don't have any records and am not familiar with the vintage equipment (run mostly anthem gear with the Martin Logans).  The music is main bands of the same era like Zeppelin, Floyd, GD, etc if that matters.

effisher: thanks for the suggestion.  I'll start playing with that.  I'm not sure if I know how to put the tubes in right so we'll see how that goes and hopefully I don't blow anything up!

Any special power considerations?


Thank you again...I'm sure I'll have more questions moving forward.  I'll check out audio classics and see what they say.  I also have boxes of parts, manuals, and marketing stuff that I don't even know where to start with.  Is that of any interest to mac enthusiasts?

Brent

mikirob
955 posts
 
Hi,
you are extremely lucky to have inherited this gear. Go to Jeff Day's Blog, he writes for Positive Feedback as well as 6 moons. Jeff has a lot of The McIntosh stuff you have and writes often about it. Jeff also have used audio classics as well as vintage tube amps.com. Again all your stuff is valuable. Lotta' good Mac restoration out their. Start with Jeff Day.
mikirob
955 posts
 
I meant to say, vintagevacuumtubeaudio.com above. Mikirob 
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