McIntosh MC2102 owners past and present


I've got the itch to make a move and am interested to hear from past and present MC2102 owners on the following:
- How many years or months did you keep the amp?
- What speakers did you use it with... anyone try Harbeth?
- Did tube rolling pay benefits and which tubes made the biggest impact?
- How does the MC2102 compare to other comparably priced / powered tube amps?
- Did anyone try running their source directly into the amp and how did it work out for you (I have a cdp with volume control).
- Would you recommend this amp?

Thanks,
Paul
128x128pdreher
Ok, so I'm not a past or current owner of the 2102 but... about a year ago was demoing an ayre c5xe cd player paired with the 2300 preamp the 2102 and some b&w 802ds. It was very musical and suprisingly dynamic. Very nice amp, it sounds much bigger than 100 watts. All new equipment with stock tubes. From what I heard it was a real winner. Ed
No, sorry about that, I am using 1 in stereo mode and it's just fine. I would consider another down the road though to see if any more benefits can be derived. I just thought I'd mention those features as it affords great flexibility now and in the future if you ever decide to make any changes

Can't imagine changing your Harbeths...always enjoyed their sound.

Pre is the preamp portion of my MA6900 integrated. I know...I need to upgrade. The reason I did that was because it was handy, I wanted a spare amp handy in case I had problems with any tubes, also it sounds quite good.
Jamnesta - so you are mono-blocking? Was one amp not sufficient to drive the Dali's? What preamp are you using?
Love mine indeed. Flexibility with the option of 2 different methods of mono-blocking; parallel or bridged. This allows speaker impedence matching of from 1 to 16 ohms.
Great resell and backing by McIntosh Labs which can service every piece of equpment they've made for the last 60 years or so.
Rolling the small signal tubes provides a benefit though I've heard it may be less critical than some other brands. No need to bias power tubes as the unit is fixed bias. If you like to tinker, like me, perhaps this is not an asset :-).
For the last 4 years mine have driven Dali MS5's to great effect with no service issues.
Admittedly I don't have a lot of experience with other tube brands, but as long as I'm this happy I won't be looking to hard.