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McIntosh MX121 vs. MX119 for 2-channel

I have recently upgraded from an MX119 to an MX121.
My main question is regarding 2-channel music, in Pure Direct mode (no digital signal processing at all), connected with RCA directly to a McIntosh MVP-871 DVD/CD player.
The music on the MX121 sounds wonderful, with great bass management (with or without a subwoofer) however I feel that the vocals are a bit behind the music and are just tad harsher and less "liquid" than the MX119.
Another big difference I noticed is that with the MX119, at the sweet spot, I hear the singer's vocal coming form the center of the room, where the MX121 sounds more like it's coming from L/R speakers.
I know the MX119 Pure Direct circuit is basically identical to a McIntosh C45. 
Could it be that the sound signature of the MX121 is that different? Maybe it's all in my head?
I'd really like to keep the MX121, so it may be a question of getting used to it. I'll run some more A/B comparisons over the weekend and make up my mind.
Any opinions?


yyman23
t3chnobrat
8 posts
 
I know this is an aging thread,  but I ran across it while i was searching out some of my own questions about The 'Pure Stereo' mode and McBass. I've had an MX119 for about 5 years now and I love it.  The manual flat out sucks. Any way, I ran across an article where the reviewer explained that the 'Pure Stereo' mode was anything but a direct signal and the '2 Channel' mode (totally not mentioned in the manual) was actually the C46 preamp path.. completely opposite of what i thought all these years. 
http://www.iar-80.com/page159.html

yyman23 OP
146 posts
 
Hi t3chnobrat, that's exactly what I was thinking all the years I had it. I have since switched to an actual C45 which I love. I do not recall the MX119 having a huge difference in sound between "Pure stereo" and "2-channel" - from memory, "2-channel" activated the subwoofer output.
The main reason I let go of the MX119 was that the controls on the front were intermittent and fixing it would have been too expensive. I prefer the simplicity and looks of the C45 and of course - the sound.
t3chnobrat
8 posts
 
Hi yyman23,
I don't hear any difference either.. for the most part. It's the 'Pure Stereo' mode that activates the subwoofer.. which defies logic. If you activate Mcbass and set your speakers to large, apparently it passes full range to the speakers and additionally activates the sub. I could swear that it worked like that for me at one point when I first set it up and had Paradigm Studio 20 v3 stand mount speakers and then it stopped working that way after I got bored one day and played with the settings.. and could never get it to work again. I've since graduated to B&W 683s2's so not having a sub for music isn't issue.  Every once in a while I revisit the topic with the internet because I can't let it go that the MX119 is messing with me lol. If it wasn't for watching movies and liking the sub for when I listen to electronic music through the digital input, I'd be happy to just get back to 2 channel for the simplicity, as well. 
yyman23 OP
146 posts
 
The whole sub woofer activation was weird. It wasn't working for me at all, and then I read somewhere about a firmware update that fixes that issue. I managed to update it myself and it only worked part of the time, and usually on the digital input, but not the RCA one. Go figure. In any case, I agree with a lot of posts out there about the MX119 being a great 2 channel preamp at a very reasonable price.
fmzip's avatar
fmzip
12 posts
 
Thought to bump this thread again....

I only have a 3.1 setup currently using an Anthem Statement D1 processor.

Are you guys saying that the pure direct mode on the MX-119 allows output to the sub, or not?

I would love to see how 2.1 sounds through this preamp but if it’s problematic, I should stay away
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