McIntosh Tone Controls


Confession: I like bass. Not like EDM or Rap. Like jazz and classical bass. 

Anyway, I have a McIntosh C47 with bass and treble tone controls. Does anyone know if these are pure analog or they are doing an ADDA conversion? I find a need to turn the bass up in my room about 3dB with most music and it’s pretty transparent and doesn’t seem to cause much if any side effect. 

Because of this, I was considering upgrading to a C52 to get finer control. I would love to hear other suggestions as well in case anyone has them. 

(Setup is Mytek Manhattan II as DAC and Phono stage, MC452 amp, And B&W 802 D3 speakers)
mayoradamwest

Showing 2 responses by stereo5

The bass control on a McIntosh preamp is set at 30hz and treble control is set at 10Khz. They are analog. 
@mayoradamwest...……………………

I'm running a Mac C2500 tube pre, MC152 amp with GE Triton Reference speakers and I can shake the walls with it.  The Heartbeat on Pink Floyd DSOTM is felt in your chest.  The bass is in no way over bloated or muddy.   Are your speakers known for deep bass?   Perhaps positioning them differently will give you what you want without having to goose the bass control too high.  I very seldom have to use the tone controls, but they are nice to have.  I use the treble control occasionally to take the edge off some of my rock music which were recorded too hot..