2. amps-preamps
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Why does this old tube gear sound so good?

I have a realtively modest system...Rotel cdp feeding an MSB Link dac, Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 Sig preamp with Telefunken 12at7 tube, Classe 10 amplifier driving North Creek Music Borealis speakers....Kimber and Cardas cables.

Every once in a while I pull out some vintage tube gear that I have collected...in this case a McIntosh C-11 tube preamp and a pair of McIntosh MC-60 tube amps.

I carefully insert the Mac stuff, make sure connections are good and everything fires up OK, and then.....magic.

The normal gear doesn't sound bad by any means, but with the Mac gear it just sounds more like music, more alive, robust and palpable. I know this has been discussed hundreds of times before on this forum, but I am always surprised by how good this 50 year old, original condition gear sounds.
stuartbmw3

Showing 1 response by chazzbo

chazzbo
1,007 posts
 
Everybody's on the mark hear but wonder what you'd think of the newer tube gear say newer mac tube stuff?Would it have advantages in lack of distortion yet still have that "good" upper harmonic distortion which is essentially what we like about tubes?You should go listen and see what you think.And maybe you sell this primary set up and your classic stuff and get one set up of updated classic gear.
Chazz
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