Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 I had at one point is a pretty solid state, neutral at best sounding Preamp.. The TUBEY sounding Tube gear of the mcintosh is not that shocking honestly.. Try running even just the Mcintosh Preamp without the Tube amps, or the Tube amps wit the SFL-1 and you will have even further varying results.. it does not all have to do with New vs. Old.. just they type of flavors certain vintage or product has.
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.
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.
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