mysoundfiles

The 4th of July weekend required I break out the vintage McIntosh MC275 amps not from a historical perspective but out of necessity. The Acoustic Research Reference 160M seemed flat after a proper warm-up and system test. Flat enough, that motivated several tests, followed by swapping the amps with the previous champions of my system, the MC275s. However, for this quick swap, I used 2 of the MC275s in mono-block mode or a straight swap-out with no changes to the speaker drivi

The vintage Macintosh C22, although legendary, was a suspect in limiting performance when paired with the Reference 160M’s. It exhibited actual limits that could be heard or not heard by the revolving nature of the 160M’s; enter the Nagra HD Preamplifier. The Nagra is a heavyweight contender regarding Preamps and an unfair comparison. Still, I needed to see how far we could push the system and free up additional performance paired with the Reference 160M’s. For 30 days, I was

My audio system here in San Diego has a vintage heart & soul and what makes it unique are the MC275 amps, the NOS tube selection and the C22 preamp. Undoubtedly, these make the system deliver performance with a sound that you can feel, is never exhausting and warm with details. It's a sound that can move you emotionally and pushes you to preserve it for generations. The preservation, aka maintenance, is not a dusting or polishing activity. It's a severe discipline to keep bac

What I am sharing here is a comparison I had done back in 2014 in Taiwan. Now with this dedicated space, I am posting this again, hoping to hear from fellow audiophiles about their perspectives and observations. Early in the afternoon in Feb 2014 on a sunny day, the MC2301s arrived and settled into the audio room and yes they were big and very formidable; at a bulky 116lbs each, CDs into two technicians were required to move them into position. All the content was cued and

A vintage tube-based stereo depends on strong balanced tubes. Newly manufactured tubes make this straightforward, however vintage even if NOS (new old stock), requires testing to ensure a balance between the plates within a tube but among its companion tubes in the same amp and in the other active amps. The vintage MC275 amps use 7 signal tubes with the lead tube, a 12AX7 followed by 2-12AU7, 2-12BH7, and 2-12AZ7, (USA Tube Reference #). The tubes following the 12AX7 are p