What makes a unique setup?

Every setup whether it’s a studio or a home entertainment is unique. I am sharing what I have put together for my 2 channel stereo set-up at my San Diego home. A lot of this has come through trial and error and of course through my experiences with my earlier home studio set up in Japan and Taiwan.

A 2-channel stereo with a vintage heart and soul from the 1960s surrounded by current-day technologies. The vintage is McIntosh 1960s MC275 amps, 4 of them in total with 2 horizontally bi-amped and fed by a McIntosh 1960s C22 Preamp. These are historical products not only talked about today but also re-introduced in later years. These vintage MC275s and C22 products have no printed circuit boards or solid-state electronics. They are handcrafted and loaded with resistors and capacitors constructed with point-to-point wiring and fitted with 50 select vacuum tubes; of which 16 are power tubes and the balance of 34 signal tubes calibrated to within 3%.

The MC275 amps leverage the Gold Lion KT88 tubes manufactured in Russia which is a re-introduction of the original Genalex KT88’s made in the UK. Yet these newer KT88’s have faster push-pull performance and a higher roll-off frequency, making them the only re-issued non-vintage tube I use. The signal tubes are all 1950/60’s starting with the lead tube, 12AX7 from Amprex, which is the Bugle Boy long plate “D” getter from Haarlem, Netherlands. This tube is hard to find, however, they sit in the key 1st position of the MC275 amps and provide a warm rich tone that in my opinion is 2nd to none. Following that lead tube from Ulm Germany are the Telefunken ECC801S and ECC802S tubes originally binned for military and medical applications. These tubes have extremely low microphonics and sharp detail, making them a perfect match to support and follow the 12AX7 Bugle Boy. And the final tube is also from the 1960s from RCA, the 12BH7 black long plate.

The 4 MC275s have split duties. 2 units are in monoblock mode each dedicated and connected to the LF speakers of the left and right speakers. The 3rd amp is in Twin Amp mode dedicated to the mid-range of each speaker with the final amp is also in Twin Amp mode dedicated to the high range of each speaker and super-tweeter. This combination is strong enough to drive the ATC speakers, providing the performance one would expect from these studio monitors.

The McIntosh C22 Pre-amplifier has 6 tubes, all of them not the same, as one would expect. 3 tubes are the famed Telefunken ECC803S and 3 tubes are again the Amprex Bugle Boy 12AX7 long plate “D” getter. The sharper and detailed 803S is dedicated to the analog sources whereas the Bugle Boy 12AX7 is paired to the digital inputs. This combination provides for the typical hard and often-cold performance of digital to be warmed up with the Bugle Boy. The analog vinyl sources may need to be sharpened up and the ECC803S is the right tube for that. It does so without forcing the performance to be cold or harsh.

To put all this together has taken plenty of trial and error with countless tubes and vintages, but the real magic was created by a network of audiophiles around the world, that stretched from Australia through Taiwan, Japan, Korea, across western and eastern Europe and of course North America. I have had a unique enriching experience by meeting many of them in person and receiving opinions online and through calls with folks, I have never met. I thank them all for their knowledge and willingness to share their experience.

Notes:

1) You can check-out detailed specifications of my home studio setup here

2) Also check out this blog www.mcintoshcompendium.com for loads of other resources

3) You can download the manual for McIntosh MC275

MC275_own.pdf

Download PDF • 316KB

4) You can download the manual for McIntosh C22 Preamplifier

C22_own.pdf

Download PDF • 826KB

More clean power, please...

My exposure to the importance of power came in Tokyo. 100V is the standard and it was clear the equipment suffered when compared to Taiwan performance. I experimented with some appliance grade step-up transformers and yes they improved the performance of the system but they had a 'hum' and introduced noise into the stem. I eventually had a custom CSE step-up transformer made that would take the 100V from the wall to 120V and around 35amps. It worked great and the system woke up with the power and detail I was used to. If you look through the gallery for Japan and you can spot the large grey box at the base of the rack; that was custom-made by my friends at CSE (the company is no longer operational) in Japan. This helped and I got the performance increase because power is the main commodity of the stereo; more and cleaner is better. The custom CSE step-up power transformer also had the ability to take 200V and convert to 120V.

Everything I had read about power always supported a higher feed and to step the power down so I had a custom power cable made with Furutech connectors that would allow me to use the 200v supply. In the kitchen, there was a 200v plug, I made the cable reach that source. It was not a pretty solution, and again in the japan set-up photos, you can see that large green power cable snaking its way out of the room to the right. As expected more improvement with the system performance. At this point I was fixated on power; I had plenty but now I wanted cleaner power and ultimately focused on power regeneration avoiding all the filter/conditioning products. If the power regeneration worked as advertised theoretically one would have a perfect sine wave and little to no harmonic distortion and one had to believe there was plenty of that in the Tokyo power grid or any grid for that matter. PS Audio quickly became the front runner especially when they offered to reprogram the Japan versions to the US standards, bring 3 units to my house and allow me to demonstrate the system for 2 weeks. The local distributor brought 2 P20s and 1 P12. We connected all 3 to the custom power supply with 1 P20 for 2 MC275 amps and the P15 to supply the front-stage components. As the power regenerators warmed up you could monitor the total harmonic distortion coming in and going out as well as the sine wave. As expected the incoming power had distortion and the sine wave was truncated and that was after the CSE power transformer. The P20s and the P12 repaired and send perfect power to all components. The result? Within 10 min of listening, we shook hands (of course this is good old days before the pandemic hit us) and said I will buy all 3 and we all continued listening for another 3 hours. The final P20s were delivered to me later that month and were signed by Paul McGowan.

P20 signed by Paul McGowan

P20 in action

The P20s and P12 are with me in San Diego connected to dedicated 20amp breakers/power supplies for each. Unfortunately, the custom CSE power transformer was left in Japan; its use is dedicated for 100V/200V to 120V hence that’s where it should live., I had no use for it in the USA. The local stereo shop sold it to another Audiophile who needed the same. I would have liked to see his expression when he plugged that in.

An interesting side note is the vintage MC275 amps and the C22 Pre Amp are old; 1960’s. I had several long discussions with the Japan shop that maintained my amps. I run the amps at 120V’s and the shop owner had pressure on me to reduce it to 115V; the voltage on the PS Audio Power Regenerators is user-adjustable within a range. This sparked a deep discussion regarding what had to be upgraded and would it impact the sonic performance and the amp would not be 100% original as a result. This went on for what seemed hours all through the interpreter. Finally, we made adjustments so the amps could weather that voltage, and today they are still running strong at the 120V and the sonic performance is at its peak. Ultimately the shop owner agreed after an audition and a full restoration of all 6 amps and the 3preamps. The extra 2 amps and 2 preamps are backups.

There is a lot to read online regarding power, equipment requirements, filters, conditions, regenerators, battery banks, capacitors, etc. There is what seems to be an endless discussion on this but in the end, I went the power regenerator route; it made sense and for me, it works and I shoot for a minimum of 2x supply to the equipment requirement. I might mention that PS Audio allows for demo units to come to your home and if you are not impressed you can send it back. Nothing to lose on that potential investment and it’s the main resource your stereo uses; POWER.

Leaving you with some useful links in case you want to know more about clean power

1) http://www.furutech.com/products/

2) https://www.psaudio.com/products/directstream-power-plant-20/

3) http://psaudio.com

The art of cleaning vinyl records

Particles, inclusions, films, and gunk (yup, those unpleasant sticky substances we all hate) are de trop between you, your vinyl, and the best playback the musicians and artists intended for your ears. Some record pressing facilities are pretty good at providing a clean record as are some used record stores but it’s not consistent enough to assume the vinyl is ready to the level your system requires. After all, the vinyl records are not pressed, packaged or cleaned in a semiconductor facility so inevitably the particles, inclusions, films and gunk hitch a ride on your record, which impacts the performance. Performance impact is more than just the annoying click or pop depending on what’s in the grooves. My experience on average is a 10% to 20% performance increase on cleaned vs. un-cleaned records assuming it's cleaned right. The stylist can only perform best when it has close contact to the groove walls as intended by the cut of the record. And if there is, let’s call it dirt at the start of the record, it often gathers on the needle adding to the reduction of the performance throughout that record and the next.

I clean every record I buy, regardless of how good it visually looks. The cleaning is a two-step process and takes 2 pieces of equipment; an Okki Nokki to start with and an Audio Desk (Touted as the world's highest-rated and highest-performing record cleaner) as the second. The former is a vacuum arm-based cleaner and the latter ultrasonic. One without the other doesn’t clean everything. I have noticed some films and gunk require the light scrubbing and vacuum provided by the Okki Nokki. Both use a surfactant supplied by the manufacture and I tend to stick with that suggestion along with the distilled water and that’s a must given the simple fact you are trying to remove particles not introduce them. I also use a microscope when I hear specific areas of a record with noise. The microscope, a 40x loop or higher resolution connected to your laptop, can help determine if the noise is the inclusion or something that can be removed. Films are the worst to remove and the Okki Nokki tends to excel at that because you can scrub with the surfactant. The only film I have not been able to remove is on the Patricia Barber Blue Café MFSL 3-45002. I have purchased 2 copies from different locations (Japan and USA) of this release and both have the same problem; a sticky film that has coated the record. I believe the source is the black thin foam used in the packaging that shows deterioration from perhaps exposure to heat and or humidity. Nevertheless, it dulls what is otherwise a great recording. This film also likes to jump on your stylist and requires the water to be changed in the Audio Desk ultrasonic cleaner.

After cleaning with the Audio Desk Ultrasonic I don’t need an anti-static gun, but I keep one around. Common knowledge I guess, static, especially in the winter, is a magnet for dust and the vinyl can gunk up with the stylist. I use new record sleeves from MoFi. The sleeves that come with the records have within them the stuff you removed from the records……don’t reintroduce that.

I also allow the records to sit in a record stand for a few minutes to ensure moisture has evaporated so it does not get trapped in the sleeve and promotes mold. My practice for critical listening sessions has always been cleaning the selected records prior to playing regardless if they have been played since the last cleaning or not.

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music" - Friedrich Nietzsche