Finally got one...

smartin53

Well-Known Member
After years of drooling, I finally got an MC275. Managed to source a new Mk VI for a good price.

Tis a wonderful thing when running on the treadmill. Hopefully the owner of my old MC240 enjoys it as much as I used to...and hopefully soon someone will also enjoy my old MC2200 ;)
 

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Congrats!! You can get a cheap mono mini jack cable on amazon which you can connect to the power control terminal on the 275 should you wish to turn the green LEDs off and enjoy the tube glow...
 
After years of drooling, I finally got an MC275. Managed to source a new Mk VI for a good price.

Tis a wonderful thing when running on the treadmill. Hopefully the owner of my old MC240 enjoys it as much as I used to...and hopefully soon someone will also enjoy my old MC2200 ;)
Well congrats hope you enjoy it for many years. Welcome to the club.
 
Congrats! I was lucky enough to have the latest 275 in my system for a month and Ioved the sound.Cheers
 
Congrats. The Mk VI is a superb amp.

Sound wise, what is your take on the two amps?
 
A 275 with the right speaker makes beautiful sound. Though I'm now a died in the wool SS fan. I can remember the days when my pair of 275's reproduced fantastic sound bi-amping my speakers. They were great in the mono mode. too, before bi-amping. Playing live boot legged tape is where the 275's really earned their keep producing the sound effortlessly. Speakers were on the whole a lot more efficient than today and a 275 was the king of the hill. There were 193 exceptions however. But thats a different story. And who had the space for 4 of those beasts to bi-amp what 275's did so effortlessly.

Why did I give up my 275's you may ask? Well as time marched on quality tubes became rare and maintaining the amps at peak performance costly. So it was an economic choice as well as a perceived need to follow the advancement SS was suppose to bring. Sadly that really didn't happen until the MC 7200/7100 came along. It really wasn't until the 207 and I returned to Mac amps that my system really took big steps forward from a time when 275's ruled. So enjoy your advanced 275. I hope you find that special sound I enjoyed for 1000's of hours in the early 70's and very late 60's. I don't envy you finding the right pre-amp. There were only two to consider at the time when I had my 275's. the C-22 and the Marantz 7C. I chose the C-22. The best sound I got was later via the C-28. That was a very special combination. A smoothness a C-22 just didn't have with the introduction of high frequencies I had never experienced before revealed by the C-28.
 
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So I'm going to ask this without creating a whole new thread (we all hate that). I've been reading up on the stock tubes and from what I can tell the small tubes are basically sourced from JJ and the KT88s are from the same maker that produces the modern Genalex/Electro-Harmonix tubes.

I ask because I was considering updating to a complete Genalex Gold-Lion tube setup for all the tubes as I did similar in my old MC240 (tho the KT66s ended up being too much for the old guy).

If there is a benefit to the upgrade cool...if they are simply the equiv to what is already in the unit then I might get some anyway as backups incase of failure.
 
You might want to consider some nice NOS power and preamp tubes. I had a set of JAN-GE6550A’s that’s sounded nice, we’re built like tanks and didn’t break the bank at just under $400. as far as preamp tubes are concerned you can go wrong with Telefunken, Mullard, aperex etc...l got the feeling from my research that a set of Russian gold lions would be a lateral move at best in terms of SQ and reliability
 
Tube rolling is what its called. Trying to find the right set of tubes to match your idea of what the amp should sound like. If you don't like the sound either change speakers or try SS amps is my motto. I learned the hard way changing tubes on a whim, 95% of the time decreases the performance of the amplifier. Mac use to check tubes by the hundreds and Davie would put tubes in amplifiers if there was any chance of the sound not being on the dot as a final test. I know he had to hand pick tubes for his HP 202 sine wave generator to get the best performance possible. And some times a tube thAT sounds golden is just stuffed with distortion, packed right up to the brim. We used Altec 1570B amps when 275's were scarce and we hand selected 300B tubes/ We had to. A 1570B on its very best day only put out about 140 watts before clipping and at 130 watts was about a 2.5% distortion amplifier at the extremes and .4% in the middle frequencies. Wrong tube could have you approaching 13% THD real fast. That sAid with Mac tubes only twice did my 275's go over 1% distortion approaching 2% at 20,000 Hz.
 
Thanks for all the inputs. I've done a ton of tube rolling with my prior stuff (mostly my Little Dot III headphone amp and my old MC240). One lesson learned was using some tubes might impart a great sound, but drive the transformers a tad too hard. This was especially true with my MC240 when using stuff aside from the original spec tubes.

That said, right now I'm mostly interested in the source of the stock tubes for the modern MC275 VI. Lots of conflicting info and I don't want to waste money if I'm just buying the same tubes with a different silkscreen.
 
I wish I'd had a chance to talk you into my Mk IV on BT right now...coulda made you a sweet deal and included all the "pre rolled" tubes for you.

I'd talk to Jim McShane if I were you (Ak sponsor) - he helped me with my tube rolling and is very knowledgeable. The KT88 Gold Lions are a good a safe choice for outputs. I tried the much talked about Psvanes and promptly blew a fuse in the 275 so back those went.

If you are looking for sound changes, focus on the small signal tubes. That's where the magic happens...

jblnut
 
Very...very nice. This is a great example of how well McIntosh products from different time periods can look great together.

Is that a pair of Vandersteen speakers hiding in the edges of the photo?
 
Yep! A set of 2Ci's.

How are they working out with the MC275? I have a pair of 2Ce Sig II speakers and have, as strange as it might sound, preferred them on the direct coupled Mac amps. I'm listening to them right now on my restored MC752 and find it every bit as good as my new MC152 that has autoformers. I think it's the tight grip/controller over the woofers that I like with the non-autoformer amps. However, Vandersteens and tubes have a certain magic. I've auditioned and always planned to own a 275, but really like the Vandersteen line.
 
Well maybe there is something up with my 2Cis but the 275 (and even the old 240) seem to cause the circuit protection to kick in commonly. Not really sure why since the amp is well under the max for the speakers. Wonder if I just need to rebuild the circuits in the speakers. I know my MC2200's circuit protect was flaky until I recapped it (obviously a bit different since its in-amp vs speaker)
 
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