My first Mcintosh piece

Thocom

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Well, I picked up my first Mcintosh piece, always wanted to try this gear, but the opportunity never presented itself. This is a fully functional C28 preamp, with wood. There is one small chip in the veneer of the case, but other than that, it's very very nice.

One small problem. I bought it in Detroit, and now I have to get it home.

I have two options:

I can ship it. I do have a Pelican case I can use, with foam, but I am still nervous.
Or I can attempt to carry on the airplane and through TSA? Anyone ever do that? It WILL actually fit into my carry-on suitcase, and I can put in the overhead. I just don't want to chance driving it to the airport and they don't let me carry tion the plane, and I wouldn't want to check my bag with it in there.

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Tom
 
Wish I had anAmp in my hotel room..lol
 

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it should pass the TSA. my friend flys with audio gear all the time. just i problem. the pre should never be transported in the case as it may bounce around a bt. you can shim it with some socks . also i would pull the knobs as these are what break glass most often. congrats
 
It has a 2.5 watt class A headphone amp built in.......do not put any shipping stress on while in the wood case. It is a sure way to break the glass. Packing in a box needs to be done a certain way to avoid damage.

I doubt you will be able to ring it into the plane's cabin so you will need to pack it to ship.
 
Thanks for the tips. I knew I had to remove from wood, but I didn't think of removing the knobs.

Maybe I should remove the glass and hand carry that?
 
How much time do you have before your flight? I'd order a proper box from AudioClassics if it's an option.
 
How much time do you have before your flight? I'd order a proper box from AudioClassics if it's an option.

Flying out tomorrow, mid day. I called the airline and they said that it's not a problem to carry on. I think I'm going to ship the wood case and knobs in the pelican case and carry on the actual preamp.. What was I thinking?

Originally, I had planned to just drive the rental car home, but I have to be back on the east coast Friday morning..
 
I'd pull the faceplate off as an assy, wrap it up good in clothing, slide the unit back into the cabinet and lock it in place, pack both with care in the same case, and put both in the overhead.
 
Flying out tomorrow, mid day. I called the airline and they said that it's not a problem to carry on. I think I'm going to ship the wood case and knobs in the pelican case and carry on the actual preamp.. What was I thinking?

Originally, I had planned to just drive the rental car home, but I have to be back on the east coast Friday morning..


Seems like a good plan to me! And yeah, removing the glass if you can would probably be wise.

Oh, and congrats!!!
 
.....so, your first piece of McIntosh is a pre-amp, huh?....wise move....more audio buffs should follow your example....please post your thoughts when you have it incorporated into your system.....
 
I ended up removing the entire glass faceplate assembly and am hand carrying that, I packed the wood and preamp separately, overpacked really, and shipped it.

Fingers crossed. I feel confident with my packing job, so I will find out Monday.
 
Great thing about that C28 is that so many were made! Consequently, you can get them for less money and they make great entry level units for McIntosh curious. Beware, like tattoos, this stuff is addictive. And after the C28 I don't know what McIntosh gear is still running at such low prices.

If you have the glass off anyway, might want to think about popping some fresh lamps in key spots? There is a current thread about faceplate glass with tons of good advice and warnings about how fragile that glass can be. Don't miss it!
 
Great thing about that C28 is that so many were made! Consequently, you can get them for less money and they make great entry level units for McIntosh curious. Beware, like tattoos, this stuff is addictive. And after the C28 I don't know what McIntosh gear is still running at such low prices.

If you have the glass off anyway, might want to think about popping some fresh lamps in key spots? There is a current thread about faceplate glass with tons of good advice and warnings about how fragile that glass can be. Don't miss it!

All the lamps are good, and it was fairly easy to remove.
So, after sliding it out of the wood case, it's covered with "Mcintosh clinic" stickers. Starting in 1978, Theres one for 1980, 1983, 1984, etc. they are metal, embossed badges with the date and a persons name.

What's that all about? I should of taken a few pics, but it will have to wait until it gets on the east coast now.
The glass faceplate made it safely through TSA and the flight. :)
 
Those are "DOB" stickers. The previous owner apparently took it to numerous McIntosh clinics. Each sticker means that it was returned to the owner meeting / exceeding published specs. There is much to be found in regards to the clinics here and at Roger Russel's McIntosh site.
 
There's guys here that can tell you way more about those clinic badges than I could. Some can even likely link the names on the badges with the stories of the people who signed them. I can tell you that you had better leave the badges in place. They are a part of your unit's history and I think they can actually increase re-sale value - especially if the names are august.

If you did not have any problem removing the face plate, great! You can always do it again if a lamp burns out. And a McIntosh with part of its face dead and dark is just not the same. They are so pretty at night!

Next for you? An MC2505 or MC2105? Those are the amps that match the C28 really well with solid aluminum knobs, blue meters and gorgeous glass face plates. 50 and 100 watts respectively.

Or on the cheaper side are the industrial looking MC250 and MC2100, both solid state stereo amps with the same sound and guts as the glass fronted amps. Then toss in an MR77 tuner...

The glass fronted amps cannot be mono bridged. The industrial ones can. The tube based MC2xx amps are way cool and have that industrial look as well but man, do you have to pay for them these days. Welcome to planet McIntosh!

This link has been posted a jillion times but as long as we are here...

http://www.roger-russell.com/aboutmc.htm

Again, be careful... You start getting into this stuff and... "Abandon hope all ye who enter here..." Check out Terry DeWick's sites and Audio Classics too. They have sponsor banners at the bottom of the pages. Have fun!
 
It made it safely. Although it looks like one lamp was a casualty. Sounds pretty darn good. It is going in place of my Vincent SA-31 hybrid preamp.

Sound is pretty warm. Maybe a bit boomy. I'm just listening some music from my iPAD but will integrate it completely tonight.

It looks funny next to my Fisher SA-300 though ;)
 

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Can you get enough gain out of your Ipad? My I touch would run out of gas, had to be at full output so I played with modding the MIC input which has added gain but no EQ, unlike the TapeHD or phono.
 
Can you get enough gain out of your Ipad? My I touch would run out of gas, had to be at full output so I played with modding the MIC input which has added gain but no EQ, unlike the TapeHD or phono.

I used the high level input AUX. No issues with gain. Had volume at 10 o'clock and had plenty of gas to go more. Running it through a Fisher EL34 based amp to DCM Timeframe TF-1000's. Like I said, the only negative thing I would say is that the bass was a bit boomy, but it's not a fair assessment until I connect to my TT and SACD player and mess with the controls a bit. I was only home for lunch for a few minutes to play around with it and had to go back to work.

Think I need a MC240 now :)
 
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