Mcintosh trade up program

[charne@sprin]

Received an email from Mcintosh Labs yesterday announcing a trade up program. Mc will offer up to 75% of original msrp on Mcintosh gear of like kind traded in at a dealer for upgraded stuff. Got me thinking about trading in my MA5200 on a new MA8900.

But turns out this swap does not qualify because of some pricing formula Mcintosh has set to the program.

Anyhoo, my local dealer has proposed my MA5200 for a C47 preamp and MC152 amp deal, with cash in from me of ~~$5,400.

I've never considered or even done any serious listening to separates, and really, am overall quite pleased with the MA5200.

What could I expect from the separates? Should I be cosidering this swap? The system is in my office, running a MR88 FMHD tuner and Internet radio from a dedicated Grace Digital tuner, mostly, with occassional CDs and Spotify streaming. Wharfedale bookshelf speakers.

 

[damacman]

For an office system, used primarily for music while you work ... short of pleasing to look at, you’ll be $5k poorer.

 

[charne@sprin]

For an office system, used primarily for music while you work ... short of pleasing to look at, you’ll be $5k poorer.

Fair enough -- but you have not seen the office

 

[damacman]

Fair enough -- but you have not seen the office

well then I say go for it! my office system is mental and includes a pair of MC2300s ...

 

[blhagstrom]

I can imagine some offices where a nice shiny new McIntosh would impress visitors with an air of success and confidence that would help with financial gain.

Nothing like a $5k music box to show airs.

If you’re like most who work in and office, you probably spend 1/3 of your life there during the work week. Seems like a place to make comfortable and enjoyable.

As far as separates. I know when I fire up my MC-2250, it never sounded better in there. And I have not reached a point where it is using a McIntosh pre-amp yet.

 

[charne@sprin]

I can imagine some offices where a nice shiny new McIntosh would impress visitors with an air of success and confidence that would help with financial gain.

Nothing like a $5k music box to show airs.

If you’re like most who work in and office, you probably spend 1/3 of your life there during the work week. Seems like a place to make comfortable and enjoyable.

As far as separates. I know when I fire up my MC-2250, it never sounded better in there. And I have not reached a point where it is using a McIntosh pre-amp yet.

Kind of been my view on this --- I spend half my life there (it seems) so it's a major destination for me. Mitigating against this is I've already got the MA5200 which sounds mighty good -- so is there a boost in going to separates? I've never run separates in any system. And if there is a boost, is the proposed C47 preamp and MC152 amp the right choice?

 

[blhagstrom]

Kind of been my view on this --- I spend half my life there (it seems) so it's a major destination for me. Mitigating against this is I've already got the MA5200 which sounds mighty good -- so is there a boost in going to separates? I've never run separates in any system. And if there is a boost, is the proposed C47 preamp and MC152 amp the right choice?

I’ve never noticed a significant boost with other brands.
I don’t get to play with a lot of McIntosh gear.

Biggest boost or cave in I experience is a change of speakers.

Unfortunately, I have noticed so much synergy between speaker and amp combos from what I have tried, it’s impossible to say what speaker would give a major boost.

I have a selection of stuff that seems to work well with everything, some that work well with big power, some that work great on older low power cap coupled amps. But there are many things I haven’t tried even after the 100s I have played with.

There is a massive amount of fan club internet knowledge about “best” speakers, but I totally discount that because I’m sure no one has tried everything and may not have heard better.

I loved some things until I found better.

Some of the best sounding combinations were just stuff I had handy to hook up and run to listen to while I worked on other stuff. Some of the stuff I couldn’t give away.

I once had a customer comment about how good the junk sounded while I worked on his high dollar tube amp and he has well respected vintage Altecs at home for his amp. It wasn’t that his amp was bad either. The work was to drop the gain because it was too powerful to use in the evening when his kids were in bed.

$5k would get you truck loads of vintage speakers to try and you have a better chance of finding a major boost that way.

My personal stash includes relatively inexpensive low power vintage receivers as well as TOTL major money amps along with less popular and well loved vintage speakers.

One particular amp is a nasty noise floor thing that sounds excellent with typical efficiency speakers playing vintage rock. It’s even a little ugly too.