Preamp for my music taste

waxman

waxman

Swedish HiFi & Wine Lover
Hi

I'm saving up for a mcintosh setup, and I wonder how you guys think mcintosh tubes work with electronic music like techno, house, trance etc?
I listen to all kinds of music, but I have to know that the setup i'm about to consider will work with generally all genres of music. If it's one manufactory that will do the trick I think it will be mcintosh.

That tubes will be lovely with accoustic music I know, but what about electronic?

Lets say we have c220 and mc402. Is tubes the way to go or SS?
 
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I dont know much about techno but I would guess that that type of music would be played loud and require a lot of headroom - which would leads me to solid state.
 
waxman said:
Hi

I'm saving up for a mcintosh setup, and I wonder how you guys think mcintosh tubes work with electronic music like techno, house, trance etc?
I listen to all kinds of music, but I have to know that the setup i'm about to consider will work with generally all genres of music. If it's one manufactory that will do the trick I think it will be mcintosh.

That tubes will be lovely with accoustic music I know, but what about electronic?

Lets say we have c220 and mc402. Is tubes the way to go or SS?
Click to expand...

What is the rest of your system? that influences the result :D
 
Bassmantweed said:
I dont know much about techno but I would guess that that type of music would be played loud and require a lot of headroom - which would leads me to solid state.
Click to expand...

I can't attest to Mc gear for techno, but I can attest that tubes and techno do get along very well together. Especially if you have very efficient speakers, and larger wattage tubes.. My 40 watt Quicksilvers will back you outta the room with JBL or Altec speakers while playing techno, and sound very good while doing it... I've got larger tubes (80 and 100w) but don't have them hooked up yet...
 
I'm aming for high powered Mcintosh Solid State amp, with eventually c220 preamp, so tube for pre and ss for amp. Not 100% tube.
I'm running B&W 803S. 90dB sensitivity.

How much resolution gain/loss are we talking about comparing c45/c220?

I would love to A/B these setups myself, but living in Sweden makes that kinda hard. Got like 3 retailers total in this country :/
 
I can't think of any reason you would want to use Tubes with techno which is so demanding on the low end. tubes on the preamp aren't likely to add anything beneficial to the sound that I can think of. Most listeners of acoustic and vocal music live the tubes for their midrange. I would say that the full solid state system paired with the right speakers would be your sweet spot. I'm no expert by any means, but I like reggae music now and again and it's not the best out of my tube system as it needs the hard hitting low end.
 
It's not that I only listens to techno, I eat everything. But I'm in the hunt for the most versatile system there is to find ;)
 
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Gotcha. Do you listen to vinyl? I think that's where the tubes can add their magic or their detriment to the audio signal. Perhaps some others with more expertise can comment, but I am under the impression that most of the "tube" sound/artifacts/whatever come from the gain stage in the phono section or in the amp itself. Tubes in the line stage have little sonic influence. I would think something like the C45 would be the best "jack of all trades" in terms of music and you don't have to worry about all the headaches with tubes.
 
I still prefer my techno with tubes.. MUCH better sounding than with SS... If you have efficient speakers and a decent power tube amp, you won't have any problems with the bottom end... If you aren't using tubes as the power amp, just using a tube pre you will have less issues with the bottom end like you would a weaker powered power amp..
 
Thanks for all the inputs from you all :D

ye, as stated above, I'm planning c220 with mc402. So sweet tube pre, with powerfull ss amp. I'm listening to all styles of music. Metal, Rock n roll, jazz, opera, classic, psytrance(like infected mushroom), synth, ambient etc.

Will c220 accompanied with mc402 work with them all? Included heavy rapid bass music like trance? I'm not concerned of the capabilites of driving the loadspeakers lower ends. What I'm concerned about is the effects the coloration from the tubes would have on the sound in the different styles.
 
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