Victor
Super Member
There was a thread in the McIntosh forum asking about the Upgrade Company. I have always been a tweaker and I have modified much of my stereo equipment in the past but I have not modified any of my McIntosh equipment. This thread about the Upgrade Company got me wondering what a professional tweaker could do with McIntosh equipment. So I contacted David at the Upgrade Company and found that he was only about 3 hours from me and he had a local client that just had a MC252 amp modified that I could compare my MC501s to. So I decided to pay him a visit.
The MC252 is a 250 watt stereo amp and my MC501s are 500 watt monoblocks. Bill was the client who had the upgraded MC252 and Bill was kind enough to invite us into his home to do comparisons. I have compared the MC252 to MC501s in the past and I thought the MC501s were significantly better than the MC252 in imaging and separation and the MC501s were a little better in detail. In bill's system his upgraded MC252 did in fact sound better than my MC501s. Bill's upgraded MC252 did have a little better detail than my MC501s and Bill's MC252 did a better job at giving the instruments separation, the MC501s sounded a little blurred in comparison. The biggest difference was in the bass, Bill's MC252 had much better bass than my MC501s. In Bill's system my MC501s sounded a little dull with weak bass and Bill's upgraded MC252 was musically enjoyable and just sucked you into the music.
After the comparisons at Bill house and spending the day with David I decided to leave him my McIntosh MC501 amps, MS750 music server and MDA1000 DAC to upgrade. I have had the upgraded equipment home and playing for about 72 hours, I know that is not enough time to get a final judgment but I decided to start this thread and post my initial impressions. As the next few months pass I will continue to give updates.
It took 5 days for the upgrades to be done and I know it is difficult to make comparisons with several days between listening so I listened to some music before the upgrades and took some notes.
The first comparison I did was an easy one, I compared the music playing from the hard drive on the upgraded MS750 music server to the CD playing through my non upgraded MVP851 disc player (keep in mind the MS750 and MVP851 are used as transports only with the MDA1000 being the DAC). Before the upgrade the sound of the music on the MS750 hard drive was just a little worse than the CD playing on the MVP851, there was just a little less detail with the music server. Now with the upgraded MS750 and doing a blind test with my friend switching the sources I preferred the sound of the upgraded MS750 3/4ths of the time. This is fantastic because I love the convenience of the music server and use it for most of my listening.
Now as for listening to the system all together, my first impression is that the soundstage has an increased depth and there is less "hash" which is allowing more detail to come through. The first CD for my comparisons is Bossa Antigua by Paul Desmond. With the upgraded equipment the percussion has more pinpoint detail and placement which seems to be about 10 feet behind the speakers. I don't remember hearing anything at this depth before. Also at times the sax seems to be close to my right ear which is nice. Next was Tea for the Tilerman by Cat Stevens. There seemed to be more detail in the guitar strings on this CD. Next Crime of the Century by Supertramp. WOW there are sounds coming from all over the place on this CD. Next was The Dream of the Blue Turtle by Sting. There is more bass impact on this CD than I remember.
I have listened to the upgraded equipment for about 20 hours so far and I have enjoyed it the entire time with no listener fatigue. This was already a great system so the improvements are not huge but I do feel that it is improved. I would say the improvements are about equal to going from average interconnects and speaker cables to great cables.
So far I'm happy with the upgrades. When I get the time I will bring the upgraded MC501s to the local stereo shop to do a direct comparison with their stock MC501s. David is a great guy who is genuinely concerned with pleasing his customers. He has called me several times since I got the upgraded equipment home to make sure I like what I hear. He was working on another McIntosh amp and he found a change that improved the sound and told me a simple way to do it on my amps. I did make the change and it did make an improvement. He also said I could bring the amps back to him and we could spend some more time voicing them to my preference for no charge. David is like a kid in a candy store when it comes to audio equipment, it is fun working with someone with this much enthusiasm.
As I said the differences were not huge but I get excited anytime equipment this good can be improved. Is it worth the money and risk of modifying McIntosh equipment? That is difficult to answer but so far I am happy with the results and would do it again.
Victor
The MC252 is a 250 watt stereo amp and my MC501s are 500 watt monoblocks. Bill was the client who had the upgraded MC252 and Bill was kind enough to invite us into his home to do comparisons. I have compared the MC252 to MC501s in the past and I thought the MC501s were significantly better than the MC252 in imaging and separation and the MC501s were a little better in detail. In bill's system his upgraded MC252 did in fact sound better than my MC501s. Bill's upgraded MC252 did have a little better detail than my MC501s and Bill's MC252 did a better job at giving the instruments separation, the MC501s sounded a little blurred in comparison. The biggest difference was in the bass, Bill's MC252 had much better bass than my MC501s. In Bill's system my MC501s sounded a little dull with weak bass and Bill's upgraded MC252 was musically enjoyable and just sucked you into the music.
After the comparisons at Bill house and spending the day with David I decided to leave him my McIntosh MC501 amps, MS750 music server and MDA1000 DAC to upgrade. I have had the upgraded equipment home and playing for about 72 hours, I know that is not enough time to get a final judgment but I decided to start this thread and post my initial impressions. As the next few months pass I will continue to give updates.
It took 5 days for the upgrades to be done and I know it is difficult to make comparisons with several days between listening so I listened to some music before the upgrades and took some notes.
The first comparison I did was an easy one, I compared the music playing from the hard drive on the upgraded MS750 music server to the CD playing through my non upgraded MVP851 disc player (keep in mind the MS750 and MVP851 are used as transports only with the MDA1000 being the DAC). Before the upgrade the sound of the music on the MS750 hard drive was just a little worse than the CD playing on the MVP851, there was just a little less detail with the music server. Now with the upgraded MS750 and doing a blind test with my friend switching the sources I preferred the sound of the upgraded MS750 3/4ths of the time. This is fantastic because I love the convenience of the music server and use it for most of my listening.
Now as for listening to the system all together, my first impression is that the soundstage has an increased depth and there is less "hash" which is allowing more detail to come through. The first CD for my comparisons is Bossa Antigua by Paul Desmond. With the upgraded equipment the percussion has more pinpoint detail and placement which seems to be about 10 feet behind the speakers. I don't remember hearing anything at this depth before. Also at times the sax seems to be close to my right ear which is nice. Next was Tea for the Tilerman by Cat Stevens. There seemed to be more detail in the guitar strings on this CD. Next Crime of the Century by Supertramp. WOW there are sounds coming from all over the place on this CD. Next was The Dream of the Blue Turtle by Sting. There is more bass impact on this CD than I remember.
I have listened to the upgraded equipment for about 20 hours so far and I have enjoyed it the entire time with no listener fatigue. This was already a great system so the improvements are not huge but I do feel that it is improved. I would say the improvements are about equal to going from average interconnects and speaker cables to great cables.
So far I'm happy with the upgrades. When I get the time I will bring the upgraded MC501s to the local stereo shop to do a direct comparison with their stock MC501s. David is a great guy who is genuinely concerned with pleasing his customers. He has called me several times since I got the upgraded equipment home to make sure I like what I hear. He was working on another McIntosh amp and he found a change that improved the sound and told me a simple way to do it on my amps. I did make the change and it did make an improvement. He also said I could bring the amps back to him and we could spend some more time voicing them to my preference for no charge. David is like a kid in a candy store when it comes to audio equipment, it is fun working with someone with this much enthusiasm.
As I said the differences were not huge but I get excited anytime equipment this good can be improved. Is it worth the money and risk of modifying McIntosh equipment? That is difficult to answer but so far I am happy with the results and would do it again.
Victor
