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Finding Cabinets for Mcintosh Gear?

deadhead79

deadhead79

New Member
I just bought a C38 preamp to mate with my MC7300 amplifier and a 7082 tuner. Both the Amp and the tuner came with the walnut cabinets on them, however the C38 is the first McIntosh product I'm buying without a cabinet. The compendium says I need either a L72 or an L82 cabinet to fit the C38. I'd like to get an original vintage cabinet if at all possible, but if I can't find one I am opening to purchasing a reproduction.

Was hoping forum members here could chime in and help with identifying a good source for reproduction cabinets that look close the real thing if an original can't be located at a reasonable price.


Also trying to figure out the panloc rails situation. Looks like these supposedly came with the equipment, but the c38 I'm buying does not have them any longer. So I'd need to find those as well. Any thoughts and recommendations are appreciated. Thanks.
 
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There is a very nice condition L 72 on ebay right now.
Priced at what it seems most are priced at when they show up there.
I didn't search the pan locs.
It's not mine and I don't know the seller,I just searched for it. Mcintosh L 72 and it popped up.
 
VintageMac said:
Audio Classics is your best bet for both.
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Thanks. Gonna give them a call tomorrow
triple20 said:
There is a very nice condition L 72 on ebay right now.
Priced at what it seems most are priced at when they show up there.
I didn't search the pan locs.
It's not mine and I don't know the seller,I just searched for it. Mcintosh L 72 and it popped up.
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Indeed there is. Anybody here installed panloc rails on a case? That one doesn't have any but if its not too hard to do maybe I'll try it. I am not very handy at all.
 
After looking at the C 38 on McIntosh Compendium,I don't think the C 38 uses pan locs. It must just slide in the cabinet without them.
 
triple20 said:
After looking at the C 38 on McIntosh Compendium,I don't think the C 38 uses pan locs. It must just slide in the cabinet without them.
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huh. Thanks for the heads up. I don't own a ton of McIntosh gear but everything I do own has always had the panlocs. Looking at a picture of what I just bought it appears you are totally right. No panlocs at all. So does anyone have experience with this at all. Does it just sit in the cabinet loose? The one on ebay seems to have two small brackets on the back do those attach to the unit somehow? Seems weird to just have it sit in the cabinet with nothing securing it.

picture of ebay unit attached.
 

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deadhead79 said:
I just bought a C38 preamp to mate with my MC7300 amplifier and a 7082 tuner. Both the Amp and the tuner came with the walnut cabinets on them, however the C38 is the first McIntosh product I'm buying without a cabinet. The compendium says I need either a L72 or an L82 cabinet to fit the C38. I'd like to get an original vintage cabinet if at all possible, but if I can't find one I am opening to purchasing a reproduction.

Was hoping forum members here could chime in and help with identifying a good source for reproduction cabinets that look close the real thing if an original can't be located at a reasonable price.


Also trying to figure out the panloc rails situation. Looks like these supposedly came with the equipment, but the c38 I'm buying does not have them any longer. So I'd need to find those as well. Any thoughts and recommendations are appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...
I don’t believe that the C38 ever came with panlocks. Mine has screws through the bottom of the cabinet into the C38’s screw holes from the feet.4DA8D59B-D25B-4BC5-8EAB-452860E17A0B.jpegGreat combination BTW, I loved my MC7300/C38 together.6F62D06F-CA52-4F5F-9BA7-1ED97DF79FB1.jpegNotice that the side rails on the C38 do stick out of the cabinet, it does not sit flush.
 
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Wow saturationpt nice system! Looks awesome. Any chance you can take pics of the screws as you describe them? I can’t quite figure out what you were describing.

as for the side rails sticking out I agree it would look nice flush, but the 7082 and the 7300 also have the side rails out of the cabinet so I’ll be happy to have it all match.
 
I was looking at the C72 cabinet on evilbay last night, it has the same screw holes through the bottom of the cabinet.

Those should line up (do in my case) with the four holes where the feet are screwed in to the metal cabinet from the factory (some describe as “shipping feet”). You remove those feet and install longer screws through the cabinet bottom with flat washers, ensuring that the screws are the correct length so that they don’t go into the electronics in the C38 (no I don’t know how long they are, sorry). Mine is only secured with two screws, it really doesn’t need more IMO.

I have considered taking my C38 out of the cabinet as it is now the only remaining piece with a cabinet, but I’m used to it and somehow it seems right to be in a cabinet. It would be fun to have custom cabinets made for my other equipment but the newer amplifiers aren’t designed to be in small cabinets, require good airflow, plus adding a heavy cabinet to already >100# amplifiers doesn’t help me move them for cleaning. I have not bought a cabinet since the C38. The big difference (to me) is that the amplifiers have interesting structure with their heatsinks and transformer cans where all of the other McIntosh bits are just metal boxes.

<edit> We should probably PM, where are you located? If the wider reproduction cabinet would work for me I might be interested in the wider cabinet. I’m getting too old to worry about original cabinets.
 
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SaturationPt said:
I was looking at the C72 cabinet on evilbay last night, it has the same screw holes through the bottom of the cabinet.

Those should line up (do in my case) with the four holes where the feet are screwed in to the metal cabinet from the factory (some describe as “shipping feet”). You remove those feet and install longer screws through the cabinet bottom with flat washers, ensuring that the screws are the correct length so that they don’t go into the electronics in the C38 (no I don’t know how long they are, sorry). Mine is only secured with two screws, it really doesn’t need more IMO.

I have considered taking my C38 out of the cabinet as it is now the only remaining piece with a cabinet, but I’m used to it and somehow it seems right to be in a cabinet. It would be fun to have custom cabinets made for my other equipment but the newer amplifiers aren’t designed to be in small cabinets, require good airflow, plus adding a heavy cabinet to already >100# amplifiers doesn’t help me move them for cleaning. I have not bought a cabinet since the C38. The big difference (to me) is that the amplifiers have interesting structure with their heatsinks and transformer cans where all of the other McIntosh bits are just metal boxes.

<edit> We should probably PM, where are you located? If the wider reproduction cabinet would work for me I might be interested in the wider cabinet. I’m getting too old to worry about original cabinets.
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Thank you for all this information. This is truly helpful. I've reached out to the seller on ebay to see if we can come to an agreement on that one.
 
deadhead79 said:
ebay seller turned out to be reasonable and we agreed on a price under asking. Thanks everyone for the help in figuring this out. Now I just have to wait for everything to arrive!!
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Excellent!
Nice to hear you have found what you wanted
 
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