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Integrating Vintage McIntosh Components into a modern system

F

Foxtopia

New Member
Hello all,

First time poster. Recently, I inherited several vintage McIntosh components after my father recently passed:

MC2105 Amp
C26 Pre Amp
MR72 FM Tuner

All components have been assessed and cleaned/cleared by our local McIntosh-certified repair shop. They were unfortunately not very helpful with questions about integrating them into a system.

My current system uses an Integra DRX 2.1, powering Martin Logan ESL Electrostats - so while not modern McIntosh quality, it does the job well for AV surround in our living room (approx 20x20x20 room). I am thinking that I would be better served leaving this system as is and putting the McIntosh system in a smaller room (10x10x10 approx) to use only for audio (both for listening and performing). If that seems the reasonable course of action, what components would be needed to convert to a 5.1 system? What do you recommend for speakers (there are other posts about this, but I'm curious your thoughts in respect to this specific setup and layout)? Let's say budgeting is under $5000 for everything needed.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you for your time!
 
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If I was in your situation, I would keep the systems separate. Those three Mac components together with the Martin Logan's sound like a pretty nice setup. You could just add whatever sources you wanted, like a turntable, CD player, or a streamer like the Wiim Pro. Then you could get some other speakers and a sub for AV duty.

That said, a 10x10x10 room seems kind of small for big Electrostats.
 
I have a similar setup with 5.1 system and vintage Mac for two channel. I use a single pair of speakers for the fronts on the 5.1 and the Mac system and use an amp switcher to pick which system is using the speakers at any given time.

Just be sure that the selector switch is a type where you can’t select both amps at the same time, that would be bad…
 
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