McIntosh - Tubes or Solid State - Poll

[PHC1]

Which McIntosh products are your favorite, tubes or solid state. If you own both, pick one or the other, amps or pre-amps, doesn't matter, you have to choose your camp. What's it gonna be?

 

[exracer]

Which McIntosh products are your favorite, tubes or solid state. If you own both, pick one or the other, amps or pre-amps, doesn't matter, you have to choose your camp. What's it gonna be?

Thats like asking which of your children you like best !!:tears:

(transistor)

 

[PHC1]

Thats like asking which of your children you like best !!

This poll may be cruel but sometimes you have to make a choice in life...

 

[Doug Olitsky]

I have 5 SS and one Tube Mc amp.

I love all my children, but.....

 

[PHC1]

Hard to choose, ain't it? :scratch2: Roll the dice guys. Push one or the other button. :thmbsp:

 

[CarlV]

Not a hard choice at all.


Carl

 

[radioactive]

wasnt a hard choice here either since i've never owned any s/s.

 

[Schaefer67]

both for different applications, though....

The tube amp main rig of a guitarist should be 50w-100w rms vacuum tube for the big, round warm clear and breathy tone----Marshall, Vox whatever....the sound reinforcement I like in the sound reproduction department stage can be a solid state amplification item like Mosfet Bluetube 500w rms....brutal, with transients and warm in a mosfet electronics kinda way to keep the guitar signal warm and not sleet-needle sterile.

In the hi-fi department it is tubes all the way....even if the amp only has them in the preamp section of the unit's circuit--like 6C10's or something similar. I will soon be changing over from a 70w-rms-per-side Mitsubishi M-VR600 A/V receiver solid state unit to a 60's-70's, 25w-rms-per-side Harmon Kardon A500 (4 x 7355; 4 x 12AX7; 1 x 12AU7 tube complement).....and I replace the receiver side with a simple Sangean HDT-1 HD AM/FM radio seperate ($120) and repair on my way to reconnecting the (2) 1975 Pioneer cassette decks and a 1973 Sony 1100 turntable and a freebie, 1992-ish 5-CD changer by Kenwood (lol...I would like a Carver, but that's next in the works---with a tube in it!) With tubes and my stilted hearing it's all in the 2,000k Hz to 5,000k Hz range-----and the tubes reproduce musical tones and stuff with the transients and upper-midrange/treble so beautifully.

 

[howiebrou]

My cryptic choice;

 

[barrynsue]

Tooooooooobs!

 

[markc2]

Tube newbie, never had tubes until now. After tube rolling, and hearing the results of that, there quite amazing devices. Wish the Discovery channel would do a show on them...

It's gotten a bit bad though, went to an antique store and saw an OLD TV. Took out off the back part and presto, a couple tubes that hadn't seen the light of day in who knows how long. One of them was an Amperex tube !!

Since I don't have blue meter's it's a nice trade off to watch the crystalline fire.

 

[Shane]

tubes baby!!

 

[tom_hankins]

I voted SS for one reason. I lust after the 1201s to go with my CS7.2s.

 

[Victor]

I started off in the tube camp but in the last few years switched to the SS camp.

With McIntosh you really can't go wrong either way. I found with high end McIntosh products (MC501s, MDA1000...) there is not a significant difference in sound quality between tube and SS. So I decided to go with the SS equipment because of the reduced maintenance needed. Also when I had tube equipment, at times I would obsess with tube rolling (I don't miss that).

Victor

 

[jdmeyers]

No way I'd ever part with either! Love how the 352 (with 402 innards) drives my Spendor 1/2s. But it oddly leaves me cold downstaors with the big 9/1s. For them, the 275 is the ticket. Wierd.

Of course, until you've heard a proper 225...

 

[rcarlton]

Tubes...but I also own 3 ss amps.

 

[Johncan]

I have two SS McIntosh amps and two tube McIntosh amps; I also have a SS McIntosh receiver and a SS McIntosh integrated.

And then I have the preamp and tuner collection

 

[william.keith]

I found with high end McIntosh products (MC501s, MDA1000...) there is not a significant difference in sound quality between tube and SS. Victor

Victor, can I infer that based on your experience and judgement, with relatively efficient and well constructed speakers, a MC275 MkV will provide essentially equal sound quality as a pair of MC501s at normal listening levels?

 

[PHC1]

a MC275 MkV will provide essentially equal sound quality as a pair of MC501s at normal listening levels?

The parameters of your question fit my profile, I have both in my system in an average size room with monitor sized speakers. Yes the 275 MKIV more than holds its own against the 501s in everything across the board except the bass where it is just a little rounder and plumper but still very, very enjoyable and musical. Of course you gotta have the right tool for the job, bigger rooms, more demanding speakers and you'll need more "muscle" of solid state.

 

[Face]

I own 4 SS amps, no tubes yet. I was considering selling off 3 of the SS amps(keeping the 7270) and using the money towards tubes.