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My MC2300 Story

M

Mercado1008

New Member
Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum but I have had a lifelong love of McIntosh. My first experience with the brand was as a child - going over to my best friends house and listening to his father's McIntosh system. I loved those blue meters. I didn't know anything about the brand at the time other than how beautiful the amps where and how amazing the system sounded.

I have lived the last 12 years in Australia, where I acquired an MA5200 integrated amplifier which I loved dearly but had to sell prior to moving back to the US.

Last year I bought a C28 Preamp which I have used for my turntable - connecting it to a Sonos system.

I have, however, sought after and yearned for a big, powerful amp - specifically the MC2300.

I think my love of the brand and the legendary status of the amp in the Grateful Dead's wall of sound has made this amp a target of mine for some time.

Last week I managed to acquire it - and it has a very interesting story!

Given the size of the amplifier, I have kept on the lookout for one of these locally (I live in Palm Coast, FL) and have found Facebook's Marketplace to be a great resource for local items. A few weeks back, I saw a listing that said '2300 McIntosh Amplifier from a Southern Rock Band'. It was pretty beat up - plenty of road rash - but I was intrigued.

I reached out to the seller to receive this message: 'Hi Neal thank you for your interest. I work for a southern rock band in the 70s by the names of grinderswitch we recorded Capricorn records in Macon Georgia I was managed by owner Phil Walden after our first album we hit the road pretty heavy touring with the Allman Brothers Band Marshall Tucker Band Charlie Daniels Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd promoting our new album our amp line was a little ragged so the organizer of the band Joe Dan Petty who was working for the Allman Brothers at the time and Twiggs Lyndon I was also working with Allman Brothers made a deal with the Grateful Dead the purchase of equipment for us purchase two of the 2300 Max a couple preamps that's a bass and guitar Cube speaker cabinets while in the studio doing our second album we made a trade with the Allman Brothers Band and traded the cube speaker cabinets for the Allman Brothers Marshall cabinets and Orion base cabinets we kept the McIntosh amps years later after several other albums the band split up one of the guitar players Larry Howard from Auburndale Florida. About 2 years ago Larry gave me his McIntosh and one of the old Marshall cabinets that we had refurbished and a couple other things just before he passed away the Marshall cabinet he gave me actually belong to Duane Allman at one point. It is on loan to the Allman Brothers Big House museum and Macon Georgia at this time.'

Wow.

So cool. Could it be that I might have the opportunity to purchase an MC2300 that actually belonged to the Grateful Dead???

I immediately responded and agreed to meet the seller: Terry (who it turns out was a roady and drum tech for Grinderswitch) in his Auburndale, FL home.

He was such a great guy and had so many amazing stories of their touring adventures with the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels Band and more.

I have read posts in this forum about individuals researching the MC2300s that were used in Wall of Sound and I have no idea if this amp was actually one of the 48. It has a serial number of 2Y39 and I believe most of the amps used had a 1Y serial number. However, in speaking to Terry, I do believe it came from the Dead. Here are some pics I took of my time with Terry when I went to pick the amp up:
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IMG-4692


And here it is in situ - waiting for some speakers to power:
McIntosh 2300

McIntosh 2300

 
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I remember them being regulars on the Southern rock tour circuit. Never saw them tho, wasn't much for going out then.
 
Welcome to AK and the mac forum Neil, cool story on your amp.

Mercado1008 said:
I have read posts in this forum about individuals researching the MC2300s that were used in Wall of Sound and I have no idea if this amp was actually one of the 48. It has a serial number of 2Y39 and I believe most of the amps used had a 1Y serial number.
Click to expand...
Yes the dead was using 1Y amps during the time of the Wall. You do have a very early 2Y as the 39th unit made. Do you have banana plug speaker binding post on that Amp?


Mercado1008 said:
I do believe it came from the Dead. Here are some pics I took of my time with Terry when I went to pick the amp up:
Click to expand...
Your amp could have very well come from Alembic and the use of the word Cubes for cabinets might have came from them. Most amps from Alembic where modded, and the ones from the wall of sound have some specific mods to them. Alembic was a company started by the techs working for the Dead and other artist around SF. I have more info if you want it posted in your thread.

Here is my Papa John Creach amp


image.jpg image-1.jpg gettyimages-1063874558-2048x2048.jpg

A Roady's beer is on top of it in this photo

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The amp is shown at the 7 minute mark in this vid and as you can see Papa John also had
Alembic cabinets

 
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4-2-7 said:
Welcome to AK and the mac forum Neil, cool story on your amp.


Yes the dead was using 1Y amps during the time of the Wall. You do have a very early 2Y as the 39th unit made. Do you have banana plug speaker binding post on that Amp?



Your amp could have very well come from Alembic and the use of the word Cubes for cabinets might have came from them. Most amps from Alembic where modded, and the ones from the wall of sound have some specific mods to them. Alembic was a company started by the techs working for the Dead and other artist around SF. I have more info if you want it posted in your thread.

Here is my Papa John Creach amp


View attachment 1783252 View attachment 1783253 View attachment 1783254

A Roady's beer is on top of it in this photo

View attachment 1783256

The amp is shown at the 7 minute mark in this vid and as you can see Papa John also had
Alembic cabinets

Click to expand...


Wow! Such a great story of your amp! Would love more info on Alembic - please post away!

I will have to send a pic of the back of the amp to answer the question of the banana plug speaker binding post.

Here's a pic of my amp during a Grinderswitch concert:Grinderswitch Live 74.jpg
 
Man, that's awesome. I've got a 1Y and an early 2Y series MC2300. Makes listening to Grateful Dead a little more special doesn't it? Welcome to the club!
 
A 2300 can be a great amp if applied properly. Get your self an MPI-4 and watch the dual display for any sign of clipping if you are pushing it. The meters don't always tell the truth. Which can be dangerous for tweeters and midrange horns. Woofers can handle it normally for brief periods. Never lost a woofer or cone midrange with 2300's in all types of installations. But tweeters and super tweeters could be wiped out in a flash.
 
rollcentre said:
Man, that's awesome. I've got a 1Y and an early 2Y series MC2300. Makes listening to Grateful Dead a little more special doesn't it? Welcome to the club!
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I have a 1Y and 4Y. I converted the fans in the 1Y to thermostatic operation.
 
4-2-7 said:
Welcome to AK and the mac forum Neil, cool story on your amp.


Yes the dead was using 1Y amps during the time of the Wall. You do have a very early 2Y as the 39th unit made. Do you have banana plug speaker binding post on that Amp?

I believe I do have a banana plug speaker binding post - attaching images. There is definitely something there that I have not seen on the back of other MC2300's
IMG-4718

IMG-4718

Also showing a picture of the inside.
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Your amp could have very well come from Alembic and the use of the word Cubes for cabinets might have came from them. Most amps from Alembic where modded, and the ones from the wall of sound have some specific mods to them. Alembic was a company started by the techs working for the Dead and other artist around SF. I have more info if you want it posted in your thread.

Would love to get more info on this if you have some time to post.

Thanks so much 4-2-7!
Click to expand...
 
twiiii said:
A 2300 can be a great amp if applied properly. Get your self an MPI-4 and watch the dual display for any sign of clipping if you are pushing it. The meters don't always tell the truth. Which can be dangerous for tweeters and midrange horns. Woofers can handle it normally for brief periods. Never lost a woofer or cone midrange with 2300's in all types of installations. But tweeters and super tweeters could be wiped out in a flash.
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Thank you!

I have not yet purchased speakers to go with this amp but am thinking of the following:

Klipsch Heresy III
Klipsch Cornwall III
or Klipsch Chorus II

Or any other recommendations would be most welcome!
 
Mercado1008 said:
Thank you!

I have not yet purchased speakers to go with this amp but am thinking of the following:

Klipsch Heresy III
Klipsch Cornwall III
or Klipsch Chorus II

Or any other recommendations would be most welcome!
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All of those would be perfect for an MC250! You sir ... have an MC2300. Of course if you set the meter range switch at -20dB, you'd be full-on jamming with the meters hitting +3dB (3 watts per ch) on the Klipsches you listed.
 
damacman said:
All of those would be perfect for an MC250! You sir ... have an MC2300. Of course if you set the meter range switch at -20dB, you'd be full-on jamming with the meters hitting +3dB (3 watts per ch) on the Klipsches you listed.
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Yikes - ok gotcha!

Any recommendations on what speakers could handle the amp?
 
This amp has the thermostatic controlled fans - that's nice. You may flip the fans around to have them pull air through the amp vs push in. McIntosh made this change shortly after your amp was produced.

Interesting to see the banana jacks - hard wired right to the 4Ohm taps.
 
damacman said:
This amp has the thermostatic controlled fans - that's nice. You may flip the fans around to have them pull air through the amp vs push in. McIntosh made this change shortly after your amp was produced.

Interesting to see the banana jacks - hard wired right to the 4Ohm taps.
Click to expand...

Can I use these to power speakers? Sorry for the super novice question!
 
You certainly could - if you had 4Ohm speakers. This was obviously a mod which greatly sped up connecting / disconnecting the amplifier during shows. Plus, it eliminated errors by the hired help.

Find a pair of McIntosh XR7s, XR19s, or XRT20s. Or look at current offerings from B&W, Martin Logan, etc. I've used my MC2300s to power a LOT of different speakers since 1994. Never an issue.
 
I may have missed it but what is the service history of this amp? If you plan to use it for home audio, you need to make sure it's been electrically restored to factory specification. It's 50 years old (almost) and even if it had not had a hard road life it would need full restoration. If the amp is not working correctly, it won't sound good with the Klipsch or any of the speakers suggested and further damage is possible.

If it were mine, I would not even hook it up until it got time on a bench (I'd send it to Audio Classics). Also, since it has this great provenance, I would not have it cosmetically restored at all. Let it show the road wear but under the hood it should be operating as new.

Also, the (properly restored) amp will work fine with those Klipsch speakers. The Klipsch speakers are very efficient so don't require a lot of power so the MC2300 will not work very hard to run them, but you won't damage the speakers unless you turn the volume up so loud as to drive everyone from the room. The Klipsch can "handle" this amp as well (more or less) as the other suggested speakers which are all also great speakers.

Anyway, congrats on a cool find.
 
damacman said:
<<snip>>interesting to see the banana jacks - hard wired right to the 4Ohm taps.
Click to expand...

Aren't those 1/4" TS jacks wired to the 4Ohm taps? The other TS jacks have RCA adapters in them (inputs). The gold-plated adapters on the speaker terminal strips will work with banana jacks, I don't like them because you can very easily put too much load on those with the long banana plugs in them, with just an accidental tug on the wires.
 
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