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New McIntosh Owner (version 2)

Bazookatooth

Bazookatooth

Trouble
Hey everyone.

I was recently given some equipment that a friend was not using anymore. I've been lurking around and it seems i should send it up to Terry in TN if i want to get any work done.

The components are:
MCD7008
C2200
MC2255 ST

I'm located in Charleston, SC and i'm wondering if there is anyone near here that could take a look at the equipment and tell me if it needs to be freshened up or repaired. Maybe there is someone semi local that actually works on McIntosh equipment?

Anywho, thanks for the help. I'm looking forward to getting all of this up and running.
 
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Wow!! I need a friend like that.
C2200 - relatively new and likely would, at most, need fresh tubes (about $15-40, each, depending on what you want) and perhaps lamps to illuminate the faceplate and meters.
MC2255 - Likely 'the' most collectible McIntosh solid-state amp. It is old enough that a recap would likely improve its sonics, but it is a great amp. Definitely worthy of most any work it might need.
Can't really comment on the MCD7008. But, If were me, I would connect everything together and turn it on a give it a go. Everything may be working just fine.
 
Thank you for the information!

Well, they all light up just fine (all faceplates and meters), and they are in great physical condition. I just haven't had time to get them hooked up to speakers. I don't have a rack that can support the amp (it sort of weighs a lot more than i expected) and i'm weary of running it while it's sitting on carpet.

My friend said that they were giving him issues and he wasn't sure if it was the amp or the preamp, and he didn't go into what issues he was having. He said they worked, they just had a problem.

I spoke to someone familiar with the equipment and he said sometimes the knobs that adjust the gain on the front of the amp get dirty and you have problems with the sound output of one of the channels. I'm not sure how accurate that is.
 
Your friend is accurate. The best thing to do at this point is just hook up everything and see how it is working. If the controls are noisy, contact cleaner can do this. After things are playing, let us know what you find and we can help narrow down the issue then. There are plenty of great people on here that can help & we can even help repair the unit.

Congrats on the new system!
 
AudioClassics1 said:
Your friend is accurate. The best thing to do at this point is just hook up everything and see how it is working. If the controls are noisy, contact cleaner can do this. After things are playing, let us know what you find and we can help narrow down the issue then. There are plenty of great people on here that can help & we can even help repair the unit.

Congrats on the new system!
Click to expand...

I'll hook them up tonight and report back. Thanks for the advice.
 
Audio Classics is one of the 'known good' places to send for upgrades. The other is Terry DeWick. There is a good 'sticky' over in either the Vintage Solid State of DIY forum on using the proper contact cleaner in the proper manner. It is likely the amp rather than the preamp, as it is 25+ years older. It is not actually the knob, but the potentiometer to which the knob is connected that is problem. Unless you are comfortable doing some bit of mechanical work (pulling the faceplate, etc.), then sending out for a cleaning, recap and calibration is the way to go.
 
So i hooked everything up and it sounds pretty bad. Low volume and really scratchy.

The Preamp looks like the left needle is not moving as high or as fast as the right needle (on the monitors).

The Amp barely shows the needles moving at all.

I don't know the best way to describe it besides scratchy. So it's time to clean them up i guess. I wish i had another preamp and amp so i could test each of them individually.
 
UPDATE!

I had an NAD receiver hooked up in my bedroom and it had preamp outs...so i hooked it up to the MC2255 and it sounded fine. So the amp is GOOD!

What a relief.

The CD changer will play a CD, but it keeps putting up "Err" on the display if i try to load disks. So i assume there is a belt somewhere that needs to be replaced.

I guess the preamp was causing the problems.
 

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Generally, with tube equipment, the first thing to try is new tubes. In the C2200 The tubes in the preamp and phono stage are identical (2, each, 12AT7 & 12AX7). The phono stage usually has fewer hours of use, so those tubes may be fine. Try swapping them and see if that fixes the problem with the preamp.
 
MX117.MC7150 said:
Generally, with tube equipment, the first thing to try is new tubes. In the C2200 The tubes in the preamp and phono stage are identical (2, each, 12AT7 & 12AX7). The phono stage usually has fewer hours of use, so those tubes may be fine. Try swapping them and see if that fixes the problem with the preamp.
Click to expand...

I will give it a shot tonight. Thanks for the advice.
 
I swapped the tubes and it did not change the sound quality at all.

Another interesting fact: The front 4 tubes warm up, but the rear 4 tubes never warm up.
 
Phono stage tubes only come on when you select the phono input. That is the reason they generally have many fewer hours of run-time. Sounds like a trip to either Audio Classics or Terry DeWick is in order. If you think it is a keeper, then having the LED kit installed would be a nice 'long-term' upgrade while it is being serviced.
 
It's worth the investment since i don't have any money into any of the equipment. I know the amp will hold it's value, i assume the preamp will hold it's value.

Thanks for all of your help. I learned a ton from this thread alone.
 
Get the proper shipping boxes from McIntosh or Audio Classics. That is the only way to safely protect that glass faceplate. And, yes, the C2200 is an 'investment' in good sound. Not many out there, but McIntosh is.
 
That's about right. It is actually two boxes (inner and outer) and the proper packing materials to make the trip as safe as possible. Maybe not cheap, but considerably less than a new faceplate.
 
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