David_NC
Super Member
In my daily scans of Craigslist, I came across a McIntosh C31V fairly local to me for a good price over the weekend and decided to check it out. I was impressed with this 30 year old - it looks 95% new, seem to function perfectly, other than a little noise in the balance control, and included the remote and wood case. After demo'ing it for 30 mins or so with a variety of sources on the seller's dual MC240's and a pair of really nice custom-built speakers, I was sold. Well, actually the C31 was sold... to me!
The seller has a ton of nice gear. As we were talking, he showed me his 'listening room'; the above was just the den system. His main system has MC300 and Audio Research D125 amps, Technics RS-1700 reel to reel, and a VPI turntable (I can't recall the model) with some sort of tonearm that uses compressed air, Peachtree Audio hybrid / tube integrated amp - DAC used as a preamp, disc player of some sort, and Kipsch Cornwalls. It was all really impressive, but the least impressive part of his system was the Cornwalls. I'm not sure what was 'wrong' with them, but there was something missing that my ADS L780/2's have... even my L300's at work have it. Perhaps it's the horn vs dome driver sound, but they Klipschs sounded a bit sterile to me and lacked the warmth and realism of the ADS speakers I've heard, especially on vocals. Granted, in a room as big is his, my L780's would likely not sound like they do in my listening space.
We discussed speakers for a bit, and he said he would like to try out a pair of upper ADS speakers, having heard good things about them. L910's and 2030 / 1230's are on his watch list. I'd really like to hear his system with those in his listening space; I'm curious if it's the room or speakers causing that missing 'something'.
I got my C31 home, and hooked it up to the only power amp I have at the moment - a lightly used QSC USA 900. I used my dbx 223XL crossover between the C31 and amp to allow me to my subwoofer. I was surprised at how nice this combo sounds - powerful, loud, clear, and with that warmth that I look for. I initially had the crossover at 40Hz when I was setting it up, and on loud passages with lots of bass, I could tell the L780's were reaching their limits, and raising it to around 55Hz solved that. Prior to this pre-amp / crossover / power amp combo, I was using a Sony V333ES receiver, which certainly sounded nice on its own. I think the best I can describe the difference between the two setups, using the same sources and speakers, is that while both setups sound good, the current one sounds a good bit more effortless with better-defined bass.
I'd definitely like to replace the QSC with a different amp, but that's not in the budget at the moment. I think this will serve as an incentive to unload much of the equipment I've acquired. In the meantime, I'll live with this and see what shortcomings I notice. Two observations - first, the QSC amp and dbx crossover have very shallow chassis, which make stacking any other components on them pretty much impossible. I'll have to use longer cables between the C31 and the crossover so that I can move them to a rack. Second, the fan in this amp is all but inaudible. It's currently sitting on the floor, and I had to get within a foot to 18" to even hear it. It's got a larger, slower fan that's mounted in the back of the amp blowing out the front, and I'm sure both help vs a smaller high speed fan in the front of the amp. For those who want lots of power (240 WPC @ 8Ω / .1%THD, 20-20KHz, double at 4Ω and bridged) and decent sound, these amps seem like a steal at around $100 used.
The seller has a ton of nice gear. As we were talking, he showed me his 'listening room'; the above was just the den system. His main system has MC300 and Audio Research D125 amps, Technics RS-1700 reel to reel, and a VPI turntable (I can't recall the model) with some sort of tonearm that uses compressed air, Peachtree Audio hybrid / tube integrated amp - DAC used as a preamp, disc player of some sort, and Kipsch Cornwalls. It was all really impressive, but the least impressive part of his system was the Cornwalls. I'm not sure what was 'wrong' with them, but there was something missing that my ADS L780/2's have... even my L300's at work have it. Perhaps it's the horn vs dome driver sound, but they Klipschs sounded a bit sterile to me and lacked the warmth and realism of the ADS speakers I've heard, especially on vocals. Granted, in a room as big is his, my L780's would likely not sound like they do in my listening space.
We discussed speakers for a bit, and he said he would like to try out a pair of upper ADS speakers, having heard good things about them. L910's and 2030 / 1230's are on his watch list. I'd really like to hear his system with those in his listening space; I'm curious if it's the room or speakers causing that missing 'something'.
I got my C31 home, and hooked it up to the only power amp I have at the moment - a lightly used QSC USA 900. I used my dbx 223XL crossover between the C31 and amp to allow me to my subwoofer. I was surprised at how nice this combo sounds - powerful, loud, clear, and with that warmth that I look for. I initially had the crossover at 40Hz when I was setting it up, and on loud passages with lots of bass, I could tell the L780's were reaching their limits, and raising it to around 55Hz solved that. Prior to this pre-amp / crossover / power amp combo, I was using a Sony V333ES receiver, which certainly sounded nice on its own. I think the best I can describe the difference between the two setups, using the same sources and speakers, is that while both setups sound good, the current one sounds a good bit more effortless with better-defined bass.
I'd definitely like to replace the QSC with a different amp, but that's not in the budget at the moment. I think this will serve as an incentive to unload much of the equipment I've acquired. In the meantime, I'll live with this and see what shortcomings I notice. Two observations - first, the QSC amp and dbx crossover have very shallow chassis, which make stacking any other components on them pretty much impossible. I'll have to use longer cables between the C31 and the crossover so that I can move them to a rack. Second, the fan in this amp is all but inaudible. It's currently sitting on the floor, and I had to get within a foot to 18" to even hear it. It's got a larger, slower fan that's mounted in the back of the amp blowing out the front, and I'm sure both help vs a smaller high speed fan in the front of the amp. For those who want lots of power (240 WPC @ 8Ω / .1%THD, 20-20KHz, double at 4Ω and bridged) and decent sound, these amps seem like a steal at around $100 used.
