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From: mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Michael Squires)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Re: McIntosh Components--Opinions sought
Message-ID: <7727@uwm.edu>
Date: 19 Nov 90 13:47:19 GMT
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In article <7664@uwm.edu> adobe!!asanders@decwrl.dec.com writes:
> Do people think this equipment
>has merit in comparison with today's entry-level high-end gear?

MacIntosh made several different lines of tube amplifiers.  I used one
of their instrumentation amps (previously used in Caltech's analog
computer, and then surplused when the IBM mainframe came in) in my
first stereo system alongside an Eico HF-89.  It was a very good amp.
The C-20/22 premap and the MC-30/60/75 power amps sounded worse to me
than comparable Marantz gear (7 premap, 10B tuner, 8B or 9 power amps).
Given that the 7/8B combination sounds quite colored today I would be
very surprised if a C-20/MC-275/MR-67 combination (for example) would
be competitive with current high end products, or even good middle
brow components.  There is certainly great demand for these things,
but I've never figured out why.

The instrumentation amp was interesting in that it was DC coupled from
input to the output transformer and used a servo amplifier to control
bias - all with tubes.
-- 

Mike Squires (mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu)     812 855 3974 (w) 812 333 6564 (h)
mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu          546 N Park Ridge Rd., Bloomington, IN 47408
Under construction: mikes@sir-alan@cica.indiana.edu