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Was today my lucky day or what? The C-28 is in pristine condition, I would rate it 9/10 cosmetically. It hasn't been used in years so sonically I don't know yet. My stereo guru said it was & still is a stellar pre-amp. I'm taking it to him for the once over. I'll definitely hook it up in my system to see how it sounds. Then I'll decide whether or not to sell it. Any of you guys have any comments about this particular pre-amp? I called McIntosh w/ the serial # & they said it was produced in the mid to late seventies. From what I can gather re-sell can be upwards of $ 800. This will be a interesting call. What do you think?
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Phil,
Gave it to you???? Wow. 8O I think you'll be hard-pressed to come up with anything else for $600-800 that will come close to the performance you can expect from the C-28, if it is in pristine operating condition. Good deal fella! :T.
David - Trigger-happy HTGuide Admin -
:E Nicely done! :TJasonComment
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pics? does it have the cool blue peak meters?Comment
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HI pears,
I had a McIntosh C26 (the immediate predecessor to your C28 ) preamp back in the late sixties. Boy, I was the proudest guy on the block with that beautiful black back lit front panel and every user function you can imagine. I sold it in the mid seventies. I was very sorry to let it go.
After that I had very little contact with McIntosh and the company went through some hard times. In 1996 I opened a high end hi fi repair shop. Several years after opening I got a C26 in for repair. It was an interesting experience that I was eagerly anticipating. After the repair, I gave it a long audition all in the name of checking for reliability. My conclusion was that it was a HORRIBLE sounding preamp; not even close to the audio quality of the tube Mac's. Do realize that at that time I had been into very high end equipment for many years and my main system was Audio Research tube based.
The experience with the C26 mirrors my experience with ALL early solid state amplifiers and preamps. They are terrible by current standards. I don't know if the C28 fits into this stereotype or not. It is an early solid state design so it would not surprise me if it did.
Please understand that I don't want to rain on your parade. Other than sound, the early Mac solid state designs are wonderful having every conceivable bell and whistle and drop dead looks. I would suggest that you do a careful, objective sonic evaluation and if you find my characterization true, sell it to who ever wants to pay $800. My bet is that you will sell it.
I would be very interested in hearing about your evaluation.
SparkyComment
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Karma
Thanks for the info. I am having it looked at this weekend. It has been sitting for years, so who knows what it looks like inside. I've heard great things & not so great things about it. I will definetely hook 'er up & give a listen. At present I am using NAD T773 receiver as pre/pro. I kinda think new technology will sound better but then again what do I know about this stuff. My source is a Consonance Droplet 5.0 tube output CDP. The Droplet is a outstanding player.Comment
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Congratulations on your acquisition. I've never heard McIntosh gear but it sure looks purty.
If it hasn't been powered up in years, the capacitors may have degraded. You may want to put it on a variac and run up the supply voltage gradually to "reform" the caps. If there are any issues with performance (especially hum) it's probably because the caps are shot.Comment
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Have you considered the possibility that you botched the repair? Also, if it was in for repair it might have been abused or flawed in the first place.Originally posted by KarmaComment
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HI aphexist,
You are asking a fair question. I also asked myself the same one. My repair shop was very well instrumented. I had a Tektronix distortion analyzer capable of detecting .001% THD reliably, an ultra low distortion sine wave generator (.0001% THD), a Tektronix audio frequency spectrum anlyzer and Tektronix 100mHz scopes.
I tested the amp very carefully to ensure that it met or exceeded the published specifications for total harmonic distortion (THD), IM distortion, noise, and was capable of its rated output voltage swings. This was standard shop operating procedure. But I did it twice on this preamp, before and after the listening tests. That's about as far as I could take the testing but this is much further than most repair shops can go. They just don't have the very expensive Tek test equipment that I had.
There was nothing wrong with the repair. In spite of Victor's opinion, early solid state equipment had big problems especially with high frequencies. They were very grainy, exhibited glare, and sounded very rough. These issues were ubiquitous and not limited to any particular brand. This was also true of studio equipment and you can hear this in the recordings made back then. Thankfully, things have improved a lot. You can still hear this legacy in some modern equipment but to a far lesser degree. In general, I think modern solid state amps have overcome most of their early problems.
SparkyComment
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Free gear is always a plus in my book!
Congrats!
My offer.. $25.....
B&W
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Karma
Maybe my ears are not that sophisticated but I am more than happy with the performance of my "freebie' Nakamichi 620 power amp which is of a similar vintage. It is probably not considered to be high end (like the rest of my system - but everything is relative). I like it because it does not exhibit the issues you mention with high frequencies. I have only directly compared it with one modern power amp (a Quad 909) and I thought it stood up well enough in comparison to keep the old black beastie in my system.
pears
Nice find. Maybe we should start a club or a charity for aging orphan hifi components I am interested to hear how it goes in your system. I like the idea that there are some consumer products out there that can buck the trend of things being superseded and thrown away. Then again I am benefiting by accepting someone else's unwanted gear. (I do not have the heart to tell the Naks previous owner that his current budget AV receiver sounds very ordinary in comparison - all he needed to do was add a half decent source and speakers to the Nakamichi)
Mac 8gb SSD Audirvana ->Weiss INT202 firewire interface ->Naim DAC & XPS2 DR->Conrad Johnson CT5 & LP70S-> Vivid B1s. Nordost Valhalla cables & resonance management. (Still waiting for Paul Hynes PS:M)
Siamese :evil: :twisted:Comment
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HI Briz,
Freebies are nice for sure. Keep it and enjoy unless you can sell it to finance something better. In the case of your Nak, the resale value is not high and it has no collector interest.
McIntosh equipment of any description, however, is a different case. While none of their solid state designs have achieved collector status, and never will IMO, there is a loyal group who will pay real money for anything Mac. Therefore, selling the C28 might make some sense.
SparkyComment
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