Vintage Receivers

[theebadone]

They provide a certain utility with power amps to help determine clipping. The problem is that they like the LED ladders on my Threshold amp are not fast enough to accurately assess peak output power. Your ears can hear when the amp clips before the meters figure it out - unless of course you have the McIntosh compressor circuit. Which is another mystery to me. You compromise the signal integrity with a circuit that monitors the output and compresses the signal when someone is incapable of controlling the gain. Call me crazy, but I like wide dynamic range. But, with a preamp? Have you ever clipped a preamp? My Audio Research preamp can deliver 50 volts to an amp that only requires 1.3 V for maximum output. What possible useful information does it impart? In fact, I bypass the preamp altogether for the CDP because it can fully drive the amp to clipping by itself. Meters on a preamp are as useless as tits on a bull. Or, the big fat meter on the Mac turntable which is a rebadged Clearaudio unit. It is used to indicate speed. So, you're listening to Christina Aguilera and are thinking "why does she sound like Lurch (or Alvin the Chipmunk)? What on earth could be wrong? I'm just not into gratuitous gee-wizardry. Then again, you might be able to find an MPI-4 Maximum Performance Indicator to light up your wall!



Let's no go there!

rw

ITS NOT WHATS ON THE OUTSIDE, ITS WHAT IS ON THE INSIDE THAT COUNTS

[E-Stat]

ITS NOT WHATS ON THE OUTSIDE, ITS WHAT IS ON THE INSIDE THAT COUNTS

Indeed. They take the $6000 Clearaudio Avant Garde Magnum and add $3000 worth of cosmetics. As for me, I would much rather have the higher performance Anniversary AMG model with the Souther designed arm for a bit more and forego the light show from Wicked

rw

[dakatabg]

That amp looks so cool!

[squidboyw]

Hello Foamdust,

I split my time between vintage and newer equipment. I would not attempt to dissuade you from finding your Mac receiver. I do think there are other brands with units that you would probably find just as appealing. As mentioned by theKid, Pioneer made some well regarded receivers (I have 2 SX-1010, a SX-880, a SX-780, and a SX-750), was well as Marantz , and Sony. I would consider some of the Sonys like the STR7055 or Kenwood KR9400 - 9600. There are others, but those were TOTL

The one thing I would keep in mind is that with these older units, cap failure is an issue. Every one of the vintage pieces in my collect had at least a few caps that were going bad. If you pop the top and look at caps, anything that has the shrink pulled off the top and is going down the sides is a cap in the process of failure. The unit may turn on and play, but it is no where near the top of its form. My practice has been to replace all of the caps, and often, some resistors and diodes too. Some vintage units have active components that are no longer made. Some cap failures can take those parts out, and then you just have an old fancy doorstop instead of a fine old vintage receiver.

[squeegy200]

Mcintosh 1700 is rated 45W and it was made 1967 to 1973! It is a great amp and I had the chance to heart it only once! Great receiver! It is rated 45W but it sounds like it has 5 times more! It will cost you around $500 to get it! It is true that most of the old vintage receivers sound much better than the new receivers!

I had a MAC 1700 for awhile. It's a hybrid Tube/Transistor receiver. It was far better than most of the receivers that I had on hand to compare against. But I have to admit, I was anticipating much more based on its reputation and eventually sold it. I used it to drive Dahquist DQ-10s and Magneplaner MG-1s. It did very well with those speakers. Its reputation and resale value remains high in the used market. If you are looking for a receiver, there isn't anything else out there with more cache. If you can get a good price on a functional unit, and a vintage receiver is your goal, then you will not be disappointed.