Article: McIntosh Labs C53 Preamplifier Review

[bluesman]

Thanks for the fine work and write-up!  I've been sorely tempted to check out some new McIntosh, and you may have pushed me over the line.

 

I'm old enough to remember when the audiophile world and press shunned McIntosh. This was a critical part of my formative years, as I loved everything about Macs from their sound to their looks to their build quality and couldn't understand the flames from non-Mac dealers and the press.  Thanks to McIntosh, I learned to trust my ears and judgment far more than reviews and opinions that differed too strongly from mine to be objective.  I've owned at least a dozen of their products since buying a new MX110 and a pair of used MC40s in 1969, and I only sold my last pieces (a pair of MC75s) when we downsized from a house to an apartment four years ago.

 

1 hour ago, Danny Kaey said:

There's reality and there's theory... the two don't always necessarily intersect, no matter what the data says.

That applies in spades to the original audiophile objections to early Mac tube amps because they operated in class B.  Everybody knows that class B sounds dull and lifeless 😁