Article: McIntosh Labs C53 Preamplifier Review

[992Sam]

I for one would have possibly gone with the 2700 had it come with the 8 band EQ...  for small speakers and in a smallish room, I chose the C53 mainly due to this feature...  The idea that EQ isn't useful or cool to have assumes way to much about the subjective nature of how we all listen to music..  And as with a volume knob, or input gain, you can mess the sound up easily with an EQ as well.. it's a tweak, not a cure for a bad setup. 

 

As for the ESS 9018 based DA-2 DAC... it will see action when I play SACD as the requirement of the DIN cable will limit me to this (since I use the MCT500 SACD Transport)... but the rest of my DAC processing, including playing normal CD will be via Coax into my dedicated dCS DAC... which leaps and bounds ahead of the DA-2 (to my ears).