Noob McIntosh MC58/CR16 Question

[Realjh]

Disclaimer: i have no idea what i am doing.
 

I got an MC58 CR16, 2 LS320’s and some other bookshelf loudspeakers from my aunt’s house when she passed. I was super excited about the prospect of owning a McIntosh anything, but realized quickly that this was a non-tube amp McIntosh relic from the late 90’s early 2000’s wired multi-room home theater craze. 
 

So I set it up with the big serial cable and plugged a tuner in and the LS320’s and the sound is all highs and no lows. Its hard to listen to frankly. 
 

There is hardly any information about this system on the internet and the manual shows a diagram of exactly my setup. Where is the EQ? What kind of audio system has no EQ! The manual doesn’t even suggest an eq as an accessory. 
 

Surely the LS 320 speakers are capable of a more balanced warmer sound. 
 

What am i missing? I have no idea what im doing. Please help.

[PeterG]

Sorry about your aunt.  On to your question:

 

I'm not familiar with these products, but I just took a quick look online, here are a few thoughts from someone who does not claim to have the correct answers:

 

I agree with your implication that there are better McIntosh products for music, but what you have may be worth building off of.  If you have a McIntosh dealer nearby (a real one, not Best Buy), I would definitely run all this by them.  I expect they would be very helpful.

 

Equalizers like you are thinking of are passe on high end systems, based on the idea that if you have a properly set up system, you're going to be doing more harm than good.  It looks like you have tone controls, also passe, but perhaps helpful in certain situations such as yours.

 

The real problem is those speakers have no bass.  If you have a friend with decent speakers, maybe bring your electronics to his house and try his speakers to test this theory.  Or ask your dealer if a subwoofer might help.  REL makes excellent subwoofers for well under $1,000 (maybe a T5?)

 

Good lucK

[Realjh]

1 hour ago, PeterG said:

Sorry about your aunt.  On to your question:

 

I'm not familiar with these products, but I just took a quick look online, here are a few thoughts from someone who does not claim to have the correct answers:

 

I agree with your implication that there are better McIntosh products for music, but what you have may be worth building off of.  If you have a McIntosh dealer nearby (a real one, not Best Buy), I would definitely run all this by them.  I expect they would be very helpful.

 

Equalizers like you are thinking of are passe on high end systems, based on the idea that if you have a properly set up system, you're going to be doing more harm than good.  It looks like you have tone controls, also passe, but perhaps helpful in certain situations such as yours.

 

The real problem is those speakers have no bass.  If you have a friend with decent speakers, maybe bring your electronics to his house and try his speakers to test this theory.  Or ask your dealer if a subwoofer might help.  REL makes excellent subwoofers for well under $1,000 (maybe a T5?)

 

Good lucK

 

[Realjh]

Thank you, @PeterG I will reach out to the local shops (not best buy). I am lucky to have several in the Bay Area. Thank you for the words about my Aunt. One of the things I was looking forward to the most was drilling down on her record collection as a way to honor her. That project was halted after the first A side revealed the current setup’s utter lack of bass. I am still excited to dip my toes in a good system. For most of my life I have been using PA speakers, a scratch dj mixer and a PS amp to listen to records. 

[PeterG]

37 minutes ago, Realjh said:

Thank you, @PeterG I will reach out to the local shops (not best buy). I am lucky to have several in the Bay Area. Thank you for the words about my Aunt. One of the things I was looking forward to the most was drilling down on her record collection as a way to honor her. That project was halted after the first A side revealed the current setup’s utter lack of bass. I am still excited to dip my toes in a good system. For most of my life I have been using PA speakers, a scratch dj mixer and a PS amp to listen to records. 

 

That's great--the silver lining to the loss of so many old school stereo stores is that a large share of the ones left have people who really care and are very helpful.  My local dealer has been invaluable.  Ask him about the turntable too, you may need a pre-amp

[Realjh]

Follow up question @PeterG or anyone who can help. I have a mmf phono box that my aunt had between her old pioneer turntable and the cr16. The pioneer motor seems to be out of service, so I pulled out my Technics Sl1200m3d and hooked it up. I have the mmf box set to Moving Magnet as that seems to be correct for the Ortofon 2m I have on it based on a cursory search. I am experiencing distortion. Any thoughts?