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Re: McIntosh C26 ain't bad....

Hi, Tromatic:

Thanks.

I clearly recall a situation which happened about thirty years ago.

I purchased a beautiful used McIntosh C-28 and thought at that time, that I had fallen in love with the piece. But, alas, I was very disappointed with the sound of the phono preamp section in the unit. I then brought it to a dealer-sponsored McIntosh Performance Clinic and had it thoroughly tested. The unit not only met spec, but exceeded it by a major margin. So, even with vanishingly low distortion and all, it still sounded bad to me.

I had an opportunity to purchase a nice Marantz 7 tube preamp and once I had that unit in my system, I never again operated the C-28 and the day I sold it was a day for some amount of relief and celebration.

Not to complain! About four years ago, I spotted a C-28 with a smashed front glass at a local flea market and it was priced at $10, so I purchased it. It also worked but did not sound that great to me, yet I kept it as a "flea market" souvenier!

Good luck with the SP-3 when you get it back. I also remember how nice those units not only sounded when they were new, but saw excellent results when someone brought one to yet another of the famous McIntosh Performance Clinics--in an era when they were testing anything brought in to them.

Exemplary performance, to say the least!

Happy trials!
Richard Links
Berkeley, CA

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