dewickt

Sure had a few bids at the end, Joe you got sniped. Been a long time since I have seen one with all the octal plugs and an original RCA still in place.

3 Months is not a long time for an amplifier that is in good condition, 1 or 2 years would make me cautions but I think that you are in good shape to fire it up. If you are still nervous you could use a light bulb in series, with one leg going to the amp as a reducer, say a 60W bulb on an amp that draws 100W in idle would get you about 60V for a prewarm, then go to a 100W bulb and then you would be done (30 min each).

You will find some of us from AudioKarma here also, after all a McIntosh like to drive a Klipsch and I go where the McIntosh is.

Was a slow boat but I see it was well worth the wait, they now sit in a place of honor on their thrones. Enjoy !!

Check your source, McIntosh is no longer part of Clarion, now is part of DM&M holdings, 100% US designed and built.

The last Soundcraftsman I had on the bench needed a complete recapping, it used the bumblebee caps thruout and half of them had significant leakage. I suspect what you are hearing in the phono section are bad capacitors or a phono input that is set up for a crystal cartridge that does not use RIAA compensation.

I kind of was in on the original set of 30's, had talked to Tim about them, he was going to have them shipped to me for check out then I was going to send them to Tim. He called about a week later and told of the rip-off, thought it was the end of the story, then a note from Joe and friends about the help being given. Well all worked out in the end and they are on their way to a loving home, I made sure they were sonically matched and even had matching line cords. I am glad to have helped out, and Thank You the the crew that has made it happen.

HFT90 is a good mono tuner, I built one in 1964 when they were still on the marketplace. Traded it off many years later and then got another that I paired with an HF12 amplifier, have been using them with a clock timer and an old 12" Goodmans speaker as my alarm clock for over 20 years with no problems, just nice sounds every morning.

Had several bad ones thru the years, they like to arc and die, especially the early Russian ones when run at higher voltages.

Many preamps have seperate internal line drivers for driving Headphones, and they sound very good, most all McIntosh have these dedicated HP drivers.

My soapbox is fun for me, doesn't bother me, I enjoy the different views and hope we all learn new ideas that hopefully are fact and not fiction. I agree that speakers and amps are a complex loads both ways, and some combinations are better than others. This is why I have SS, autoformer and direct coupled, and tube. Each system has its own distinct sound and I enjoy them all. One of my favorites was a pair of Heresys with a MC240, a near perfect match.....

Notch and crossover distortion is non existent in most well designed amplifiers, it is also easilly measured and will show up in THD and IM tests. I have found that the majority of SS and tube amps that I test have less than .2% of either (many less than .01%), not visible on a scope and to my ear not audible. I have found that the amp to speaker match is critical and anything that can make the speaker a more even load is better, sepecially when driving with a direct coupled SS amp. OK off of my soap Box !!

The Scott 350 will give you the best bang for your bucks, for it to sound like it should get it aligned and change the caps in the output stage.

Typical problem with a volume control in the 1900, the original gets worn out faster at the low volume end because it is also the on/off control and gets more use than a dedicated control. Sorry to say the replacement control from McIntosh has a bit of mechanical slop that causes tracking problems at very low volumes, and the efficiency of the Khorn puts the control at the low end where the problem shows up - wish I has an easy quick fix.

Got a MC2105 on the bench right now, Fun Fun, one channel has been repaired twice (by another), new drivers but never replaced a bad output - oh well. The TV is a Temple TV1776, by the Templetone Radio Corp., New London Conn... 1948, 6" tube and a oil filled magnifier to make it look like 12"+, a big snake eye. Glad to help out on the MC2505, email me for more information.