McIntosh MA275- what a beauty!

Big Dog RJ

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2012
1,242
463
1,155
Melbourne
Unfortunately the grumpy chappy got a bit grumpy knowing that there were going to be a few of us highend nuts at his place auditioning the mg20's. There are a couple of chaps he doesn't like because of various reasons and so now has called the whole thing off. I will pay him a small visit though as he doesn't mind me at all and then I'll try to get the mc452 in there myself.
That'll be a fun challenge because the owner of the mc452 will not lend it to anyone unless he's present!
Cheers, RJ
 

Occam

[Industry Expert]
Dec 15, 2010
117
1
0
NYC
From my limited, and a friend's whose ears I trust, more extensive experience, we found that the 275 performs substantially better when fed a balanced differential signal via the XLR's than when fed a single ended signal via the RCA inputs....FWIW
 

Big Dog RJ

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2012
1,242
463
1,155
Melbourne
Yes, I agree to this. Infact my most recent experiences with ARC gear has been in the balanced XLR domain of connections. However, my current system does not have capacity for XLR other than the McIntosh SACD drive unit, which can also work as a digital pre-amp. In order for me to enjoy the benefits of balanced connections, I would have to change both my pre and power amp combinations, and I am not willing to change my c-j Act2 ever. Infact I would probably one time soon end up with the GAT or Lamm preamp, which does not have XLR connections. Therefore, XLR is out for me.

If the SE RCA connections are executed with very high quality terminations and lengths are kept to a bare minimum, the sound spectrum is quite impressive, whereas for much longer runs XLR would be a benefit. This is something I learnt along the way when I used to own the older ARC gear with Infinity and Apogee speakers. On longer runs XLR is far superior.
RJ
 

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