I've had this preamp lying around for years but know nothing about it. Is it decent? What was its MSRP back in the day? Thanks..
Forte fp1 phono stage..
- Thread starter es347
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The Forte FP-1 phono preamp retailed for $650 in 1994. I haven't heard it, but Forte electronics were designed by Threshold engineers and were generally thought to be a very good value.
Are you using it? i owned one and thought it was excellent, if a little noisy for the lowest output carts. except for the gold plated PCBs it wasn't too different from the phono board in the threshold fet ten, IIRC even the loading options were identical.
I am about to use it with a restored TD160/RB301/Goldring1042/custom plinth. I have a feeling I'm going to be in for good listening. I'm not opposed to upgrading to a better phono stage but not sure how much I would have to spend to actually improve...thanks for the replies!
I might Mark but consensus from the MAC crowd is I'd need to spend over $3K to improve what's in my MAC preamp...who knows?
I'm not a big fan of the "you gotta spend X" logic Gavin. The price of a little elbow grease really might surprise ya. If I'm reading this right, your P-stage has DNA that's been passed on going back to Pass and Heyser before him. It just might be a sleeper.
Nope. If McIntosh had the nerve to sell the C2300 for what they sold it for, it better sound real damn good with the stock tubes they should have tested and certified for use in their preamp.
Gimme a break Mark. Everybody knows stock sovtek 12ax7 tubes suck. Mac sells more pres than all the others combined, so they have no choice. The pre and phono are quite good with modest tube upgrade. All over every Mac forum out there.
And 6500 for a full preamplifier with its capabilities is/was a bargain in todays world. Compare to ARC for example.
Everybody who uses 12AX7s better learn to love that "suck" because the supply of NOS tubes won't last forever. Already the marketplace is littered with fakes and crappy tubes that OEMs would have considered junk back in the day. IMO, if you can't design and manufacture tube gear that sounds outstanding with tubes currently in production, you need to find another business to go into unless you have laid in massive quantities of NOS tubes that will support all of your products over their lifetime.
It's one thing to tell your customers that your preamp/power amp will sound better with NOS tubes and quite another to tell your customers that your preamp/power amp will suck unless you buy NOS tubes (and McIntosh doesn't do that). That's nonsense. As a reviewer, I will never install NOS tubes from my stash into a piece of gear I'm reviewing. I want to review something exactly the way the manufacturer sells it to the public. I did make something of an exception with the Raven Audio gear because Raven has laid in large quantities of NOS tubes and offers them as an option to their customers and they sent me 2 quads of NOS Tung-Sol 6550s to use in their amps. I still preferred the KT-150s that everyone can buy.
Um- a pair of psvane 12ax7s costs $100. Plenty of new production out there that is competent. NOS is a red herring. As is your reviewing experience. to not optimize a tube preamp is just silly- all of them except 6h30 based product have this issue, not just Mac. And even moreso for a tube phono stage. Mac maybe worse then some, i really dont know. I had a C2300- and agree it wasnt particularly special. For $100 it did become that way.
And Mac will admit better tubes / performance can be gained. As will Audio Classics. Im somewhat surprised you being a tube guy didnt even try swapping them out? The knock on the 2200 ironically was the phono stage- not so in the follow up.
The phono stage in the C2300 needed more help than the best tubes in the world were ever going to provide. Both sides of the preamp (line stage and phono stage) sounded very SS. In fact, if I didn't know it had tubes I would have swore it was SS. The MC phono section had no guts and no life. The only way I could make it sound half way decent was to use my Counterpoint SA-2 into the MM input of the C2300. As a whole, the C2300 was anorexic sounding-it was all bones and no meat.
As for psvane tubes, I'm glad somebody is finally excited about tubes made in China.
As for psvane tubes, I'm glad somebody is finally excited about tubes made in China.
Oh no, my thread has been hijacked by a couple of toobers.. 
. Jack you could very well be right. I bought this guy over ten years ago since I had an ARC line level pre. I remember paying $300 for it and he even threw in a very nice power cord. The fp1 was and is like new so it will be fun heating it up. I'll come back here with an update and pix. Mark old buddy, when I get this project completed you'll need to bring Elvis and his fever back up for a test drive..
. Jack you could very well be right. I bought this guy over ten years ago since I had an ARC line level pre. I remember paying $300 for it and he even threw in a very nice power cord. The fp1 was and is like new so it will be fun heating it up. I'll come back here with an update and pix. Mark old buddy, when I get this project completed you'll need to bring Elvis and his fever back up for a test drive..Oh no, my thread has been hijacked by a couple of toobers..
I will bring Elvis 1957. It's a socks rotter.
Regarding MAC phono sections, Mark has heard my SS C500 and as I recall didn't think it sounded half bad. I realize there are those who poo poo MAC gear but I've listened to a lot of the nosebleed stuff and have yet to hear anything that would compel me to "upgrade". There's something pretty special going on with my MAC/VSA combo...IMHO
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