McIntosh C2300 Tube Test Day

[jdandy]

I test my tubes in my gear once a year, usually in June. I have been a bit lax this year, but today I managed to motivate myself into pulling the McIntosh C2300 out of the living room rack and testing the 12AX7 tubes in the line stage and moving coil phono stage. I have Gold Lion ECC83/12AX7 tubes in the line stage and Telefunken ECC83/12AX7 tubes in the moving coil phono stage. My tube tester for small tubes is the Maxi-Preamp 2 from Maxi-Test. After 15 months daily use of the C2300, both pairs of 12AX7's still tested strong and closely matched. No reason to install new tubes at this time. That's good news. I reinstalled the tubes in the preamp, and reinstalled the preamp in the rack and got back to listening. I love my C2300 preamplifier. It's feature rich, quiet as a mouse, sounds remarkable, is built like a tank, and is all analog. What's not to like about that.

 

[joeinid]

That’s pretty amazing and awesome for such a lot of use. Goes to show how McIntosh is easy on tubes.

 

[UltraFast69]

Wow Dan, if your a tube owner that’s a cool device to possess.

What’s something like that cost?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[joeinid]

https://www.maximatcher.com/maxipreamp.html

Current pricing is $989.00

It has certainly gone up lately.

 

[jdandy]

Wow Dan, if your a tube owner that’s a cool device to possess.

What’s something like that cost?

Ed.......I purchased my Maxi-Matcher 2 power tube tester and the Maxi-Preamp 2 small tube tester at the same time in November of 2013. Delivered the total price was $1706.12. At that time the Maxi-Matcher 2 was $675.00 and the Maxi-Preamp 2 was 989.00. The current price for the Maxi-Matcher 2 power tube tester is $749.00. The current price for the Maxi-Preamp 2 small tube tester is $989.00.

https://www.maximatcher.com/

 

[XV-1]

I used to run Telefunken tubes with my C2300. They were expensive and awesome sounding

 

[jdandy]

I used to run Telefunken tubes with my C2300. They were expensive and awesome sounding

Shane.......One of the reasons I run Telefunken tubes in the moving coil phono stage of the C2300 is to take advantage of their low noise. The Maxi-Preamp 2 tester has a test for noise. The Tele's are 2.5dB to 3dB quieter than the Gold Lion 12AX7's I use in the C2300 line stage. I have also tested the Telefunken ECC83/12AX7 tubes against Tung-Sol, Siemens, Philips, and Mullard. The Teles are the champion of low noise. And I agree, they sound very good.

 

[XV-1]

Shane.......One of the reasons I run Telefunken tubes in the moving coil phono stage of the C2300 is to take advantage of their low noise. The Maxi-Preamp 2 tester has a test for noise. The Tele's are 2.5dB to 3dB quieter than the Gold Lion 12AX7's I use in the C2300 line stage. I have also tested the Telefunken ECC83/12AX7 tubes against Tung-Sol, Siemens, Philips, and Mullard. The Teles are the champion of low noise. And I agree, they sound very good.

agreed Dan. Tele tubes are the best for low noise. I kinda wished I kept the C2300, but sold it as a set with my 2 x 2102's. But, you can't keep everything unfortunately.