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RE: Take a look at this.

One can't help but be impressed by your enthusiasm for McIntosh gear and your obvious devotion to it. However, you also seem to be impressed by the cost of that gear and equate cost with value. I don't think anyone wants to dampen your enthusiasm, but all the respondents are attempting to do is to temper you starry eyed devotion with a slight dose of reality.

A case in point is the KT88 made by SED in St. Petersburg Russia. Yes, it is possible that these McIntosh tubes have a more severe burn in and may be tested to a higher tolerance, that's quite plausible, but to further assert that they are somehow different in construction shows a certain naivete. There are domestic tube vendors that do a very similar burn in procedure because they know from experience what is important. They may charge extra for this service but not even close to the cost of tubes with gold writing on them.

I am happy that you enjoy your McIntosh gear and that you believe that you are receiving good value, but here on Tube DIY there are amateurs that build their own gear that can compete with McIntosh for technical specification e.g., the same frequency response and low distortion of the McIntosh products. That's just a fact. But it is sound quality, subtlety and refinement that we amateurs find compelling, definitely not distortion specifications or frequency response since they are easy to achieve, particularly with negative feedback. There is nothing wrong with negative feedback when properly applied, but many of us have noticed a correlation between negative feedback and dynamics and choose to have realistic dynamics rather than a ruler flat frequency response. That's the point: when you build your own gear you can tailor it to your own tastes, not to some technical ideal. When you build only one or two pieces you can afford to install superb quality components because you are only buying a few of each not hundreds or thousands. There are very clever audio engineers here on this board that build experimental circuits using rare or uncommon tubes. There is no reason to use a 6DJ8, 12AX7, or 12AT7 in gear you make yourself because you are not relying on current production tubes. McIntosh is forced to use tubes that are current production: their market demands it. A case in point is my latest build. I could have used a 6SL7 or a 12AT7 but instead chose the 6K5GT. Why? Because they sound much cleaner and have less distortion than the above tubes, perhaps because they have cylindrical plates. The primary difference is that McIntosh gear is built in large quantities and must use commonly available components; the amateur only has to build one or two examples and can pick and choose from a variety of sources, some quite rare or severely expensive.

The McIntosh gear is intended to be a showcase, to generate pride of ownership (quite successfully in your case); it is gear you can show off to your less well healed friends. It is like showing up at the country club in the latest model Ferrari when your friends have to drive a Lexus or BMW.


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  • RE: Take a look at this. - Palustris 10:22:11 06/26/16 (2)

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