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In Reply to: RE: Mac C11/C22 owners..A question? posted by Michael Samra on July 01, 2009 at 13:21:14
Michael,
I've had two C-22's and I can't say that the bass has been a problem but here's the full history: The first original C-22 did sound thin but still good and after checking voltages I found that the B+ supply was low. I rebuilt that one with original spec can lytics still available at the time, good quality polyprop film/foil signal caps and replaced the rectifier.
The result was clearly a more full bodied sound that was almost too thick and rich for me.
I had EV Regency speakers at the time and I did have the bass and treble controls advanced one click on each channel and the bass trim on each channel up about 1/4 turn to boost under 100HZ.
The second C-22 sounded OK but I rebuilt that one knowing that it was just a matter of time before something would give out. Again I used original spec can lytics, replaced the rectifier but this time I used a mix of inexpensive metalized polyester and polyprop signal caps and I was more pleased with the overall sonic results. I still used one detent click of bass and treble and had the bass trim pots up about 1/4 turn.
The amp was always a Mac C-22.
When I switched to Altec Model 19 speakers I found that I didn't really need any bass boost other than 1/4 turn on the bass trim pots but I retained the one click of treble boost.
If I do use bass boost from the C-22 bass tone controls it's just too much at times and that's probably the tuning of the Model 19's where 50-60 HZ can be strong.
My biggest complaint with the C-22 is the detent tone controls. When I switch to say a Scott 299A or 299C sometimes the ability to adjust the bass and treble in less than a 4db detent step is useful with some source material.
I've tried other preamps like a solid state Luxman,HK Citation lV, Fisher 80C's and a Levinson ML-1 and I can't say I thought there was more bass than with the C-22's.
I found that changing amps and turntable/arm combos had more to do with the bass in my system than the preamp.
Dave
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