I just got home from a terrific bicycle tour of the Seattle area led by my friend Chad (below). We covered over a hundred miles and saw lots of amazing sites, drank some awesome microbrew beers, and ate some incredible food. (A travel post shall follow shortly)
Waiting for me when I got home was a vintage McIntosh MC240 stereo amplifier that I purchased from Tom Manley of McIntosh Home Audio in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, who specializes in vintage and pre-owned McIntosh audio gear.
My vintage McIntosh MC240 was restored and fine-tuned by Tom Manley and Terry DeWick. It included a vintage tube set (a first look revealed vintage RCAs, Western Electrics, Telefunkens, etc.), original documentation, an original shipping box, with all of the goodies enclosed in a protective shipping container that Tom did a real nice job on. I'll say more about tube details and such in a future post after I have a chance to take a closer look at things.
McIntosh has an interesting history, and its amplifiers have been coveted by both musicians and music lovers alike. The MC240 has a special place in music & audio history as it was the amplifier that was used by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys to master Pet Sounds in 1966, one of the most famous albums in rock & roll history. I'm going to have to dig out my copy of Pet Sounds and give it a listen.
There is also a nice reference to the Grateful Dead using the MC240 amplifiers in 1966 from the Steve Hoffman Music Forum:
"I thought this information from Phil Lesh's new book "Searching for the Sound" would be of interest to Grateful Dead and McIntosh enthusiasts. This excerpt describes their Los Angeles housing in 1966. Per Phil Lesh:
"The equipment was set up in the living room: the 'lead sled' of Mac amps (four McIntosh 240 stereo tube amps running mono, one for each electric instrument - two guitars, bass, and keyboard - bolted onto a single sheet of two-inch plywood), the Altec "Voice of the Theater" speakers (huge woofer and horn combo speakers, four in all, one for each amp), and all the drums and instruments. The volume level of this gear was enough to bulge out the sides of the house when we cranked it.""
The Grateful Dead also used McIntosh amps in their Wall of Sound at concerts in later times. I'm intrigued by the Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead bass player) comment from his book, so I just ordered a copy from Amazon. Should be a fun read!
Speaking of Steve Hoffman, who most of are familiar with for his ultra-high quality remastering work over the years (I'm a big fan of Steve's work), the MC240 has also been one of his favorite vintage amplifiers for music listening and remastering in past times. A little while ago Steve lamented that he had sold his MC240, and wished that he had it back.
As befits its vintage status, the MC240 has terminal strips instead of binding posts, so I had to 'jury rig' connecting the Panatela speaker cables to it. I'm going to have to think about how to do the speaker cables for a while to figure out a way to do things a bit more elegantly.
I'm pretty impressed with what I'm hearing from the MC240 and its vintage tube set on the Tannoy Westminster Royal SEs right now. Despite my intention of using it as a 'vintage reference' the MC240 sounds so good it could easily end up being my absolute reference. When I hear an amplifier like the MC240 and how good it sounds, how well it plays music, and how well it engages me on an emotional level, it makes me wonder if we've really learned much at all about audio amplifiers in the last 60 years.
I also purchased a very special mint+ vintage McIntosh MX110Z vacuum tube stereo FM tuner / preamplifier from the 1960s from Tom, and it will be lovingly restored and fine-tuned by Tom and Terry DeWick over the coming months. It should be ready towards the end of August.
Vintage gear is really something special, and I'm very impressed with what I'm hearing.
More to come!
