McIntosh C47

McIntosh C47 preamp with less than 100 hours of use in Excellent condition. 

The C47 stereo preamplifier from McIntosh is likely the best value preamp McIntosh has ever produced. There's a lot to talk about. Just going to cover a few aspects of it.

It is an analog preamp with multiple inputs, both conventional RCA-type and XLR balanced inputs. It has multiple outputs, both balanced XLR and conventional RCA. So you can hook up several power amps, power amps for different rooms, outputs for powered subwoofers, just about anything you could want.

It also has a spectacular phono section. You could actually have two turntables, one with a moving magnet cartridge, one for moving coil cartridge, and this can be optimized for each. When I say optimized, what I mean is you can set the "loading," which is the impedance that the turntable is connected to the preamp at. You can adjust that from your chair by remote control while the music is playing for the very best sound. That's a feature that's pretty common on $10,000 separate phono stages but very unusual on a preamp in this price range.

This also has unusually high-quality digital-to-analog converter in it. It is very close to state of the art. And some digital-to-analog converters sell for $20,000. So that's a pretty big statement.

It has optical inputs. It has coaxial. It has USB so you can hook up your computer to the C47. So we have lots inputs. We have lots of outputs. It also incorporates a very high-quality headphone amplifier with McIntosh's crossfeed circuit, which makes it sound less like the headphones are firing into your two ears and gives you more of a panorama of sound in front of you.

The volume control is electronic so it never needs cleaning, yet it is one turn from beginning to end. So unlike other electronic volume controls, we have to turn, and turn, and turn them — this one feels conventional, but it's totally electronic. It never wears out, never needs cleaning.

It also is a dual chassis model. So we have a top and bottom side to it. The top side is pure analog. The bottom is where the digital circuits are and the power supply, and it's sealed inside between those two boxes. So it's actually two chassis preamps sharing one faceplate.

-Review by Worldwide Stereo