McIntosh C49 Preamp Review

BRAND NEW McIntosh C49 Preamp Review.

Read our full McIntosh C49 Preamp Review here: http://bit.ly/2Uhe1er

McIntosh has become world-renowned for designing and manufacturing almost every single thing in-house. They also pride themselves on being able to repair just about any McIntosh product ever made. This philosophy and great sound has led to McIntosh products holding their value better than any other audio brand.

Audio Advice recently toured the McIntosh factory, and we were amazed at the level of in house expertise they have. Not only do they make and assemble all of the audio portions of the gear at the factory, they bend and paint their own metal, cut and etch their own glass, and even wind and pot their own transformers. It is truly a remarkable tour if you are into audio at all!

The subject of today’s review is the new McIntosh C49 preamp which is just starting to make its way out into the audio world and is loaded with far more features and technology than you might think!

McIntosh wanted to give music lovers a new preamp that enabled them to connect to just about any type of music source available today. There are a ton of fun features under the hood that allow you to customize the C49 to your system. And it goes without saying, just like every McIntosh product, the C49 is build to last for decades!

The C49 has an abundance of both analog and digital inputs. To keep the analog signal path as pure as possible, the preamp is two completely separate units tied together. The top half houses the analog section which gives you two sets of outputs with both balanced and single ended RCA output.

There is also a third fixed RCA audio out. You’ll get two pair of balanced audio inputs, 3 RCA audio inputs, and both a moving coil and moving magnet set of phono inputs. The other half of the preamp houses the power supply and the digital section. The DA1 digital audio module is also modular so if there is a huge technology change, it could be updated over time.

Although for right now, it is totally at what is state of the art with its 8-channel 32 Bit DAC used in a Quad Balanced mode. It supports DSD256 and DXD384kHz for high resolution audio. The DA1 module gives you a USB digital input, two toslink inputs and two coax digital inputs. You also get a special MCT input designed to work with McIntosh SACD transports.

The back panel of the digital/power half also houses 10 mini jacks which can be used for all kinds of cool control functions with other McIntosh gear.

It only takes a few seconds to figure out how to operate the C49 as it is extremely well laid out. The left side has a round input selection knob. In the center is a visual display to show you what you have selected. On the far right is the volume knob. Underneath the input knob you’ll find a full sized headphone jack. McIntosh uses an internal dedicated high power headphone amp using what they call their HighDrive tech that can power just about any headphone on the market.

Next to this are two switches that turn on or off each of the two independent preamp outputs. The right side has an easy to find power on/off switch, a switch to engage or disengage the tone controls, and a mute button.

Every switch has a red light that indicates if the switch is in the on position. McIntosh is also very clever in the way the labeling for all of the controls is on the rear side of the glass. This means it will never wear off, preserving the great resale value McIntosh gear is known for.

We loved the extreme flexibility of the phono section. The moving magnet section lets you adjust from 50 to 800pF in 50 pF steps, while the moving coil stage allows you to load the cartridge at 25, 50, 100, 200, 400 or 1,000 ohms.

Other phono preamps have this feature, but the neat part here is you can do these on the fly with the handheld remote, enabling you to quickly hear the change!

The signal switching all takes place right at the connectors through a special control circuit that talks to the front panel. The C49 also uses McIntosh’s best volume control design. This uses opto-electronic circuitry that give you the ability to fine tune the volume. No signal passes through the volume knob assuring years of noise-free service.

We paired it up with a Mark Levinson 534 power amp and one of our favorite speakers, the Revel Salon 2.

With the modular digital section and the plethora of analog with MC and MM phono, we see the C49 as being in your system for decades. When you look at all you get for $5000 compared to the competition out there, it seems like a great value to us. Plus it's just beautiful to look at and fun to operate!