Inherited 21 piece of vintage McIntosh and need help building a system


Hello.  I was fortunate enough to inherit a huge collection of mac stuff from my uncle, but although an audiophile, I'm out of my element with vintage stuff.  Here is a list of what I have to work with:

C28 preamp

two C20, stereo tube preamp

two C8's mono tube preamp

MC2002, Solid state amp

MC2200, Solid state amp

MR67, FM Stereo Tube Tuner

MR 71, FM Stereo Tube Tuner

MR74, tuner

MX 112, tuner preamp

1700 tuner

1900 tuner

MA5100, integrated amp

two MC 60's, tube amp

MC 240, 40WPC amp

MC 250, 50WPC amp

Sansui 500A

Dynaco SCA-35

HK A220

 

Linn axis turn table

Technics SL-1950 turntable

Mac XL10 speakers

Utah A70-A speakers


Any suggestions on what the best pairing would be out of these?  I can't use all of it so some will be posted once I get a system built.

Thanks for the help,

Brent



128x128brenthardy
You are a very lucky man. You have some nice tube pieces and the MC60 and 240 are prized amps. Keep them.
1-start with your favourite music source; vinyl, cd, radio
2-decide how much space you have for listening
3-I would keep the mac speakers and sell the utahs
4-keep the mr74 tuner--at least until you decide if you will listen to fm radio.  Sell the mr 67 and mr 71 and mx 112
5-keep the 2 c 20's and sell the 2 c8's and the c 28
6- sell the 2200, 2002, 1700, 1900
7-keep the mc 60's and the mc 240 and you will be able to switch these later for listening comparison.
8-sell the ma 5100, mc 250, sansui, dynaco and HK
9-keep the linn and sell the pioneer
10- Now comes the most important recommendation:
       USE the profits from the sales to have the mc 60's , mc 240, and the mr 74 to have the Mac factory upgrade all of these--and hopefully you have the original boxes they all came in as those boxes are worth their weight in gold!!!@
12-When that is done, you will have a system of the highest quality and maybe some cash left to buy a mac cd player and maybe some really good interconnects as well as speaker cables.
13-finally- you could order a set of caps to upgrade the speaker crossovers and have someone in Boise area solder them in.
Some here will disagree with my all-tube selections but wou cannot go wrong with this assessment

The absolute best place  for the Mac 60's is my living room . Sorry for your loss . An audiophile friend of mine runs two systems , and each of his children have a system to learn from . Vintage tuners are always in need of an alingement amongst other things . But the amps and pre amps that you have are nice . Find a local Mac Daddy to advise you and can continue an American Legecy , your uncle will be smiling from Heaven 😊.