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How good is the McIntosh MC-2300 vs modern SS amplifiers?

John Curl gave a most informative talk on the Wall Of Sound used by the Gratefful Dead. He had a lot to do with the speaker end of things but had not much to say about the amplifiers which left me curious about them. 

I pulled up the following manual and schematic and suggest anyone interested in advanced circuit design of the 1970s have a look .. http://www.tubebooks.org/file_downloads/McIntosh/MC2300.pdf

Read this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_MC-2300

and this  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Sound

There is an earlier discussion about autotransformers where some call the autoformer a "band aid" for a poor design and others slurs. However this is a fine amplifier, virtually bullet proof, and used in great numbers by a band known for its incredible sound. 

I welcome any comments and questions. 
ramtubes
steakster
720 posts
 
This article is off topic. But, it’s a fun read about Owsley and the Dead’s introduction to good sound - and parallel universes. Below is a short excerpt.

"At the time, live sound at rock concerts was extremely primitive. Musicians plugged their instruments into amplifiers connected to single-channel speakers. There were no onstage monitors, so musicians couldn’t hear one another. Owsley wanted the Dead not only to be clearly heard but also in stereo, a concept so far ahead of its time that it would be ten years before such systems were installed in movie theaters. Thanks to Owsley, the Dead were soon playing through four immense Altec Voice of the Theatre A7 speakers powered by four McIntosh 240 stereo tube amplifiers as delicate as they were huge."

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
4,966 posts
 
Did it really sound that bad?
Yeah, to give a visual comparison, it was like looking through frosted glass.

I remember sound from that era well, SS either tore your head off with sibilance usually from the US, or so truncated the opposite, usually from the UK, it sounded like a thick Blancmange. No wonder tube were the preferred choice by all.


Owsley wanted the Dead not only to be clearly heard but also in stereo
But this counters that if you look at the writing above each unit stack, as the same muso/instrument was in both left and right, giving basically a mono wall of sound.
https://marketingtowin.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/dead-soundii.jpg

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
4,966 posts
 
I think the Grateful Dead liked HDCD as nearly every album they did was HDCD.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=Grateful+Dead+HDCD&_sacat=0&_ipg=200

Cheers George
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,645 posts
 
"Yeah, to give a visual comparison, it was like looking through frosted glass"

Complete BS or bias at best. I have not heard the MC2300 but I own a pair of MC2200s and have compared them with several modern SS amps in the $3K-$5K range and the they held their own and even sounded better when paired with the right speakers. I don’t expect them to sound better than likes of Gryphon or Pass Labs Class A amps but they did sound better than Pass Labs X250 driving my Martin Logans. Speaker pairing as always is important.
cleeds
2,065 posts
 
kalali
Complete BS or bias at best. I have not heard the MC2300 ...
Wow, talk about bias. How can you call BS regarding what someone heard from an amplifier that you admit to not having heard?
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