DAC suggestion to pair with MC275 & Usher Spk

I also have an MC275 and a sub. Rel Storm III in my case. Speakers are B&W 804S. Sounds great to me.

Lately I've been focusing on improving my digital front end, but one aspect I have toyed for a while is relieving the MC275 from reproducing low frequencies. Even if your speakers can't get that low, your amp is still bending head over backwards to reproduce the low end, which is consuming significant power and where tube amps are not best. So, introducing a crossover between the pre and amp and allowing the MC275 only to amplify say 100 Hz and up, while letting the sub amplify from 100 Hz and down looks interesting on paper. This is called biamplification and some people swear by it. I haven't tried it (yet), but thought I should bring this to your attention considering the options you are considering. Please note not all subs can reproduce 90-100 Hz well - my REL for example is not good above 60-65 Hz. Even though it's capable of doing higher fdrequencies, it doesn't sound good.

I hope this is useful.

Lewinskiih01, From reading on line the vandersteen 2wq provides the biamp option and crossover but i have to call them on the performance at 90Hz to 100Hz. I also want to understand what happens to the low freq roll off that is sent to the main speakers and want to understand the effects on the warmth of sound of the SS amp in the sub as compared to tube amp warmth; i suspect nothing at that range. I like how the Vandersteen does not feed the sub directly from the crossover to maintain the sonic signature. I am new too all this so I could be missing a lot of obvious so please excuse my many questions and constant questions.

in regards to the digital front end i have just become bit hungry; there seems to be never enough and the quality variation from CD to CD is amazingly sad. so for me its more bits, great DAC, and now starting to think about analog as in vinyl and tape.

thanks for the insight.

A visit to the McIntosh store here in Taipei provided the following suggestions for the "more base/low tones" request in my posts.

1. 2 MC275's as mono blocks if of the same vintage and tubes. (Is this enough wattage and responsive enough?)

2. 1 MC275 (vintage) for the mid and high range on both speakers and running 1 MC275 (new) for the low range on both speakers. (Is this enough wattage and responsive enough?)

3. 1 MC275 (vintage) for the mid and high range on both speakers and running 1 MC501 mono block for the low range on both speakers. (how is the sound effected with the SS MC501?)

4. Same as board suggested here (Vandersteen). Add base speaker with built in amp.

Toward the end of the visit i was getting the impression that they thought option number 3 was the solution and that 2 mc275's as mono blocks would not give me what I wanted; could have been the translation. Later this week I will visit again when the english staff is there and drag my vintage MC275 down and run some actual tests.

Any thoughts?

Certainly 2 MC275 are a good solution. However, think about the heat and the expense of buying/rolling/replacing that many tubes. Might not be an issue for you.

With 2 identical amps you could:
1. Operate each as monoblock and have them reproduce the full bandwidth to each speaker.
2. Have both amps operate as 2-channels, and have amp A feed mids/trebble from channel 1 and bass from channel 2. Same for other amp. Dividing the frequencies prior to the amps would still need to be dealt with.
3. Have both amps operate as 2-channel, but now have amp A drive hi/mids of left and right speakers and amp B drive bass on both speakers.

Keeep in mind the 501 are monoblocks, so they couldn't drive both speakers.

I'm personally inclined for tubes for hi/mids and SS for bass, provided a crosssover sits in front of them. Maybe a 501 is too much (power and expense). Maybe a 252 would do - depends on your speakers and budget, of course. This would be like my option 3, but with SS for bass. I don't know what advantage is there to have with ttubes for bass.

Certainly the speakers you have aren't easily 'digestable' by tube amp, but integrating them with sub can give you a possibility to keep tubes. If you aiming for more control, than certainly getting MC252 or MC352 will justify your goals(if we speak in terms of Mac)
Financially and logically adding 2x2Wq is a lot cheaper. Having MC275 is more like investment that will never lose the value just like gold so I would think forever before I would decide to sell this unit.