Any McIntosh C48 owners out there?

I have owned a c48 for about 6 weeks now. I'm a bit frustrated with the DAC performance. Its very harsh when compared to my wyred4sound DAC2. Chuck Hinton at mcintosh said the soon to be released drivers for the usb will change how it sounds. Im skeptical since I was listening to 16/44 and even tried the digital coax in and still the harshness. It may very well be a great preamp, but its got two very serious flaws:

1. The only way to activate the HT Bypass is through a 12v trigger in. My wyred4sound DAC2 has that method in addition to a very simple "HT" button that puts it in bypass.

2. The DAC is disapointingly harsh and cloudy sounding.

I've been running the unit constantly since it arrived in hopes that its a break-in issue, but as of 6 weeks out nada, zip, no difference. I guess the wyred4sound unit is just that good, but something tells me it gets better (which is why I bought c48 to begin with).

Allen,
Could you please update us about how the DAC has been performing since your last post? I am waiting for my C48 and have the W4S DAC2 and Bryston DAC and was hoping to sell one or both if the MAC's performance is identical.
Thanks.
Richard

I don't believe Mac has released drivers for it yet.

Question. Where does the C-45 fit in with these Mac preamps? That is, if it fits in at all.

I picked up a brand new C48 and MC302 ten days ago so maybe not broken in yet but the combo sounds terrific already. The C48 is extremely clean, smooth, quiet with nice sound stage width and depth. I have tons of vinyl and the MC phono stage sounds first rate which was a pleasant surprise. I've had tube gear for most of the last 20 years as nothing solid state seemed to measure up, so this was a bit of gamble but I am really pleased with the results. I would also add that the current Mac amp/pre-amp line seems to be a very synergistic match with the Focal Utopia series (I have Mini-Utopias).