Mcintosh C-11 Mc240

I thought I would share my latest purchase a 1 owner Mcintosh C-11 and Mc240 they are both a 10 out of 10 the controls feel like they are new.The only downside is the owner changed all the tubes in the Mc240 to JJ'S :tears: I asked if he saved them and said they were old the C-11 has all the original tubes.I brought everything up on a variac 1 week for each and they sound fantastic at some point I will have them restored.

Oh wow! VERY nice!

Agree! Very, very nice. Congrats!

RESTORED?!?!?! Are you kidding? These are A+ survivors in survivor condition. For the love of Mike don't replace every cap wholesale. Those are collector grade. If you want to tinker get some less clean pieces.

IF everything is within spec, run them like you stole them, because unless you paid around $5k, you did.

Lucky man

They look great. I would not run that amp until the power supply is recapped. many have been there done that. No comparison sound or power wise once they are tuned up. If a power supply cap lets go you could loose a transformer.

Thanks,
Ron-C

They look like new.

Congratulations.

CountD said:

RESTORED?!?!?! Are you kidding? These are A+ survivors in survivor condition. For the love of Mike don't replace every cap wholesale. Those are collector grade. If you want to tinker get some less clean pieces.

IF everything is within spec, run them like you stole them, because unless you paid around $5k, you did.

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How about just the power supply caps would that hurt the value?

strat10 said:

How about just the power supply caps would that hurt the value?

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That thing looks so clean that you might want to cater to the collector crowd (especially with all the manuals) and then take that money and spend half of it on a cosmetically challenged Mc240.

You may be surprised. NOT ALL power supply caps are bad from these times, and certainly NOT ALL caps are going to blow up the power trans. Not going to happen. If you planned on using it 24/7 then maybe, but check the voltages and see where they are. They may very well be within spec.

CountD said:

That thing looks so clean that you might want to cater to the collector crowd (especially with all the manuals) and then take that money and spend half of it on a cosmetically challenged Mc240.

You may be surprised. NOT ALL power supply caps are bad from these times, and certainly NOT ALL caps are going to blow up the power trans. Not going to happen. If you planned on using it 24/7 then maybe, but check the voltages and see where they are. They may very well be within spec.

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I run the C-11 and the 240 11 hours a day and they sound amazing what's funny is a had a C-11 and a 240 before this one and they didn't sound as good.What's sad is they are so mint I'm afraid of messing them up. lol

strat10 said:

I run the C-11 and the 240 11 hours a day and they sound amazing what's funny is a had a C-11 and a 240 before this one and they didn't sound as good.What's sad is they are so mint I'm afraid of messing them up. lol

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If they sound amazing don't touch them. It's not the first time I have owned several, as I should say sometimes up to 8 of the same piece and they all sounded somewhat different.

See how the Mc240 PST is holding up and just run them.

I'm really shocked at the number of people advocating to just run the MC240. That's dangerous behavior - for your health and for the equipment.

Sure it's in nice shape, but how much are the cosmetics worth if you lose an OT or two? If the Selenium diode goes up and roasts a bunch of other components inside while releasing some lovely poisonous gas? I think the value would take a minor dip - and the world would have one less MC240 in it. Repairs, if possible, will be an order of magnitude more costly than some routine maintenance at this juncture.

Do the right thing. At bare minimum, replace (or have replaced) the selenium diode with a 1N4007 as well as the electrolytics. It may be tempting to stick your head in the sand over this, since hey things seem fine now, but those are all ticking time bombs and their clocks have almost run out. It isn't "if," it's "when" they will fail.

If you were planning to look at it and never power it up, there might be a case for original components. But the prevailing wisdom of late is that doing this does not adversely affect resale value. You can retain the old components if for some reason a new owner (like a museum curator) wants to take it back to stock.

Personally, I don't see replacement of innards as posing any great detriment to originality as the amplifier would still appear to be 100% stock in its natural assembled state.

A parallel can be drawn in the collector car arena in which the same principle applies - for the most part.

This side of the amplifier having been personally owned by the likes of Frank McIntosh, Dave O'Brien or Gordon Gow - with all appropriate documentation to that effect - the odds are the next owner will actually use it therefore will want it performing at its best - and safest.

If you have a schematic just check the voltages with the amp at idle as outlined on circuit diagram. This will filter out the opinions from fact. I have rebuilt lots of these over the years and they always sound superb when they are electrically blueprinted and make well over 50 watts per channel.
The original signal caps were leaky and have only become worse over time. The power supply caps will determine or limit the power as they age.
If the amp is in good shape electrically then the voltages should line up with the schematic.

Thanks,
Ron-C

To both sides of the discussion:

- No Restoration: Keep them for the collector value they have.

- Restoration: Keep them for the purpose of running them daily.

On the former, don't plug them in. On the latter, get the best out of them and a return on your investment.

You can't do both - choose one.

Cheers,

David

I decided to pull the Mc240 out of my system until I sort things out should I do the same with the C-11? It sure sounds good with my 2205.Thanks for all of your informative replies and I really do appreciate all your experience and wisdom.

You made a good decision to redo the amp. Personally, I'd use it after recap and PS rebuilt. I have a great experience with recapping MC60's and I used them every day with no problems...
You might want to do the same with C11; I love a look if that preamp.
What is your plan with MC240 and who will do the work?
Good luck

TR6man98 said:

You made a good decision to redo the amp. Personally, I'd use it after recap and PS rebuilt. I have a great experience with recapping MC60's and I used them every day with no problems...
You might want to do the same with C11; I love a look if that preamp.
What is your plan with MC240 and who will do the work?
Good luck

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I haven't decided what to do with both I use my gear 10-12 hours a day and now I worry if I do anything to each unit if it will take away from their value. Sometimes it would be easier with a unit with rust and is in need of TLC.I don't want to ship it to have some items changed.

SilverTpt999 said:

I'm really shocked at the number of people advocating to just run the MC240. That's dangerous behavior - for your health and for the equipment.

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Please. Take a walk on the wild side.

Lots of observations in this thread. I, for one, see no drop off in value on these old amps simply because they have been serviced. You should stick to the original design and especially maintain the twist lock cap design and stay away from weird old Russian caps. Record the restoration process and save the receipts, you will get it all back if you sell it someday.
I agree that 8 old MC240s may all sound slightly different depending on how bad the resistors have drifted out of spec and how bad dried up the old caps are. Properly restored all 8 Mc240s would all sound the same, excellent.
This is not religion or superstition, just proper engineering based on known measurement techniques.

thanks,
Ron-C