MC2300 = serious bidness

Just picked up a very clean and very very heavy MC2300 from local AKer Kansei and I am giddy with joy. I have always drooled over these having seen them used by the Dead in the 70's and have dreamt of owning one. Finally that day has come! It is like the big nasty older brother of my MC2105, and I am literally still sore from carrying it into my listening room. :sigh:
Such an iconic workhorse, I am honored to be its custodian for a while.
I have 2 knobs on order from Audio Classics, as well as some replacement bulbs from mouser, should be here any day now...

Congrats! That's an awesome piece of McGear!

The 2300 is a great work horse with plenty of horse power if thats what you require. I installed them in discos, commercial systems, and in homes. They did the job, weren't as finicky as 3500's and were relatively easy to repair. Replace the out puts the emitter resistors and the driver card and they were ready for another 10 years of abuse. It had two negatives for me, if you didn't put limiters in front of them they could take out multiples of woofers and HF drivers in a flash if over driven. I mean when they clip they can put out over 450 watts of coil burning power. The other issue is they exacerbate HF drivers with phenolic diaphragms to have just an edge other amps like 2200's and 2250's don't. With Mac speakers with critically damped woofers the sound is tight and well controlled. Speaker systems such as Altec, JBL, EV, Bozak sound sloppy in the bass where Crown direct coupled amps and Mac 7200's seem to grab the woofers for a tighter more realistic sound. You will get many hours of enjoyment from your 2300, just watch the throttle; power can be addictive.

You're in good company here - enjoy it!

Great deal on that amp. I'd have loved to try it, but no shipping.

Yes they are easy to maintain and fix if you can lift it onto the bench, but then it is not very often !! A wonderful sound and all the power my ML2 speakers can handle, you have a winner...

Hey, any pictures of the back? I am intrigued by the screws being replaced by the allen bolts. Does it have banana jacks on the back below the strip by any chance?

My favorite amp hands down. You have to do one thing and open the top and check the driver boards to see if they have been upgraded. Nice amp.

Have you heard of pay it forward? I could PM you my address?

Congratulations.

Looks like a beauty.

Hope it provides you many years of enjoyment.

CountD said:

Hey, any pictures of the back? I am intrigued by the screws being replaced by the allen bolts. Does it have banana jacks on the back below the strip by any chance?

My favorite amp hands down. You have to do one thing and open the top and check the driver boards to see if they have been upgraded. Nice amp.

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Thanks for the warm welcome to the 2300 club everyone :thmbsp:

I opened it up and besides some dust bunnies it looks pretty original to me. It does have the Allen bolts on the front, but the terminal strips in the back look stock - no banana jacks. Not sure what I'm looking at with the boards - are they stock original?

The good news for you is...you have fully updated driver cards so no worries there whatsoever. She's ready to be tached out to the full on a daily basis with no worries to the output transistors. Awesome amp. It has the newer (newer to the '80s) drivers with the Thermoly heatsinks. Those Thermoly are the tell-tale sign.

Is that 1Y699?

Awesome - great news! Thanks for the info. Beyond psyched about this monster. I believe it is 4Y699.

Congrats on the 2300, it's a great looking Mac.

Yes, 4Y. Great later production. Probably around 1978 or so. If it has the original 070s in it, you can check those for the date code which will give you an approximate time of manufacture. It was throwing me, because the tops were screened differently past 2Y050 or so to say Mc2300 Stereo Power Amplifier (like on yours) vs. 300 / 300 Watt Power Amplifier (on lower 1YXXXs), so I was thinking in my mind it couldn't be a 1Y. The allen screws that replaced the regular screws on yours is often a tell-tale sign it was a Wall amp, but yours is too late and without the other mods (I was hoping it had bananas).

Either way, the later production is more refined in a way. I use my 5Y everyday. It's just some nut like me who gets caught up with Mc2300 serial numbers and production dates.

Sweet you are getting new knobs though. I didn't think anyone had them. I should pick up some.

Welcome to the bigtime. If it's running correctly it really shouldn't have the fans on at all - mine never go on unless it's a very hot summer day. Check the sinks though to see they are nice and cool. If they are, leave it and run it, and don't touch a thing. It should be a dream with the L300s. I use mine mostly with JBL 4333a's or 4430s depending.

Depending on what other gear you are using, you may choose to rack mount it. The side rails are nearly impossible to come by. Check out my office system thread for some ideas in regards. Of course the Count may be sitting on some extra side rails ...

You can also spruce up the faceplate by pulling it off the amp, stripping it of all hardware, and buff/wax it. You'll be surprised at how nice it'll look afterwards and it really isn't that difficult. Last I checked, McIntosh still stocked the panel lamps for these amps if yours doesn't work.

Wish I had my 1Y . Acquired it back in the mid 70s and sold it in 1980. DJ work . I kept my crown dc300a and now it is sitting in a cupboard in my garage , just about 60v on the rail...yikes. However I'm enjoying its siblings ( 2105 , 2505 , and others)..yeah. Nice amp ,your 2300. Congrats!

I bought three MC2300s from a DJ once ...

We had a DJ system , bi-amping using the 2300 for bass and the 300a for mid and hi. One of the guys in the group had a mini . After a gig the Mc would be in the passengers seat , me sitting on top of it , in the back seat other guys in the group with their girlfriends on their laps. Yeah that mini had six teenagers and a Mc2300. That was back in the Caribbean..the good ol days! My gf was in the trunk...lol ...ah ...just kidding

Too funny!

CountD said:

Yes, 4Y. Great later production. Probably around 1978 or so. If it has the original 070s in it, you can check those for the date code which will give you an approximate time of manufacture. It was throwing me, because the tops were screened differently past 2Y050 or so to say Mc2300 Stereo Power Amplifier (like on yours) vs. 300 / 300 Watt Power Amplifier (on lower 1YXXXs), so I was thinking in my mind it couldn't be a 1Y. The allen screws that replaced the regular screws on yours is often a tell-tale sign it was a Wall amp, but yours is too late and without the other mods (I was hoping it had bananas).

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Interesting, I didn't know about the Allen screws on the wall amps. Wow I would have lost my mind if this had turned out to be an actual "wall of sound" amp!

@Damacman what wax do you use to buff the faceplate?