Considering moving from a NAD 658 preamp to the McIntosh C49

[Gibson 2021]

I have a McIntosh MC152 amp and the NAD 658 preamp seems to work well with my system. I like that it has built in Blue OS, which works with Tidal and other streaming services. I am curious if the C49 would offer much improvement in sound quality over the 658 preamp or just different?
I have upgraded my phono preamp from the stock one in the NAD to a Parasound XRM phono preamp. It provides more clarity, the music is more up front and it offers more gain so the volume of my mm Cartridge is close to my CD and streaming volume.

Have any of you compared the C49 to something like the NAD 658 or Parasound P6 preamp?

 

[TSmith8605]

Sorry, I cannot answer your question as I've not heard any of these pre amps. Do you have a local dealer who will let you try out the C49 in your system for a few hours at least? If the C49 seller is local, maybe you could arrange to try it in your system before you buy?

Regarding Blue OS, I notice that the NAD 658 has neither fixed analog audio nor digital outputs that would allow you to use it just as a Blue OS steamer with some other pre amp, so if you did get the C49, you'd have to get something like the Blue Sound Node. This will allow you to continue Blue OS streaming with any preamp and you can use the Node's internal DAC for streaming or stream (via digital outputs) from the Node to another DAC, in this case the C49 DAC which may sound better.

 

[twiiii]

I have two issues that stand out for me with the new pre-amps from Mcintosh. Lack of flexibility being the main one. The other is that the pre-amps should have graphic tone controls, LF, and HF band pass filters, loudness controls, and provisions for the DA series modules which should be updated more often.

It might be fun to have the companders like the older pre-amps when you want to listen to music casually with a lot of digital recordings having to much dynamic range for that purpose. There should be record outputs and tape monitors, too. I prefer record selectors and input and output processor loops, too. I mean if you have phono inputs you should have everything else that goes to into making records sound their best. I have so many recordings with the stereo channels reversed that I will never buy a pre-amp with out a full mode selector.

for an eample I was listening to the Red Army Central defense concert band the other day. With the Euphoniums and Clarinets on the left with the flutes Saxophones and trumpets in the center and every thing else on the right shown on the video portion, but the audio signal had the Euphoniums in the center with the clarinets on the right and the percussion instruments reversed and on and on. You couldn't fix everything, but with my pre-amp I just put it the Stereo reverse mode and I could live with the rest. It was all wrong left in the stereo mode.

 

[jayvis]

I have two issues that stand out for me with the new pre-amps from Mcintosh. Lack of flexibility being the main one. The other is that the pre-amps should have graphic tone controls, LF, and HF band pass filters, loudness controls, and provisions for the DA series modules which should be updated more often.

It might be fun to have the companders like the older pre-amps when you want to listen to music casually with a lot of digital recordings having to much dynamic range for that purpose. There should be record outputs and tape monitors, too. I prefer record selectors and input and output processor loops, too. I mean if you have phono inputs you should have everything else that goes to into making records sound their best. I have so many recordings with the stereo channels reversed that I will never buy a pre-amp with out a full mode selector.

for an eample I was listening to the Red Army Central defense concert band the other day. With the Euphoniums and Clarinets on the left with the flutes Saxophones and trumpets in the center and every thing else on the right shown on the video portion, but the audio signal had the Euphoniums in the center with the clarinets on the right and the percussion instruments reversed and on and on. You couldn't fix everything, but with my pre-amp I just put it the Stereo reverse mode and I could live with the rest. It was all wrong left in the stereo mode.

Your wish list would apply to just about every modern preamp that's currently made, not just McIntosh preamps. Some of that stuff could be useful, but very costly.

 

[Tmort]

I have a McIntosh MC152 amp and the NAD 658 preamp seems to work well with my system. I like that it has built in Blue OS, which works with Tidal and other streaming services. I am curious if the C49 would offer much improvement in sound quality over the 658 preamp or just different?
I have upgraded my phono preamp from the stock one in the NAD to a Parasound XRM phono preamp. It provides more clarity, the music is more up front and it offers more gain so the volume of my mm Cartridge is close to my CD and streaming volume.

Have any of you compared the C49 to something like the NAD 658 or Parasound P6 preamp?

Curious what you’ve done here. I too have the same preamp and I do love the BluOS aspect of it but I’ve had some suggest the preamp section isn’t up to snuff. The C49 supposedly has a very good DAC, I have a very nice phono preamp so don’t really need that aspect of the C49’s features. Also the sub out of the c658 is very faint and doesn’t provide enough gain to even drive my B&W subwoofer so I have to run it off the main unbalanced output (my amp runs off the balanced outputs).

 

[charne@sprin]

My own $0.02: I wanted to add streaming capability to my MA5200, so purchased a Bluesound Node X, and returned it. My primary streaming sources are Internet radio stations from across the globe, and the Node X did not have the broad capability I want. I replaced it with a WiiM Pro Plus Airplay 2 Receiver, at the time of my purchase, a black Friday deal at Amazon, priced waaaay below the Node X, and has availability of vTuner. For me, a great choice.

WiiM Pro Plus review

What Hi-Fi? Awards 2023 winner. Anonymous appearance, potent performance

www.whathifi.com

 

[Gibson 2021]

Curious what you’ve done here. I too have the same preamp and I do love the BluOS aspect of it but I’ve had some suggest the preamp section isn’t up to snuff. The C49 supposedly has a very good DAC, I have a very nice phono preamp so don’t really need that aspect of the C49’s features. Also the sub out of the c658 is very faint and doesn’t provide enough gain to even drive my B&W subwoofer so I have to run it off the main unbalanced output (my amp runs off the balanced outputs).

Though the C49 has a DAC, you would need a streamer to play music from Tidal, Spotify, etc. and good streamers have built in DAC's that you would probably use. The C49 has the original DAC which is long toothed compared to the newer ones out there, and I would not want to spend the money for McIntosh's upgraded DA2.

Since I have a really nice Parasound JC3 Jr phono preamp, I would be spending money on a C49 that duplicates what I already have. I would be surprised if the phono preamp is better than the dedicated JC3 Jr. So if I had the money to upgrade, I would probably look more towards the Parasound JC2 preamp. But I would still need to spend good money for a good streamer as well. I would think the C49 and JC2 would offer clearer sound which some might say is brighter, while the NAD is slightly neutral or warm. So depending on your source material, you may prefer one over the other. I am also not to anxious to spend over $4,000 right now on a new preamp as I have large house upkeep bills coming in.