Opinions on Mcintosh MC30/Rega/Croft/Harbeth blended system?

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster!

I'm currently running a Rega RP6/Exact with a pair of Harbeth Compact 7's and...wait for it...an old Onkyo receiver with built in phono stage. It's finally time to go higher end with the amp/preamp pieces...and I've settled on looking at a rebuilt pair of MC30's and a Croft Micro 25 preamp.

Any opinions on the synergy of this overall system? My room is fairly small...14x14, and I mainly listen to 50's/60's jazz, 70's R&B/funk, and the occasional rock or classical record at low to medium volumes. Primarily, are the MC30's enough amp for the Harbeths and is the Micro 25 a good preamp for the Rega and does it pair well with the Harbeths?

Thoughts welcome...don't hold back!

 

I believe the MC30's will be a very good match for the Harbeth speakers. The speakers are fairly efficient at 86dB, and fairly easy to push at 6 ohms, so the 30wpc of the McIntosh will have enough guts to give a full presentation without working too hard.
One plus with the MC30's is their great appeal. If you decide they are not up to the task, and move on to something different, you will have no issues selling them for the price you payed.

 

The MC30s will be wonderful in the system you are building.....great choices all around!

 

Actually I'd consider those pretty inefficient speakers, especially for a tube rectified vintage amp, but in a room your size they should work. Plus as the above poster stated you can turn around and sell them for what you paid with no problems.

 

The Croft replacing the Onkyo will make a startling improvement, IMO.

 

Thanks to everyone for the responses thus far. The response above is a concern I shared as well...am I just ultimately underpowering the Harbeths with the MC30's? I know every component in this system is well-respected on its own, but is everything matched well?

 

I'd take a moment and look at the input sensitivity and the specs on the Croft and McIntosh to see how it looks on paper.

http://www.decware.com/paper55.htm

 

Interesting, and thanks for the info. So *IF* I'm looking at the specs correctly, there should be more than enough gain to power the MC30's. The Croft produces .5v output for every mV of cartridge output, right? So if my Exact has a approx 7mV output, we're looking at 3.5v output through the Croft, coupled with the input sensitivity of .5v for the MC30's. Am I looking at this correctly? If so, plenty of gain from a source/preamp perspective for the MC30's, right? But how does that then translate to the Harbeths?

 

I wouldn't rule the MC30s out. Macs are great amps with great iron. I was just commenting on the efficiency of the Harbeth. That and I don't know anyone that has ever tried that combo. I don't think it is a common pairing but that really just means you'll have to experiment for yourself. It might be great. Plus there are always the MC60s. Either way if you try it let us know how it works out for you.

 

Hey, I'm open to other speaker suggestions as well. I'm not too committed to the Harbeths...I'm much more in love with the Rega/Mcintosh combo, and am open to more suitable preamp and speaker suggestions. Would want to keep the speakers in the $2-3k range...

 

You are looking at the onboard Croft phono pre plus the regular Croft preamp gain? My understanding and practice is that you want to approach the input sensitivity, assuming transient peaks may overload, at a bit less than the spec., but not too far below in order to take best advantage of the downstream amplification.

I would ask Croft as well. The math is the math, but is a point of departure. Their experience may be of benefit.

 

I agree that the Harbeth are rather inefficient and also will add that the Mac MC30 is of very limited power in my experience. I was also stoked to get a set and then quickly disappointed by nearly everything else that I used as a substitute for them. They have a warm and holographic sound but are very colored sounding with HF roll-off and have a thick, slow bass performance that runs out of steam and thus control very quickly. They would work for the very midrangey and efficient speakers of the '50s but really lack any sort of resolution or control for modern designs. Ultimately I felt that I was listening as much to the amps as the recording. The Harbeths should be fine by all other accounts; they just deserve a more refined amplifier.
-Bill

 

Get a job 225?

 

I have Harbeth C7's and I drove them for a couple years with a Macintosh MC-240. So, a similar amp, but with a little more power and solid state rectification.

I also tried the Harbeths with a Pass Labs INT-30A, a solid state, class A amp of 30 wpc.

Honestly, I don't think either one of them was up to fully driving the Harbeths. Contrary to all the commentary I read before buying them, I have found the Harbeths very power hungry.

If you mostly listen to jazz or acoustic music, you may like the combo with the MC-30's. The midrange of 240 was beautiful through the Harbeths. But on rock music, you will never get top performance in the bass. I now have a 100 wpc Macintosh solid state integrated amp and the bass performance is much better. But even that is not getting the most out of the Harbeths. I have heard them driven by much more powerful Ayre amps and they have a lot more potential than 100 watts can deliver. I do miss the tubes though. I think either the speakers or the amp in your case are great options. But I would not combine them. I would choose one and choose the other component to complement it.

 

Yes, I'm starting to think that going with a pair of more efficient speakers...something from the Klipsch Heritage line, for example, may be a better direction if I'm set on the MC30's.

So, MC30/Rega P6/Klipsch Heresy or Cornwall/Croft Micro 25...thoughts here?

And lastly, how do you guys who are running the MC30's without a Mcintosh pre handle powering the units on/off?

 

If you want to stay with new speakers checkout some Tannoy. One of the problems with most new stand mounted speakers is that they tend to be fairly inefficient. It's a sacrifice the designers are making in order to give deeper more tuneful bass. The Tannoy DC8 is an example. The rest of the Definition line is around 93db vs the DC8 88db. Still the specs of the DC8 would be much kinder to the Mc30s. Tannoy would be a good place to start for new designs.

As for the Heritage Klipsch, I am pretty biased. I own a pair of Cornwalls and love them. I love big, efficient, full rangers. Especially when paired with tube gear. Vintage Mac and Klipsch or Altec or Tannoy (old or new) sound great. The Cornwall are great deals. Personally I prefer the Cornwall 1s before they started with the press board construction. Though they all sound great when you use a little care to set them up and restore them if needed. Plus if you go that route you can mod some older Cornwalls into a cornscala with a wood midrange horn later on. Easy to do and sound fantastic. Head over to the Klipsch Forums and you'll get tons of info their. It will be pretty biased though.

 

Most people with vintage gear I know use so e sort of power strip or conditioner to turn their system on and off