Go Unlimited with Magzter GOLD

Go Unlimited with Magzter GOLD

Get unlimited access to 10,000+ magazines, newspapers and Premium stories for just

$149.99
 
$74.99/Year

Try GOLD - Free

McIntosh C12000: PREAMPLIFIER

Stereophile

|

November 2023

As I was talking with an audio-retailer friend recently, he reached for a Rolls-Royce metaphor to describe the McIntosh brand. Expensive? Sure, but not as expensive as some boutique high-end products. Fast? Sure, but there are faster things-also bigger things, smaller things, wackier things, and cheaper things.

- SASHA MATSON

McIntosh C12000: PREAMPLIFIER

But when you look at a Rolls or a Bentley, you immediately recognize it for what it is, and you want to sit down in it. And so it is with McIntosh, except you don't want to sit down in it; you want to sit down in front of it, between the speakers of the hi-fi system it occupies.

History matters. When a new model from Bentley appears, there is a connection to what came before it, a long tradition. There is no pretense of reinventing wheels; instead, it's about rolling those wheels a little farther on down the road. That heritage results in a comforting familiarity. From the first audio products McIntosh offered, in 1949, down to the present lineup, any knowledgeable consumer can look at it and immediately know what it's for and recognize its value. In particular, people value a legacy of quality, especially when so many older, vintage products are out there and still working. It feels good knowing that the thing you're buying is likely to last and be enjoyable and satisfying to use for a long time.

The C12000 is McIntosh's current flagship preamplifier. It's part of McIntosh's Hybrid Drive series of products that combine tubes and transistors in interesting ways. The first McIntosh product to incorporate such a mix-although it preceded the marketing term by several years-was the MA252 stereo integrated amplifier, released in 2017. It was "hybrid" in the familiar sense, pairing a tubed preamplifier stage with a 100W solid state amplifier. The range has since expanded to include amplifiers, preamps-even a CD/SACD player.

MORE STORIES FROM Stereophile

Stereophile

Stereophile

The skating force phenomenon

At the beginning of last month's As We See It, I wrote that I've lately been focused on \"analog things.\" I proceeded to write about refurbishing and modding my old McIntosh tuner. That's \"analog thing\" #1.

time to read

4 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Umami tunes

If you go to Tokyo, there's a good chance you'll develop a new appreciation for shopping malls. The Japanese know malls. They know just what to do with them. Inside a Tokyo mall, you can peruse the usual handbags and shoes in their unending variety. But you can also stare at Fuji apples as large as a baby's head swaddled in tissue paper, flip through the world's most exquisite stationery, stock up on fabric from the 1920s, and taste things that will haunt you well into retirement.

time to read

12 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Who's the next 007?

Walking through any big art museum, even at a brisk pace, it's impossible not to notice how boldly each object wears the unique stamp of its time and place of manufacture.

time to read

13 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Doing it for themselves—and for us

Women have undeniably become the most dynamic and vital creative force in music today. Without their good energies and ideas, music, which in the digital age has become more background than art, would be much less interesting and inspiring.

time to read

3 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

15 FOR 50 1975 IN 15 RECORDS

WAS IT SOMETHING IN THE AIR, SOMETHING IN THE WATER? COSMICALLY INSPIRED BY THE STARS AND THE MOON? OR MAYBE THE DEVIL WAS FINALLY CLAIMING HIS OWN AS ROCK MUSIC IN ALL ITS VARIANTS WAS UNASSAILABLY ASCENDENT.

time to read

12 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid

These days, listeners the wide world over enjoy hearing their music recreated for them by equipment whose origins are international; trade isolationists might consider the example of PrimaLuna.

time to read

10 mins

October 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Bricasti Design M21

Those of us who review audio equipment, and even audiophiles who don't, often talk about our reference systems.

time to read

11 mins

October 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Pablo Records via Granz and Kassem

Way back in my ignorant youth I thought that Pablo Records, the label of jazz producer/promoter legend Norman Granz, was where jazz artists went to fade away, where they were put out to pasture.

time to read

3 mins

October 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Hi-fi for (very) small spaces

For the past few months, I've been getting ready to move. Those of you who've looked for an apartment in New York City know that it may be the single most dismal thing about living here.

time to read

12 mins

October 2025

Stereophile

RECOMMENDED RC2025 COMPONENTS

Every product listed here has been reviewed in Stereophile. Everything on the list, regardless of rating, is genuinely recommendable. Occasionally we get complaints from manufacturers who object to being included in, say, Class B. That's their error: Inclusion in Class B is a significant honor.

time to read

34 mins

October 2025

Translate

Share

-
+

Change font size