Simply one of those ‘last preamplifier you’ll ever buy’ type of units. The dual chassis Preamp has been a staple of McIntosh’s line up for decades and the C12000 builds on that impressive lineage.
Keeping the control and the heftier electronic componentry separate from each other in the preamplifier is unusual but also a simple and ingenious way of making a good preamplifier into something extraordinary. This preamp draws so much detail and depth out of the music bringing performances into your living room.
We have this unit plugged into the McIntosh MC611 power amps driving the Sonus Faber Serafino’s in that classic McIntosh/Sonus Faber pairing. We’re loving the built-in phono stage on the C12000.
Often built-in phono stages leave us wanting but because there’s so much more inherent isolation in this two box design, the phono stage performs so elegantly. Both phono inputs have near unlimited adjustability – a change from the older model that had one MM input and one adjustable MC input.
We could gush over the C12000 all day…so musical and engaging.
