mijknahs wrote:jenkins wrote:I thought he was looking for an alternative to the mc2300, which can cost a good 2000.
IMO,if your gonna spend 3-500 on a power amp an mc is the only way to go.
IMO nothing beats a mc2100, I also have an mc2505 which has been relegated to being my home stereo amp due to it not having quite enough power. Nothing beats listening to 70's dead on a Mac.
I had an option of getting an mc100 and I went with the 2100 because it is easily rack mounted, the one I bought actually came w rack wings on it. Also I really like the idea of having a backup amp built in in the second channel.
Mount that thing in a 4 space rack with your preamp and maybe your reverb unit and it isn't hard to carry around At all.
How much does a vintage twin reverb weigh? If I'm not mistaken it is not THAT much lighter.
I lugged one around for a minute and that thing was a beast to carry from its handle, that thing always killed
My back.
If your worried about weight get a 2500 or 2505, they're light and do pack some punch, you generally have to mic your cab anyways.
You must have the 2105 if its rack mountable.
I don't have an mc2100, it's actually a 2120.
It's funny cuz when I first read your post I was all thinkin 'this dude don't know what he's talking about' & then I went and looked and sure enough, it aint no 2100 lol.
I've been calling this thing a 2100 for like over 2 years now.
MC-2120-- this amp seriously kicks ass. I was lucky that mine even came with rack wings.
It's a good 65lbs but mounted in a small rack with just a preamp it's wicked easy to carry, def easier than the twin reverb I lugged around for a minute, easier than most combos except the small ones. It's a little heavy but really easy to carry in a nice rack with handles.
Nothing comes close to a Mac as far as tone goes IMO, the warmth and character they add to your tone just can't be beat, there's a reason jerry used one almost his whole career and it's not because it looked cool.
It's funny, first time I ever used it I actually used it to play bass for a jam session. Used it thru my guitar rig which was just a tubeworks real tube preamp into the Mac. Everyone was setting up and I plugged in and hit one note and everyone actually stopped what they were doin and looked up at each other and were like whoa! I swear to god it literally stopped everyone in their tracks. I hadn't even adjusted the pre for bass yet either. That was the funnest time I've ever had playing bass, sounded exactly like John kahns tone and it was great. So Literally from the first note I hit on my Mac I knew it was something special, at this point I can never go back to a regular amp.
One of the things that most amazes me about macs is how you can crank the shit out of em and they don't hurt your ears. That was always a problem I had, my ears would actually hurt after a big jam session, but not with the Mac. It just doesn't distort, super loud and no ear pain.
I even use them for the PA for our acoustic gigs, which we've been doing a lot lately. Il use one channel for the mains, the other for the monitor and it works awesome. Bigger acoustic shows we'll use the 2120 for the mains and my 2505 for the monitors. Every show we've ever done where we use the macs for amps someone comes up, usually a couple people, and ask us how we got it to sound so good. We always have people asking us what the trick is to such good sound quality and I always point to the macs.
If your in the market for a 3-600$ amp get a Mac, you will not be dissapointed.
What I wonder is how come no other amps sound like macs? Why are they the only ones that can make such high quality sound? If we used another audiophile quality amp like a Marantz(I think) or one of those other few ultra-expensive audiophile amps would it sound as good?
Would other audiophiles sound as good or do macs just have some sort of magic in them?
One thing is sure...they definitely have magic in those things. I've only played through 2, the ones I own, and they sounds amazing for any use (guitar, bass, PA, & home listening)
Haha, I can just go on and on about how dank macs are.