McIntosh C49
Walter from Morgantown, WV on 5/16/2025
1 of 6 found this helpful
Wow!
Michael from Goose Creek, SC on 3/14/2025
Before making this purchase, I called Crutchfield's technical support for some compatibility guidance to make sure my setup would work. I'm going to say from the start their tech support is awesome. After our conversation I was able to make my purchase with confidence. My setup consists of the McIntosh C49 preamp with inputs from my Teac 3340S reel to reel tape deck, Audio-Technica ATLP120-LP-usb turntable with Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge, and Toshiba CD player. The C49 is coupled through my McIntosh MC152 stereo amplifier using balanced xlr cables. The MC152 amp drives a pair of Wharfdale Lintons. My listening room is a modest 15 X 20 feet. Setup of the C49 was a breeze. The ability to rename the inputs on the C49's display is an awesome feature and easy to setup. The manual is straight forward and makes setup a piece of cake. I was even able to interface my Marantz model 2226B through the C49 and MC152. With this setup, all my sources sound incredible. At the end of a long day, I look forward to parking it in my listening chair with a glass of good Scotch and great sounds.
Pros: Easy setup, awesome sound improvement over what I had previously.
Cons: None!
2 of 2 found this helpful
McIntosh C49
Thomas from Normal, IL on 12/21/2024
1 of 3 found this helpful
McIntosh C49
Bob from Woodbridge, NJ on 7/29/2024
I've only had it for less than a week, but it's totally amazing! The phono stage is great, I use a moving coil cartridge. Of course CDs and SACDs sound excellent as well. I also use the Mcintosh MB 20 transceiver for Bluetooth and even what I play off of my phone sounds pretty close to CD quality. There's so much more you can do with this, I'm just scratching the surface, but I'm hearing nuances in the music that I've never heard before.
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6 of 6 found this helpful
McIntosh C49
John from Newport News, VA on 1/6/2023
The name kind of says is all. McIntosh is an iconic brand that lives up to it's name. The sound quality is amazing. It has a warmth that I love even though it is a solid state preamp. The wide selection of inputs is a great attribute and the modular DAC is a plus. The only negative thing I can say at all is that at this price point I feel that it should have come with the DA2 DAC that is already available instead of the DA1. I don't stream music so that wasn't such a big deal to me but will be for others. The ability to turn off inputs you aren't using and rename the inputs to whatever you want to call them is a nice feature. It just improved the user interface. The build quality is rock solid as you would expect from McIntosh. I'll never get tired of listening to this. 5 Stars all the way.
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22 of 26 found this helpful
McIntosh C49
John from Lincoln, CA on 12/11/2022
3 of 9 found this helpful
Impressive
Richard from Bedford, NH on 10/12/2022
I have only had it for a few days but the sound is very impressive.
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4 of 12 found this helpful
Seattle
Nav from Seattle on 8/3/2022
The unit itself sounded incredible and complemented my MC275 well. However, it failed after 6 months and refused to power on. The repair process through McIntosh is not good. Some of the dealers are questionable and due to my location, I needed to ship the unit out of state. Both shipping the unit to the service center (not McIntosh but a certified repairer) and back is not covered by warranty. I'd like to see McIntosh take more ownership of their service operations rather than contracting with a mixed bag of repairers. The repair itself took 6-7 weeks waiting on a main board.
Pros: Dual balanced inputs and outputs are super useful. Great phono stage (MC) with input impedance select-ability. DAC punches above its weight.
Cons: Quality Warranty repair service
54 of 57 found this helpful
I love this preamp!
John from Federal Way, Washington on 5/10/2022
In the mid 70's I would go to my local Mc dealer and drool. The sounds in their listening rooms were amazing. At age 63 I finally got my first piece of Mc gear! I replaced an Emotiva XSP-1 preamp with the C49. It is driving a tri-amped system into a Sublime active crossover to an SVS SB16 Ultra sub, Parasound A21+ running the mid bass and a Parasound A23+ running the highs. The swap in my system was very quick so I could run a good A B test. Right out of the box the C49 just blew the Emo away in detail, clarity and soundstage. And I think the C49 has gotten better with time. It is very detailed, smooth and has a ton of gain. Sure, it was expensive, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Not only is the sound quality excellent, every physical detail of the pre is beautiful and perfect. Even the remote has a quality feel to it. I would HIGHLY suggest this preamp.
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18 of 19 found this helpful
Great unit but failed headphone jack!
Irf from Yorktown Heights on 3/10/2022
Great Preamp, BUT my right channel on the headphone jack isn't working. Hopefully Crutchfield or McIntosh can fix the issue. Using it with xlr to my power amps and it's amazing for that aspect, disappointed that such an expensive preamp would have a broken headphone channel.
Pros: Great unit, xlr to power amps sounds amazing
Cons: Headphone jack broken on a brand new unit!
23 of 24 found this helpful
McIntosh C49
Israel from Caguas, PR on 2/14/2022
3 of 9 found this helpful
Luxury Control Center
Robert from Rainsville, AL on 2/4/2022
This was a "life is short" extravagant purchase. I wanted a preamp that dis everything I wanted, not most things. You can undoubtedly get a preamp that sounds as good for less. What you won't get is this level of features and flexibility or the made in America build quality. Oh, and it sounds great too.
Pros: Features, build quality ,looks, sound.
Cons: You will probably to wait to get one.
15 of 16 found this helpful
Mac C49
Crutchfield customer from Racine, WI on 10/18/2021
I am very happy with my new Mac preamp, the clarity of CDs and streaming music I have been listening to for years is amazing, there are instruments I didn't know where there before. I replaced my old preamp with this one to match up my Macintosh amp that's just 2 years old. I am nearing retirement so knowing the quality of Macintosh products these two will last me the rest of my life. I also bought the Macintosh CC1M power control cable from Crutchfield so the remote from this preamp turns on/off the Mac amp too.
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19 of 22 found this helpful
McIntosh C49
Crutchfield customer from West Palm Bch, FL on 8/20/2020
Paired with McIntosh MC7270 amplifier and Klipsch Heritage speakers - multiple eargasms followed. Preamp worth every penny.
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11 of 16 found this helpful
70 years strong
Patrick from ALEXANDRIA, VA on 7/20/2020
Although I have owned other McIntosh equipment this is the first piece I ever purchased new. It is a lot of money to spend on one piece of equipment but after spending a few weeks considering other brands I decided on the C49 on Friday and paid for next day delivery. After setup I went to work making sure everything worked the way it should. Unfortunately I had no access to the tone controls. I suspected something was wrong with the firmware and after talking to Crutchfield technical support I agreed to call McIntosh today. This morning I called them up for technical support. I left a voice mail and Chuck called me back shortly after I hung up. He told me that there was a firmware bug and a simple update from 2.00 to 2.01 would resolve the problem. After finding a USB cable I was able to flash the C49 and had my tone controls.
Pros: Great sound. Great support. Built to last. Great features. Balanced inputs and output. Home theater pass-through. Built-in DAC. (I may have gone with the MA5300 or MAC7200 but both of those were out of stock.)
Cons: None.
23 of 26 found this helpful
Top Notch PreAmp
Crutchfield customer from Maumee, OH on 7/12/2020
The McIntosh C49 is able to handle all my stereo components flawlessly.
Pros: Exceptional design, impeccable function
Cons: Expensive but you get what you pay for.
8 of 13 found this helpful
