I was in need of a preamp for my recently acquired turntable, and I
noticed a C-24 for sale on rec.audio.tubes - I bit on the the offer, and
3 weeks later I carried it home from the post office. This is one of
McIntosh's first transistor pre-amps, but I have to say, I am more than
impressed with it - the build quality is awesome, and the sound is too -
zero audible hiss, hum, or distortion - the tone controls are
effective, and subtle enough to be useful. The rumble and scratch
filters are useful too. I haven't played with the loudness control much
yet.

All in all, it's an improvement over my previous tube line stage, which
I paid a whole lot more money for that I did with the McIntosh.

One feature the Mac has, which I find interesting, is a centre channel
output. The thought crossed my mind, that since I have mono amplifiers,
I could simply get another one, and one of the home theatre style centre
channel speakers from the same series as my mains. Has anyone here set
up a simple L+R centre channel, and used it with a matching third
speaker? I figure it might add to SPL potential, but maybe at the
expense of imaging. I'm sure people here have tried this connection at
least once in their many years of hi-fi involvement - any experiences?