McIntosh C53 Preamplifier and MCT500 SACD/CD Transport

McIntosh’s C53 preamplifier is the successor to the outstanding C52, which I reviewed two years ago in TAS 283 (I purchased the review sample). Like many preamplifiers and integrated amplifiers these days, the C52 is an analog/digital hybrid housing an on-board DAC. McIntosh called the C52 “the most advanced, single-chassis solid-state preamplifier we’ve ever made,” and despite a seven-grand retail, sales were extremely brisk. Little wonder: its matchless connectivity such that it handles virtually every audio format of two-channel analog and digital sources available for home consumption at performance levels that reach state of the art. Yet, here we have a replacement for which the manufacturer makes the same claim and which is so literally identical as regards circuitry, features, connectivity, performance, sound quality, size, and appearance—side by side the only differentiating clues the new model number under the McIntosh logo on the fascia and an HDMI port on the rear—that I’ll skip the usual descriptive tour around and through the unit, and also a detailed consideration of its sound, referring you instead to my review of the original (TAS 283 and at theabsolutesound.com). Mentally replace “C52” with C53” and you have the review. 

So why a new model and why a review? Two things: fears of obsolescence and television sound. Despite the C52’s strong sales, a number of potential buyers demurred, fearing that in an area as fast-moving as digital audio their purchase might soon become obsolete. So the engineers went back to the drawing board and designed a new digital audio module, designated the DA2. The DA2 is both removable and upgradable as new digital formats or components come along, all without having to replace the entire preamplifier. Already the DA2 benefits from a later generation of the popular ESS components that constitute the heart of the onboard DAC. It has the same connectivity (2 coaxial, 2 optical, 1 USB, and 1 proprietary MCT for use with the MCT series of SACD/CD transports), plus an additional feature that for me is something of a game-changer: a new audio-only HDMI Audio Return Channel (ARC) that, according to McIntosh’s literature, “allows it to be connected to TVs with a compatible HDMI (ARC) output to bring your TV sound to a new level of audio performance by listening to it through your home stereo system. Popular multichannel audio formats from Dolby and DTS are supported and will be expertly converted to 2-channel audio for proper playback through the C53. When CEC communication is enabled in both the C53 and your TV, your TV remote can control the power and volume of the C53.” 

But since McIntosh is primarily an audio company and TAS an audio magazine, who cares about TV sound, and isn’t it already available anyhow? Easier to answer the latter first. No, or at least not easily. Increasingly, all these fancy new “smart” TVs have dispensed with RCA jacks that provide a mixed-down audio signal for connection to two-channel sound systems, while some new smart TVs no longer have even a headphone jack that could be counted on (more or less) for the same thing. Without those, the only way to get two channels out of your television is the TosLink connection, but that requires an accommodating DAC, whether built-in or outboard. Even then, the sound you’ll get, while usually an improvement over the RCA and headphone-jack alternatives, is not nearly as good as what you would get from a properly mixed down two-channel signal because, as McIntosh’s literature suggests, such popular multichannel formats as Dolby and DTS are not consistently supported by or correctly converted via the TosLink output. In other words, it’s still something of a dumbed-down way of getting quality two-channel audio out of a television.

There is a third alternative. A number of third-party vendors sell devices that claim to split off a stereo signal from an HDMI output. These devices are quite inexpensive ($15–$50 or so) and readily available on Amazon or other sites. I’ve tried some with at worst no success at all (no sound comes out) or middling results that are no better than the headphone and RCA jacks on earlier TVs and usually not as good. The reality is that some pretty sophisticated conversion protocols and circuitry are required to do a correct two-channel down-conversion. I’m not sure if you can find that on processors, receivers, preamplifiers, and integrated amplifiers that are home-theater products, but so far as I am aware, McIntosh’s DA2 module is unique in being able to do this the right way on a preamplifier otherwise designed strictly for the reproduction of high-end two-channel. While I cannot provide details on how the company accomplishes this, the circuit being proprietary, I can report that the results are genuinely revelatory. 

But first, let’s return to the question of who cares about two-channel TV sound. Well, I do, for one, and so do many people I know whose listening rooms must do double-duty as TV rooms, yet who don’t want to invest in multichannel setups or augment (purists might say “corrupt”) their two-channel systems with home-theater components. According to McIntosh, quite a number of their customers feel the same way—another reason, in addition to upgradability, for the DA2. As many of my readers know, I am a film editor (features mostly, some non-commercial TV), and I oversee the sound mixing and dubbing of all the films I edit. Yet I don’t have a home-theater setup, nor do many of my colleagues who work in movies. (Indeed, I personally know far fewer movie professionals with surround-sound home-theater than I do without.) Speaking for myself, I don’t much enjoy “hardware” movies such as all those big tentpole productions. My idea of a really long night at the movies, whether at home or in theaters, consists in superhero movies, action “epics,” space-opera, and other kinds of mass-market sci-fi, with soundtracks proliferated with bullets, explosions, high-speed chases, rockets, laser ordnance, and other sorts of futuristic weaponry, not to mention grunts, groans, growls, roars, screams, screeches, and other effusions of monsters from the Mesozoic Era to galaxies far off and away—all this without mentioning near non-stop music loud enough to cause hearing damage.  

Nor do I much care for sound effects coming from all around me whether at home or in theaters. My reasons for this require a much longer discussion than there is space for in an audio review, so I’ll reduce it to a single sentence: I find it both weird and distracting to have sounds coming from behind, above, or beside me when the image remains stubbornly in front of me. I’ll let you in on a little secret. A remarkably large number of filmmakers feel the same way, including quite a few directors. Most of us got into this business because we wanted to tell stories that mean something to us and that we hope will mean something to others as well. When it comes to all those CGI visual and sound effects, most of us feel that less definitely equates to more. And while I’ve heard some impressive music-only surround-sound demonstrations (notably courtesy of Peter McGrath and his own outstanding recordings), I have neither space nor inclination to set up something similar at home. These admissions may suggest that as regards both my vocation and my avocation I’m in the wrong line of work, but there appears to be enough of us to constitute a market worth accommodating. (According to McIntosh, this includes a considerable number of their customers.)

Before getting to the sound, a few words about connectivity. First, the C53’s DA2 HDMI input is not for composite audio/video HDMI nor can it be connected to your laptop, desktop computer, and DVD or Blu-ray player. It will work only from an HDMI ARC jack on your TV. (If you don’t know what ARC means, i.e., Audio Return Channel, Google it or start here: www.cnet.com/news/hdmi-audio-return-channel-and-earc-for-beginners/.) The last couple generations of smart TVs usually have at least one such port. Also, be sure you use an HDMI cable that supports ARC. I didn’t realize that not all HDMI cables do. When the first cable I tried yielded nothing, a quick check of the manual for my Sony TV warned of the same thing. Once I swapped out the cable, everything worked perfectly. And did it ever.

TV Sound for Obstinate Two-Channel Audiophiles

If you’ve been listening to your TV the old way, via the TV’s analog outputs, its TosLink connection, or its internal speakers, you have no idea how poor, compromised, or simply inadequate is the sound you’ve been hearing. First, and most immediate, the music part of the soundtrack of every film and TV show I watched emerged in much greater relief, with true audiophile-grade clarity, definition, power, and dynamic range yet without being distracting or overwhelming (unless of course that was the desired effect—sometimes we want the music to carry the scene). Second, and far more important, the dialogue was consistently clearer, cleaner, more articulate, easier to understand and comprehend, therefore far more involving, moving, emotional, witty, amusing, hilarious, as the case may be. When we filmmakers, at least those of us with pretensions to seriousness, are mixing a movie, whether comedy or drama, love story or action piece, political picture or sports film, we work harder on making the dialogue intelligible than on anything else because performance matters paramountly. Third, sound effects were far more dramatic, yet, again, not necessarily in such a way as to call attention to themselves as such, especially in films where their purpose is to reinforce the drama, not dominate it. Fourth, the entire soundscape as regards dialogue, sound effects, panning effects, and placement with respect to both width and depth was hugely improved of what for want of a better descriptor I’d call holographic spatiality within a two-channel presentation. 

I realize that in enumerating these four categories—and there are others—I run the risk of making it appear as if the presentation is so analytical as to fall apart into its constituent elements. But nothing could be further from the truth. As paradoxical as this may sound, playing a program with a really good mix—and most movie soundtracks have good mixes—allowed me to enjoy a more fully balanced and integrated complement to the images on the screen. For my tastes anyhow, the overall integration of picture and sound, the gestalt of image and soundscape, was far more aesthetically valid, satisfying, involving, and convincing because everything was in the front, where it logically belongs.

The first thing I played was the Blu-ray of Flags of Our Fathers, a World War drama about the men who participated in the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. (I surely trust most readers will realize that my earlier recitation of the kinds of movies I don’t like is most emphatically not meant to include serious action, war, epic, and similar kinds of films, nor good and better comedies, farces, romances, mysteries, police, crime, film noir, Westerns, and other genre films, not to mention animated features.) While it is not a combat film as such, it does reenact the amphibious landing and initial assault by the Marines in graphic and realistic detail. To do this, the director Clint Eastwood and his crew made full use of the current state-of-the-art visual- and sound-effects technology available in modern filmmaking, and the results are—well, I was going to write “astonishing,” but “terrifying,” “sobering,” “shocking” would be far more appropriate adjectives. The gunshots, the shell explosions, the agonized cries of soldiers wounded and killed, the dialogue, the fates of the individual soldiers, the atmosphere all made for a chillingly, scarily immersive experience, despite or, again, perhaps because of the lack of surround effects: our attention remains riveted to the only place where the story is actually being enacted—on the screen before us.

It’s not just new or recent films that benefit. One night my wife and I watched a favorite film we hadn’t seen in years: All That Jazz, made in 1979. If Bob Fosse can claim a movie masterpiece, this is his, and it was thrilling to experience the many dance sequences in a domestic setting with music reproduction to match the expressive lighting and production design, the razor-sharp editing, and the innovative choreography that integrates all the elements into a seamless whole. As for films that predate even stereophonic sound like Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives, It’s a Wonderful Life, Stagecoach, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Rules of the Game, Some Like It Hot, Cape Fear, Jules and Jim—well, there is no question that the sort of fidelity to the soundtrack that the C53 affords is ruthlessly revealing of the colorations in the microphones (particularly nasal ones), the occasional unsteadiness of the tape recorders, the deterioration of some of the sound elements, and the limitations of how many elements could be squeezed into a mono soundtrack. But for me these dwindle into inconsequentiality next to how much more clearly you can hear what was recorded and mixed. Citizen Kane is particularly impressive in this regard, the C53 allowing you to appreciate anew how truly groundbreaking its sound design was in an era that had never heard that term before, notably in the care Welles and his sound crew took to characterizing the many settings in the story: the vast empty spaces of Xanadu, the smoked-filled screening room with the silhouetted producers and reporters, the newspaper offices, and so on. And as for the dialogue—well, all of the films I’ve cited are essentially dialogue, which is to say performance, which is to say character driven, and they are reproduced such that we can enjoy them that way.

Most of the movies I’ve edited are comedies or dramas that are likewise essentially character driven. But Hollywood Homicide, written and directed by Ron Shelton, ends with an extended and spectacular car chase played for comedy as well as for thrills and spills (and also some gunplay), that goes from Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills along Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, climaxing in an extended fight between Harrison Ford and Isiah Washington on the rooftop of a Los Angeles landmark surrounded by police and traffic helicopters. Ford told us it was his favorite action sequence of any he had done (a large statement when you look back over the arc of his career). I couldn’t resist watching this scene all the way through because the number of sound elements we had to contend with was numerous, to say the least. The sequence was shot completely in the actual locations, wholly without any rear-projection or other sorts of processing for the stunts, and thanks to first-class location sound recording, we actually managed to salvage so much of the production dialogue that very little looping (i.e., post-production replacement of lines) was required. I can testify that the sound I heard over my system with the C53 is the sound we mixed over those ten days at Sony Studios, with dialogue, music, and effects combined and balanced exactly as the mixers laid it down. (By the way, a tip: Both picture and sound streamed in high definition from Amazon Prime are incalculably superior to what you’ll see and hear on the DVD.)

  So that I don’t come out sounding like a complete spoilsport when it comes to my earlier broadside against superhero movies, my 14-year-old daughter has become quite the fan of Marvel Comics and the movies made from them. During the pandemic she watched them all, and I will confess to having a good time joining her for some of these, notably Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is filled with more action and CGI than any ten movies can handle. The sound work is genuinely sensational, which is exactly the way it sounded with the soundtrack routed through my two-channel setup: everything clear, clean, well separated and registered, with dynamic range wider than can be comfortably accommodated in a domestic setting—during some of the battle scenes the detonations were such as to make me happy our house is anchored to its foundation. And, yes, I confess, very dramatic, very exciting, very entertaining, and no, never once did we miss back channels.

Music and Blu-ray Audio

The new C53’s DA2 module also reaps all the considerable rewards when it comes to music listening as its predecessor, and then some. On all the standard digital sources, including Red Book and the higher resolutions of PCM, plus native DSD of 64, 128, and 256, it performs as well as the DA1, which is to say superlatively. If, owing to the later generation of ESS DAC chip, the DA2 has even a smidgeon of superiority over the former, I’d suggest it might tilt a tad closer to the absolute neutrality of my reference Benchmark DAC3 (still the most neutral digital component with which I have had long experience). The DA2 also allows for native DSD 512, for the few releases in that format. Otherwise, as between the DA1 and DA2, believe me when I say that we are parsing almost ridiculously fine distinctions here, the sorts that are obliterated by differences in source materials and such that I could never leave the room for a moment, return, and consistently identify which component was playing. As for MQA, the DA2, like its predecessor, lacks that capability, McIntosh remaining unpersuaded by the putative benefits of the format and skeptical it will gain widespread adoption. But should this change, the upgradability of the DA2 offers some hope for fans of McIntosh who are also fans of MQA.

One area in which the DA2’s audio HDMI input makes for truly superior audio reproduction is Blu-ray audio discs. I was astounded at how splendid several of these sounded played either through the DA2’s HDMI input or one of its Coax inputs. For a few months now I’ve had in heavy rotation the Price/Vickers/Solti Aida from the early sixties, remastered and reissued by Decca in a set that includes a Blu-ray audio disc in addition to CDs. I can’t think of another occasion where I’ve heard Solti conduct with greater intensity, conviction, and sheer animal passion as he did here, while the sound is thrilling, quite literally stupendous in the spectacular “Triumphal Scene” with Egyptian trumpets flanking the stage, a band on stage, an augmented chorus, and full Verdian orchestra. With a panoramic soundstage of David Lean width and depth and transparency, clarity, and dynamic range galore, this is one of most immersive audio-only recordings I’ve ever heard, and all, again, without side or back channels in sight or earshot. (The Universal Group, which now owns the Decca catalogue, has released a number of classic recordings in these remastered CD/Blu-ray sets, which come with hardback book, full librettos, and excellent background notes and essays. I’ve purchased some of these, including the near incomparable Solti Ring cycle, and I’ve not been disappointed yet. Interested readers are referred to my colleague Art Lingten’s excellent survey of several of these two years ago: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/universal-musics-blu-ray-audio-operas/). 

In October of 2019 the Los Angeles Philharmonic, my hometown orchestra, played a concert called LA Phil 100, a celebration of its 100^th birthday to the day, October 24, of its first concert in 1919. Its three living present or former music directors—Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, and Zubin Mehta—all participated, conducting various works each is associated with. The finale was a newly commissioned piece by the Icelandic composer Daniel Bjarnason. Part three of a trilogy inspired by space travel and moon landings, it’s called From Space I Saw Earth, Bjarnason’s intent to suggest the sense of rapture felt by astronauts as they looked down on the earth from the outer space or the moon. It’s written for three orchestras positioned in a triangle, the main and largest one in front, two smaller ones behind it left to right, and requires three conductors. The orchestras play the same piece of music that runs, in the words of the composer, “on parallel timelines that are constantly diverting, coming together and diverting again.” Waves of slow moving, mostly string-dominated textures suggest something like tectonic plates moving against each other, combining in great harmonious chords, the whole thing tailor-made for home viewing via superb high-definition Blu-ray video and audio. This was the last thing I played before finishing the review, a fitting justification, if one be needed, for the new digital module in the C53.

Corrections and Criticisms

In my review of the C52 I mistakenly said that the on-board equalizer could be set to retain settings for individual inputs. This is not true, but what you can do is set individual levels for each input so that when switching among them you don’t get sudden drops or, much worse, leaps in volume. One programming option I didn’t mention includes setting inputs to default to mono, particularly useful to vinyl enthusiasts with a dedicated mono-pickup in a separate arm. With two completely separate phono stages, the C53 can be programmed so that one switches to mono as soon as it’s selected.

Despite my almost immodest enthusiasm about the C52, I am not wholly uncritical of it or its successor. There are two omissions that should be rectified in future iterations. The first is the absence of a Fletcher-Munson loudness-compensation circuit. When I asked a company representative why it wasn’t included on the C52 and now the C53, he told me the powers that be were concerned it would detract from the echt audiophile “image” of the unit. Stuff and nonsense! In terms of sales, McIntosh is by far the industry leader in the high-end audio market. If any company can afford to thumb its nose at this sort of snotty stupidity, it’s surely this one. When it comes to listening at very soft levels, there is no substitute for well-designed loudness compensation, and as deployed in its C22 preamplifier McIntosh’s is the best I’ve experienced (see my review in TAS or at theabsolutesound.com). Another company representative told me the onboard equalizer could serve that function. Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that you could use the three lowest-controls to boost the bass and come up with something workable. But since there’s no way to retain the settings in a memory for easy recall, you’d have to reset them every time you listen at low levels or not use the equalizer for anything else. But another and far more important reason is that the Fletcher-Munson curves were arrived at after careful and meticulous experimentation and research; it is effectively impossible to replicate their precise contours with tone controls and equalizers. Also, as employed in the C22, the compensation is linked to listening level. This means that it increases inversely to volume, applying more compensation as level is reduced and less as it is raised. In other words, you need and want a dedicated circuit accessible or defeatable with a flip of a switch.

Another important omission is an external processing loop, i.e., an EPL, or a tape monitor loop. If, for example, you want to use some sort of signal processor—say, a 31-band equalizer—your only option is between the preamp and power amp, most emphatically not the preferred insertion place. Again, you want something you can flip in and out for immediate comparisons. The C53 does have a fixed output, but that’s mostly for home-theater bypass—it’s not a loop. The kicker as regards both of these omissions? A McIntosh spokesperson informed me that since the introduction of C52, the two features buyers and prospective buyers have overwhelmingly asked for are an EPL loop and the C22’s loudness compensation! 

Conclusion

After two years with the C52 performing flawlessly as the heart of my system, I like it more than ever, for which reason I applaud McIntosh for resisting the temptation to reinvent the wheel with the C53. The new DA2 digital audio module is a worthy improvement, easily justifying the thousand-dollar price increase, while preserving everything that made its predecessor so peerless a success with respect to ergonomic functionality and outstanding performance.

Here is how I concluded my review of the previous model, only with the new model number in place: “The C53 replaces a whole shelf-full of components by rolling linestage, phonostages, DAC, equalizer, and headphone amp into a single elegant box that, while not small, is hardly large in view of everything it does. I can’t think of another component that manages to do so much so superlatively well, with no compromises in any ways that matter to me as an audio critic and music lover. It’s a standing rebuke to the folly of minimalism and the snobbishness of those who insist that only separates can scale the peaks of audio artistry. Indeed, I’d lay crisp new bills it would hold its own against the most expensive preamps out there, even bettering some, yielding a little to others. If that little—and it really is miniscule—is important to you, and you have the one- to two-hundred grand required to buy them plus the associated separates that are built into the C53, then have a party. But know that none of them will get you its combination of state-of-the-art performance, integration, convenience, functions, and features, to say nothing of its great lineage, battleship construction, and looks that just radiate class, taste, and timeless style.” No need to add or subtract a word. A great design has been made greater still. 

Specs & Pricing

Inputs: Six unbalanced, two balanced, one mm phono, one mc phono, two coaxial, three optical, one USB, one MCT, and one HDMI ARC
Outputs: Three pairs main unbalanced, one pair balanced
Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, +0, –0.5dB, @ 0.003% THD
Rated output: 2.5V unbalanced, 5V balanced (main output), 450mV (fixed output)
Signal-to-noise ratio (A-weighted): High level: –100dB below rated output; mm phono: –82dB below 5mV input; mc phono: –80dB below 0.5mV input
Maximum output voltage:  8V RMS unbalanced, 16V RMS balanced
Input impedance: 20k ohms, balanced and unbalanced
Output impedance: 100 ohms unbalanced, 200 ohms balanced
Dimensions: 17-1/2″ x 7-5/8″ x 18″
Weight: 28 lbs.
Price: $8000

MCINTOSH LABS
2 Chambers Street
Binghamton, NY 13903
(607) 723-3512
(800) 538-6576
mcintoshlabs.com