McIntosh MC275 Vacuum Tube Amplifier

The McIntosh MC275 is one of the most iconic amplifiers ever built — in continuous production since 1961, and still built to the fundamental design that defined McIntosh’s vacuum tube heritage. 75 watts per channel of push-pull vacuum tube power via McIntosh’s Unity Coupled Circuit Output Transformer, in the signature chrome-plated chassis with exposed tubes and black glass front. For McIntosh systems where tube character is the priority and the loudspeakers can be driven within 75 watts, the MC275 is the platform the company was built on.

The Unity Coupled Circuit Output Transformer is McIntosh’s patented tube output topology — the engineering achievement that allows vacuum tube amplifiers to deliver rated power into any speaker load without the impedance-matching limitations of conventional tube designs. It is the reason a McIntosh tube amp sounds different from a conventional tube amp: the output transformer is doing something no competitor’s output transformer does. Sentry Monitor protects the output tubes, Solid Cinch speaker binding posts deliver the mechanical connection quality McIntosh is known for, and the exposed output tubes are a visual signature no photograph does justice to.

At LMC, the MC275 sits in the Tempe Hall installation — paired with the C22 vacuum tube preamplifier and the ML1 Mk II loudspeakers as a complete McIntosh vintage-format system that demonstrates the tube-plus-tube signal chain the company was originally built around. The audition is the closest a listener can get to the McIntosh sound as it existed when the company was founded.

At $7,500 in current McIntosh pricing, the MC275 is available for audition at the Tempe showroom in the Hall installation. Walk in during business hours or book ahead — the MC275 paired with the C22 and ML1 is a piece of McIntosh history preserved in a working listening system.