McIntosh MC-2300 Power Amplifier (300 wpc / 600 watts mono) - Grateful Dead

Recently one of the Grateful Dead's original McIntosh MC-2300's sold for $378,000 at auction.  The remaining MC-2300's went for $25,000-$94,500 each.  This amplifier may be one of them however we have no provenance.  Here's what we do know...

We purchased an entire audio system out of the home of one of the biggest Grateful Dead fans in the US.  He had custom built into a separate building next to his home, a smaller replica of the original Wall of Sound.  He was also a musician and recording artist.  The system was driven by stacks of original McIntosh MC-2300 and MC-2500 amplifiers.  All of the amplifiers had been fully rebuilt and were in pristine condition, however on the bottom of one of the racks was this road weary MC-2300.  When we pulled it out there was a Grateful Dead sticker on the top from 40 years ago.  The story was he purchased it from another musician who got it from the Dead, but we have no way to prove this.  Here's what we do know.  

As an authorized McIntosh service center, we had our 40 year veteran amp tech take a look at it and he discovered that it was biased to drive PA gear.  It was also strapped to operate in mono (as were most amps the Dead used).   It had been regularly serviced and half of the upper and lower cover screws were stripped out.  This is typical and a good sign of regular service work done on this amplifier.  All of the output transistors have been replaced and we thoroughly cleaned and load tested both channels and set it back to stereo.  Even more interesting is that the back panel has no serial number.  In many cases where a serial number is missing, the back panel was simply replaced, however this panel matches the age, wear and patina of the others indicating that its all original.  Could this be one of the 5 famous units purchased that summer day in July 1973 right off the factory floor for the crowd of 600,000 at Watkins Glen Summer Jam? Who knows?  It's a great read though.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_MC-2300

While the MC-2300 is conservatively rated at 300 watts per channel stereo or bridged to 600 watts mono, it actually exceeds these numbers.  Unlike most amplifiers built today, the 2300 is so well built it can output 300 watts per channel continuously and will exceed this rating.  Being all solid state and designed with industrial ruggedness, they were built to last decades and offer consistent and clean power for the most demanding systems.

 We’re so confident this amplifier will perform and sound great driving your system that it comes with a 90 day warranty.  Interestingly it also included a road case, which we will include at no charge to ship it in.

FEATURES 

• Silver and black anodized aluminum faceplate
• Illuminated right and left power meters (Display output power up to 300w)
• Power indicator
• Separate right and left gain controls also serve as balance controls
• Meter selector (-20, -10, 0 and off)
• Power switch
• Dual cooling fans (rear)
• Replicable power cord
• Speaker barrier strips (Gold banana adaptors included)
• Single ended audio inputs (right and left channels)
• Bridgeable (rear selector for stereo / mono modes)
• Rack mountable
• Removable front handles

SPECIFICATIONS 

• OUTPUT POWER - 300 watts X 2
• BRIDGED POWER - 600 watts X 1
• FREQUENCY RESPONSE - 20 - 20Khz
• NOISE AND HUM  -90dB
• OUTPUT IMPEDANCE - .5, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 Ohms stable
• DAMPING FACTOR - 14+
• INPUT IMPEDANCE - 200k
• INPUT SENSITIVITY - 0.5v
• DIMENSIONS - (LxWxH) 17" x 19" x 10.5"
• WEIGHT - 128 Lbs

IN THE BOX 

• Power Cord
• Gold plated terminal to banana or spade adaptors (4)
• Manual
• Road case

CONDITION 

Overall it's seen some miles and looks like it's been moved around the country.  Operationally it sounds great and is working well.  We cleaned the controls and switches and tested critical components to ensure it's not just operational but sounds fantastic.  It's like a time machine and rocks like it was born to. (Rating is based on miles, age and service history)