Almost three years ago, a friend gifted me his father's C33 and MC2255. The amp works wonderfully (although I did have to clean the pots and switches and replace the lamps) but the C33 had channel balance problems and a slightly distorted sound. I took it first to a local musical amplifier/keyboard repair guy who did a stellar job on rebuilding the MC2105 that the MC2255 replaced. He did a little work on it, but it was outside of his area of expertise. Next, I took it to the Denver Mac Authorized repair place. The guy swore he fixed it, which was completely insulting to my ability to hear (and look at the meters with a mono signal). The recording bus worked, but that meant I needed to use an external volume control. I was on AudioKarma talking about an MR74 tuner I acquired for cheap that I finally assumed was a boat anchor and someone mentioned a tech up in Fort Collins, CO who had worked on McIntosh gear for 50 years. I took both items to him and within about 10 days, he had the C33 fixed (just picked it up yesterday!), and charged me the insanely tiny sum of $90. The tuner has a problem with an FM IC which hasn't been made in years. I might be able to find one, but he nonchalantly said that he could build the equivalent out of discrete components if we couldn't find one. He's a gem of a human being and so incredibly knowledgeable and now my stereo sounds fantastic. Vandersteen 2ci speakers (or Avalon NP2s). I have others, too. I seem to be a McIntosh magnet.
After almost three years, it's now all working and the Lester Grinspoon Memorial Listening Station is fully operational (You can look him up. He was a very interesting person and I'm honored to have his stereo. His son, David is an astrobiologist who grew up with Carl Sagan around the house, a funky guitar player and a big Deadhead. Amazing family).
