Takes a full tear down of the amp. Replace the stock ne5532/54 with something better. Also the LED mods are working very nicely for the Mc amps.

Best thing to do with the amps is when you have them on full teardown to use some blue threadlocking compound on ALL the screws and bolts. They work themselves loose with the vibration of the car.

 

i had one of these. well kinda, i had the jdm version w/ factory rca preouts and the ***** on the wrong side. lol. sexiest hu ever.

is that a confirmed claim of "sonically identical to the 406"? i've seen side by side nudes and, while similar, they were far from identical layout/component wise.

 

They are nothing alike, they just sound alike. Only one person out of 15 has said they can tell a difference so..... maybe it just takes one hell of a sharp ear. Regardless...... I don't have that ear.... and I don't want a single din. This is the one for me, and now I have 2.

 

oh ok... i misunderstood. i've never had the magic ear either, but for some reason i'm still drawn to the high end gear.

here was mine mounted in my q:



it had an irregular mounting so i sold it. regretted it shortly after. would be killer in my ls... in fact i may buy another one now that i said that.

*edit - couple more pics cause they're so sexy:

 

They should sound identical. Same op amps and signal paths. Unless they changed them somewhere during their production run. Highly unlikely though.

 

I regretted selling mine for 3 years and finally it drove me insane enough to pull the trigger on another one. You might as well do it because it will just eat at you until you do.

As I suspected, good info.

 

So where are you buying them and how much are they? Looks like something I might want to get into as well

 

The thing that I really like about Mc, they are built like a tank and are made to last. Even if they do go bad, they're not too difficult to service. Their choice of components are for longevity - take the display for example. I have yet to see a Mc display go bad. And it looks very classy.

Forget about the fancy graphics. Elegance and simplicity.

Had my Mc gear for over 15 years now. They still keep cranking and they look great. Timeless.

 

Here's MC #2.

It came in a few hours ago and I got to work on it.

A few notes......

#1- Since I don't have RCA's here handy and have to go get some I stuck some cheap male end on it, they work... just finished listening to it

#2- Where the first conversion the guy that did it soldered sideways to the board and had to glue it in place, I did it right and actually used my wiring in the motherboard like the OEM pins.

#3- The two black jumpers you see on the mobo are where I eliminated two grounds that would otherwise have to be ran out in the harness and take up space.

 

Now I just need some nice RCA's.

 

I bought this second one because I was going to put it in my truck, but I'm thinking it is too nice for my truck. LOL. Dunno what I'll do yet.

 

Since I don't know where this one is going I left it green for now.

 

do the usdm have a standard double din mount?

 

UDSM and J-Spec are the only DD's. Both mine are USDM (yippieee).

McIntosh does not make a DD otherwise and the USDM and J-Spec are nearly identical short of RCA's on the J-Spec, W.B. on the USDM, and notice the volume **** and tuner **** locations.

 

I took a look at the pics...they're using JRC op amps. Those are several steps down from the Burr Brown 2604 that the MX406 uses. At least they aren't the NE5532/54.

The JRC series has a muffled tone to them. Some may mistake them as "smooth" but their resolution isn't very good.