Which preamp for HD650s and McIntosh MC50 power amps

[rdonahue]

Hi all, first time poster. I have a pair of fully restored McIntosh MC50 power amps but I don't have the spare coin for a vintage MX110 or C34v preamp to pair with them. Which Bottlehead amp would be good for a beginner but I would be able to use with headphones when I want but also to be able to plug into my monoblock amps for stereo use?

[Paul Birkeland]

What speakers do you plan to use with your MC50's?  How many sources do you have?

The Mainline would be pretty well suited to what you're looking for, and you could simply buy/have made a very nice 1/4" to RCA cable to use when you want to listen to your amplifiers instead of headphones.  You could also add a spare set of RCA jacks on the back as a second set of outputs.

[rdonahue]

I have a pair of Wharfedale Denton speakers. My sources would be a CD player, turntable, and RaspFi w/ DAC.

[Paul Birkeland]

With three sources, you can either have a very good preamp that can't drive headphones (BeePre), or a very good headphone amp for some headphones but not the greatest preamp in the world (Crack-a-two-a). 

[braubeat]

has anyone tried the BeePre with hd650? might actually work pretty well


Michael

[Paul Birkeland]

The output impedance of the BeePre is far too high for this duty.  You would get very distorted, very flabby bass that would be pretty irritating to listen to.