Categories: SECRETS Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes at Secrets – Number 4 – May, 2009

Recently, I had to one of my reference two-channel preamplifiers, a Balanced Audio Technology VK-5i to a different room for a certain project. I temporarily put in its place a Lexicon MC-12B SSP, and used it in two-channel mode. It sounded so good, I decided to bench test it to see how it performs (our original review in December, 2004, did not have bench tests).

Shown below is a graph of THD+N for a 1 kHz sine wave. Distortion is only 0.008%.

And, here are the IMD test results. Notice that there are very few IMD peaks near the 2 kHz sine wave peak.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is reference quality performance.

Now, here is why I mention this.

From what I am told, the MC-12 will not have an upgrade to allow it to decode the high resolution soundtracks on Blu-ray discs (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio).

So, used MC-12s are being advertised for sale, because home theater enthusiasts are looking to buy SSPs that handle these codecs. I saw several on Audiogon, and the price is a fraction of its original MSRP (about $12,000).

If you are in the market for a two-channel preamplifier that has stellar performance and is priced for today’s economy, you might consider getting one of these used MC-12s, and simply set the menu for two-channel.

Not only does it sound great and bench test beautifully, you can use the Automatic Room EQ (if the used MC-12 has that upgrade installed), and have it sound even better.

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.