Any MA9000 owners?
 

Curious about feedback from current MA9000 owners. With retirement on the horizon I am contemplating downsizing one system to analogue only with the possibility of reducing current square footage of living space. Fewer pieces yet still wanting the high fidelity flavor, per se. My analogue front end is a VPI Aries 3 with 10.5 Fatboy arm/Ortofon Cadenza Black MC. Any and all comments welcome, judgement-free zone here.

Kevin

I am contemplating replacing my C2300/MC452 with the MA9000. I realize this is a step backwards but currently I do not feel my 62 yo ears will be able to tell much difference in the results. I may even redeploy the MCD500 that is in this system. I can truly state without a doubt the MCD500 has less that 125 hrs of use on it. Every two weeks I have played a CD/SACD in it to keep it energized. This is in a system I use 95% for vinyl and tape playback.

I really wonder how much of a step back this would be - the MA9000 is fantastic, by all accounts

Does the MA9000 suit your needs for tape?

How do you like that Cadenza Black?

With the fixed out I can still use my tape switch box to use my Pio RT-707 and Nak ZX-7, but I am contemplating letting those go, too. Both have been completely rebuilt, the Pio by Jeff Jacobs of J-Corder and the Nak ZX-7 by Jaff Galin of ES Labs.

The Cadenza Black is a wonderful cartridge (on a VPI Fatboy) - it does everything so well. My backup to it when it has run its course is a SoundSmith Paua II. I have the SS mounted on a VPI 10.5 3D arm.

If you like warmer sound, the McIntosh MA9000 might not be the best option. The MA9000 sounds more like the C52+MC452 than the C2600+MC452. Maybe new MA352 vacuum tube preamp and solid state power amp might be the better choice. It might sound closer to C2300+MC452.

Have you thought about adding McIntosh MPH1100 2-channel vacuum tube phono preamplifier to your system? It might be the best option, if you listen to a lot of vinyl records.

I own an MA8000 which is basically the same as the MA9000. I can honestly say it doesn’t sound that transistor like at all, in fact it sounds a little warmish and more like a tube amp, to my ears anyway :shades:

I felt that MA9000 sounded different than MA8000. The MA9000 sounded much brighter than the C2600+MC1.25KW with the same speakers.

I have a MA8900 in my other system and I am very pleased with it’s performance. If I do decide to go fwd with this transition I will have many tubes (12AX7 and a few 12AU7) to list on this site.

I had chance to compare McIntosh MA8900 and MA9000. MA9000 was really good. I heard the differences between the two integrated amplifiers. In my opinion, McIntosh MA9000 sounded better than MA8900.