Your Thoughts - Best Sounding Mac Integrated Pre MA8000?
 

I was originally considering purchasing a McIntosh power amp for my office/den system, but was convinced, here and elsewhere that an integrated made more sense.

I would appreciate your thoughts on what you have owned, or have significant experience with, that you consider to be the best sounding Mac integrated prior to the MA8000. While I love the look of the 8000, I simply do not need that kind of power, nor do I need an included DAC. I also have no need for a phono stage, for that matter, but that's probably a moot point. For this discussion, lets limit things, because I don't want to go TOO far back in time, to the MA6600 through the MA7900.

I started out considering an MA7000 as the option I might like best, and again, it has the newer look that I really like, but this post really made me reconsider things a bit:

05-23-2012, 10:24 AM
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MrAcoustat

Join Date: May 2012
Location: Quebec Canada
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"If you want something good at a reasonable price may i suggest this one it won a weekend showdown against a McIntosh MA-7000 even if it is almost $3,000.00 cheaper yes whe where three audiophiles in that showdown and the verdict was anonymous this little gem was the Classé CAP-2100 great little integrated amplifier."


Any input, recommendations and expertise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

John

As Classe' has gone out of business, parts and service down the road could be problematic so this should be considered.

Understood, and this question was never about Classe. I was hoping those amongst the McIntosh ownership could offer me valuable opinions of thoughts regarding their integrated amps.

John

You ruled out what I thought was the logical answer.

My apologies if I misinterpreted the question.

For whatever its worth and with all due respect to the aforementioned comments, I would take that with a grain of salt not knowing how the comparison was staged, conducted and whether or not the units had been properly tested prior to comparative evaluation.

Otherwise the MA7000 is 250 wpc into 2, 4 and 8 ohm; the Classe' is 100 wpc into 8 ohms; 200 wpc into 4 with no 2 ohm rating provided which likely means it lacks the current ability to safely do so. Signal to noise ratio is at least 10 dB better in the Mac which is significant.

Objectively speaking there is really no comparison concerning the capabilities of the respective units and clearly the Mac has greater flexibility regarding the range of speakers that may be used with it and is designed for cool operation, exceptional longevity & reliability in the McIntosh tradition.

Perhaps the listeners found the slightly higher noise of the Classe' to be pleasing. It would not be the first time such a thing has happened.

Al good points on that comparison. Far too few facts for it to be completely meaningful. So, on to the McIntosh integrated amps. Please let me know your thoughts.

John

Personally my vote stands for the MA7000 mainly because the added flexibility of the EQ and more importantly because it is not firmware controlled. I'm quite confident this will be viewed as a significant advantage in the secondary market over comparable McIntosh equipment reliant on firmware as failures related to these operating systems become more widely known.

As important as performance is, there are other factors that merit equally serious consideration. You get the best of both with the MA7000 - in my view, FWIW.

Yes, I'm starting to lean towards the MA7000 too. It's everything I need, and as noted before, I love the look. Unfortunately, they don't seem to come up for sale too often!

John

Eric.......Sage advice. . :thumbsup:

John: I have the MA7000, the last fully analogue integrated from McIntosh, and to me it sounds wonderful. Although I've been in to high end home audio for over 40 years, I've not had many McIntosh components to compare.

If you're interested, here is my review of it: http://audioaficionado.org/showthread.php?t=37620