Mcintosh C50

[TommyC]

Originally Posted by 1KW

I would not be surprised if the the C1100 becomes a 2 chassis design stacked liked the C50 ie one box .

This is a great idea!

[David]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Jim.......I don't know who all the players are who are designing and manufacturing DACs these days, but I have read of new Burr-Brown 32 bit/192kHz DACs. Esoteric uses the new Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) top-end 32 bit/192kHz DACs. Wyred 4 Sound uses the newest ESS Sabre Reference 32 bit/192kHz DACs in their DAC2.

I don't know why McIntosh doesn't state in the literature who manufactures the DACs in their newest products. It will come to light eventually, so why not just tell us.

From what I read it is the implementation around the DAC, the power supply and the analog stage, that is the most significant. Still the new Sabre dac has been presumed at this site to be the one they are using.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by David

From what I read it is the implementation around the DAC, the power supply and the analog stage, that is the most significant. Still the new Sabre dac has been presumed at this site to be the one they are using.

David.......I agree with you about the importance of the power supply and the analog stages associated with a given DAC. The entire support circuitry before and after the DAC dramatically impacts its performance, but the DAC, or multiple DACs in the case of the ESS Sabre Reference 32 bit/192kHz circuits, do the heavy audio computing chores. There is a definate difference in the way audio sounds through different DACs. Having enjoyed listening to the marvelous sound of the ESS DACs in the MCD500, I have a sweet spot for their engineering prowess. I hope the gossip about the new McIntosh C48/C50 DACs being the ESS Sabre Reference are true. In my mind, this would add some serious credibility to their value.

[Ritmo]

I find it interesting that there is so little information on these products that are already hitting the market. The website has yet to be updated.

Marketing should be all over this.

Mike

[lwschwartz]

The ESS DACs in the MCD500 are at least 2 standard deviations better than the Burr Browns in the MDA1000 and the Denon AVP-A1HDCI. The MCD500 has been a big success for Mac as a result of that decision. It would make sense that they would stay in the same family while designing DAC's into the C48, C50, MCD1100, and the C1100C/P/T.

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by lwschwartz

The ESS DACs in the MCD500 are at least 2 standard deviations better than the Burr Browns in the MDA1000 and the Denon AVP-A1HDCI. The MCD500 has been a big success for Mac as a result of that decision. It would make sense that they would stay in the same family while designing DAC's into the C48, C50, MCD1100, and the C1100C/P/T.

Depends on who is doing the design. Am guessing that McIntosh does not have a strong digital design team in-house when there are so many excellent shops for same. They only need enough talent to insure they get what they pay for. Why carry the burden of a full-time engineering staff when you can farm out to an engineering design team that specializes in same, as needed?

[howiebrou]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

Depends on who is doing the design. Am guessing that McIntosh does not have a strong digital design team in-house when there are so many excellent shops for same. They only need enough talent to insure they get what they pay for. Why carry the burden of a full-time engineering staff when you can farm out to an engineering design team that specializes in same, as needed?

I agree but it does leave you open to Men220-like circumstances. It also makes one query the logic of buying all gear from one brand when the brand's expertise is more clearly defined in one particular area e.g. amps.

[j3brow]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

Depends on who is doing the design. Am guessing that McIntosh does not have a strong digital design team in-house when there are so many excellent shops for same. They only need enough talent to insure they get what they pay for. Why carry the burden of a full-time engineering staff when you can farm out to an engineering design team that specializes in same, as needed?

I don't remember the name but Sam Tellig referenced the 'digital dude' at Binghamton responsible for designing the mcd500. I sem to recall the same guy has designed all of the recent Mac CD spinners. Will have to recheck the review.

[jdandy]

I believe it is safe to say that no single individual is responsible for a McIntosh component design. They have a team of electronic design engineers. Certainly, we can expect that there will be one or two key design engineers with a stronger background in digital concepts, versus another with a strong background in analog design. The same can be said for solid state versus tube circuit designers. I don't believe McIntosh is subcontracting their design work to anyone, unless they are licensing patented circuit designs such as the Room Perfect used in the MEN220. The design engineering team will rely on data available from the manufacturers of DACs and multi-channel decoding processor chips as any good engineering team would, but McIntosh products as a whole are still very much designed and built in Binghamton, New York.

['cisco]

Dan....this is a quote from Ron-C over a year ago about the MCD-500....


Congratulate Ted Saito McIntosh Senior Digital engineer, it is his design 100%, with help on the chassis from the mechanical engineers. Ted has designed all of the disk players from MCD7000 forward. I keep telling him how pleased you all are with it.

Thanks,
Ron-C