Those looking for a new DAC in their Mcintosh headamp may be interested in this news.

I'm getting ready to start assembling a speaker rig for the living room and am debating whether the MHA goes into the mix combined with a power amplifier or stays in the office.   Has anyone yet put the MHA's preamplifier section a good enough workout to determine whether it's worth the...

  The MHA-100 is the least solid state sounding amp I have heard.

There is no problem with the DAC. And yes you can.

I'm beginning to think we need to start a separate thread for folks who wish the MHA100 were a completely different product.

    I rather rest my case.

  This not the same thing as saying the DAC section is a "weak link" in the product.   Glad you like your amp.

    It is hardly a "weak" link if you have to pay eight grand to better a five grand product.   It seems most of the MHA's critics are slamming it for being something that it is not rather than the product that it is.   To recap:   - It should have been tube based. - It should have been...

I think my only regret as far as features go is the lack of a DAC out. In my case, I wouldn't mind being able to feed the DAC to my tube amp based speaker rig. I'd still like to give it  whirl paired with a D100.   I still find it amusing to read that the MHA100 should have a five to ten grand...

  But then it would be a different product and, let's face it, Mcintosh have never bothered themselves too closely with trying to be "competitive".

  That's pretty much how I feel in the end.   I've had the opportunity to pair the MHA100 with a small range of DACS, including a PWD MK2 and my much loved ECD-1. These two were the best of the pack but while both offered advantages, they also suffered compared to the onboard DAC IMHO.   It...

    I cannot agree with the first sentence and the second is self-evident.

Not a half-bad looking amplifier really. Maybe doesn't look $45K pretty but what headphone amp does?   I'm not all that inclined to bitch about stratospherically priced Head-Fi kit. As much as it sucks I won't be able to afford them, I appreciate the rocket propelled development of the...

S'funny but no one mentions how great the remote control is. Ergonomically pleasing and it's weeble-wobble base means it's easy to find on my bomb crater of a desk.   I love it.

  Import taxes? VAT? Small UK market and high distributor mark-up? Plus the fact that stuff is just plain expensive in the UK?

Wow. Almost a hundred pages of speculative banter.

  I'm unsure how these questions add any useful data if this is the first pair to fail on this forum.

I went the route of the cheap Chinese version of dubious build and life. I like to think it's made an audible difference and so far, the power supply has been trouble free. I do like the look the dual selectable inputs on that Tone Audio rig though.  

  Hmmm....Blah. I just manually re-ripped about a 2.5K CD collection in iTunes. It's like half my music is listed under "various artists". Among other beefs.     In the meantime, is anyone using their MHA-100 in a speaker rig hooked up to a power amplifier? I've been sorta, kinda keeping...

I just had a fight with a rollover ad for Doctor Pepper. I only needed to literally move my cursor across the ad for a full page ad to appear totally obscuring the head-fi content I was seeking to enjoy.   This ad couldnt be closed down with a usual click in the box marked with an X.There was...

    That was pretty much my impression to begin with. Things do improve. Dunno how long it took but the treble energy gets under control and the midrange gets a little less "shouty" as you put it. The bass has improved but obviously lacks the slam my closed back dynamics had.

  This makes me sad. I can't help but wonder how the MC275 would perform hooked up to the MHA100's preamp output.

    Would it be too much to suggest you write your own firmware patch then?   If not, how many owners would have to report the same problem before a firmware update becomes legitimate?   I haven't been reading the same issues with the Mac on any other forum.   That said, I'm not actually...

  Right. That's why you're flogging a dead horse in a thread devoted to a product you don't own?     This mirrors my impressions more than the "corporate hurt pride" tosh.