[Maxvla]

Teenagers don't have $4.5k to drop on McIntosh, though.

 

[DefQon]

Teenagers don't have $4.5k to drop on McIntosh, though.

 
Well I dropped more then $10k on speakers and monoblocks when I was 19 with my hard earned money from working, sold those off to buy few cars, sold those off quickly to recoup money to buy headphone gear, sold those off to invest in market shares, now currently back to speakers. I'm still young. Now saving up money to buy a house and move out. 

 

[Maxvla]

Well, as you found out, spending that kind of money on audio gear at that age was not the best move.

 

[daerron]

Well, as you found out, spending that kind of money on audio gear at that age was not the best move.

 
Well at least his ears could appreciate it fully then! 

 Unfortunately for most of us, our spending ability increases as our hearing abilities decrease with age!

 

[barid]

Well, as you found out, spending that kind of money on audio gear at that age was not the best move.

 
Well....maybe not the most responsible, but still arguably the 'best' time to do that stuff.  As you get older you end up with wife/kids/mortgage, just more earmarks and commitments your money goes to.  I've always liked the "do it young when you can"  train of thought.  The car thing especially;  I can't imagine being able to fully enjoy a sports car at 60 the way you would in your 20's.
 
...but yeah, there are always more responsible things to do with money than sink it into a hobby.

 

[IceClass]

yes it has a dac based on earlier commentary, thread is really quiet, we need some teenager headfier to make some noise here.

 
 
Yes, the fact that the MHA100 includes a DAC is well established. What is not so sure at this point is whether the MHA100 has direct DAC outputs.
Oddly, I am still completely unable to dig up any photos of the rear of the component to confirm.

 

[DefQon]

Well, as you found out, spending that kind of money on audio gear at that age was not the best move.

 
Partly true, but the only reason I sold them is because I had no space in the house for them. So I had to offload them quickly in the year or so later I decided to seriously invest into headphones starting off with the UE18. I still own headphones nothing high-end anymore (various Lambda's and rev.1 LCD2 and HD600's primarily) as I think it's a waste of money to invest in that little amount of improvement. Now that I have some space again I'm going back to speakers. I grew up on my dad's speakers and spinners so it's something I'm going back to again and still the best thing of sound reproduction if you have the space, no annoying/nosy neighbours and a treated room. Headphones to me will always be a sidegrade to speakers if loud noise is of concern.
 
Anyway back onto topic: $5.5k is a fair price (still high but it's McIntosh we're talking about here) if it has a DAC, headphone amp, pre-amp and speaker outputs.

 

[Carbonman]

Here's what the McIntosh brochure and site photos reveal:  
1. It has a built-in 50-watt/channel stereo amp
2. There are 4 digital inputs - optical, balanced AES/EBU, coaxial, USB 
3. The built-in 32-bit, 192 kHz asynchronous DAC has no digital outputs 
4. There are 2 pair of analog inputs - 1 set unbalanced and 1 set balanced 
5. Built-in programmable crossfeed
6. List price is $4500 
It's not cheap but will last forever and sound quality should be excellent - the autoformers are for the headphone output!  The speaker amp is only direct coupled.  

 

[IceClass]

Sadly, there's no direct DAC output, just an output to a power amp.

 

[1adam12]

For those interested there's more info, including butt shots, on the McIntosh website.

 

[musicman59]

I don't think will power the planars good enough. According to the McIntosh website the headphone output for "Nornal selection" is 250 mW and for the "High selection" is 1W. Not good enough for at least the HE-6 but you can always connect them the the speakers tabs. BTW, there is not different tabs for different impedance for the speakers output like all Mc amplifiers. It only has 8 ohms output tabs.

 

[MacedonianHero]

I don't think will power the planars good enough. According to the McIntosh website the headphone output for "Nornal selection" is 250 mW and for the "High selection" is 1W. Not good enough for at least the HE-6 but you can always connect them the the speakers tabs. BTW, there is not different tabs for different impedance for the speakers output like all Mc amplifiers. It only has 8 ohms output tabs.

Why would they do that? And for $4500, seems grossly underpowered IMO for headphones (namely orthos).

 

[bmichels]

Full specs here.  
 
and as you can see on the back, there is a "pre-amp output".  
 
1 Question remain: does the DAC inside the  MHA 100 is the The Stunning McIntosh D100 DAC ??
 

 

 

[wnmnkh]

 

I don't think will power the planars good enough. According to the McIntosh website the headphone output for "Nornal selection" is 250 mW and for the "High selection" is 1W. Not good enough for at least the HE-6 but you can always connect them the the speakers tabs. BTW, there is not different tabs for different impedance for the speakers output like all Mc amplifiers. It only has 8 ohms output tabs.

Why would they do that? And for $4500, seems grossly underpowered IMO for headphones (namely orthos).

It has DAC section and a speaker output. But I'd rather have full balanced output for that price.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

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