[Matro5]

Anyone seen this new amp? The MA252 is a hybrid integrated, tubes in the preamp, solid state ( 100w into 8ohms, 160 into 4ohms) in the back. Styling reminiscent of the MC275. Feature-wise, here's the comparison to the MHA150:

LINK: Comparison between MA252 and MHA150

No DAC, no headphone impedance matching. Headphone is described as "1/4" High Drive" and the MHA150 is "1/4 High Drive with Headphone Crossfeed Director - HXD." Don't know what that means for the quality of the HP out.


It's sort of funky...but I like it?

 

[Ajward549]

I'm curious about this amp too, wondering if anyone has any actual hands-on experience with one?

 

[Matro5]

For whatever its worth:

 

[Ajward549]

I am very tempted to move on this... My local mac dealer does not stock this, and I haven't come across anyone on the web who can actually talk about their experience interacting with the amp, or talk about how it sounds in their environment... Thank you for the video, it will do for now.

 

[Matro5]

My pleasure. I haven't heard it, but my local dealer ( who is NOT the dealer in the video ) thinks it's amazing, too, and they not generally all-in on McIntosh in my experience.

For some reason, this is the first McIntosh that has really caught my eye except for the MHA150 headphone amp. MA252 has more a lot more power + tubes up front (both of which are huge wins for me), but no DAC, which was usually regarded as the weak point of the MHA150. And it's $1,000 less, which would buy a great DAC. But, how good is the HP amp compared to the MHA150?

Very curious to hear one and find out.

 

[Seamaster]

Don't be fooled by the terminologies and mixed with MHA150's "high dive", one is autoformer coupled and the other is not. I have D150 that also has high drive HP output but it sounded just ok and can not compete with a dedicate HP amplifier.

 

[Matro5]

Ahh, that makes sense. Thank you @Seamaster.

 

[Seamaster]

Ahh, that makes sense. Thank you @Seamaster.

No problem, for example, I feel HD800 lacks of drive and emotions from the D150 but if you can have someone make a HP adapter that using MA252’s speaker terminals to drive HP, that will be a different story, which is ideal.

 

[draytonklammer]

Considering grabbing one of these.
Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[silversurfer6]

Have been using this for a week or so . It is a good headphone amp but no match for the MHA150. Plan to use it as an integrated hifi amp with B&W 805d3