[Slim1970]

Waiting it out till MHA300 sometime this year

Really? How did you come about this info?

 

[gonzalo05]

Really? How did you come about this info?

Rumor is McIntosh is working on a pre amp for the MHA200. I seen a distributor mention it in the forums.

 

[Slim1970]

Rumor is McIntosh is working on a pre amp for the MHA200. I seen a distributor mention it in the forums.

Nice, so it will be somewhat of an addon?

 

[ThanatosVI]

Really? How did you come about this info?

You got Mail

 

[trilos1]

3 months ago I bought aswell a MHA-200.
At present I use a DENON AH-D7200 and an Audio Technica ATH-R70x with a McIntosh MHA-200 amp.

The source I am feeding into the McIntosh amp is an older Esoteric CD/SACD-player, the X-05 (slightly modded with OPA627 opamps in the analog output stage instead of the stock 5534).
A Mutec MC3+USB is sending a clean clock signal to the X-05.

I had no problem with the original tubes, but changed after 4 weeks the two original 12AT7 / ECC81 against a matched pair of Tube Amp Doctor ECC81 / 12AT7-Cz TAD Premium Selected tubes.
They work great and they do sound great!

Greetings from Germany,
Alexander

@ ThanatosVI: I would be glad to hear more on the McIntosh preamp rumours for the MHA-200....

 

[u2u2]

Really? How did you come about this info?

I found out starting by way of post 275 in this thread. A good source IMHO!

 

[pattont]

God I love the look of the MHA200 amp. The green glow calls me….

 

[Slim1970]

God I love the look of the MHA200 amp. The green glow calls me….

Do it, it’s a great amp!

 

[u2u2]

There is an entry in the MHA200 thread in the sponsor section that might interest McIntosh owners. Online live stream event this Friday... with the President of McIntosh Labs. Just in case there is interest and you missed the notice.

 

[trilos1]

No live stream today, it will be rescheduled for a future date shortly.....

 

[dw8083]

Rumor is McIntosh is working on a pre amp for the MHA200. I seen a distributor mention it in the forums.

There is something peculiar regarding the reason for the volume control they decided to use. No audio company is that dumb to spec a non-audio taper volume control.

Mc's fallback position is the MHA-200 is intended as a headphone amp with unity gain adjustment which should be paired with a pre-amp for effective volume control.

The company has stated this over and again. It's a moronic position unless there is some severe limitation faced with replacing the pot with something which works as commonly expected.

No live stream today, it will be rescheduled for a future date shortly.....

The guy was about to get pounded on the volume control topic. He's need to comeback with a better answer than the "unity gain" talking point and holding his Johnson.

I would have already bought this amp if not for the ridiculous volume control. Come-on McIntosh, you can do better than acting lame.

 

[Nostoi]

There is something peculiar regarding the reason for the volume control they decided to use. No audio company is that dumb to spec a non-audio taper volume control.

Mc's fallback position is the MHA-200 is intended as a headphone amp with unity gain adjustment which should be paired with a pre-amp for effective volume control.

The company has stated this over and again. It's a moronic position unless there is some severe limitation faced with replacing the pot with something which works as commonly expected.



The guy was about to get pounded on the volume control topic. He's need to comeback with a better answer than the "unity gain" talking point and holding his Johnson.

I would have already bought this amp if not for the ridiculous volume control. Come-on McIntosh, you can do better than acting lame.

Agreed. This amp would have been perfect for my needs were it not for the farcical volume issue.

Not sure why they cancelled the livestream but in the previous one, one of the McIntosh reps was asked about the volume issue and indeed he just went with the unity gain response. He then left the meeting suddenly and the whole thing was vaguely embarrassing.

Hopefully the next iteration will take heed of user feedback...

 

[dw8083]

Hopefully the next iteration will take heed of user feedback...

@Nostoi You may find it interesting, I called McIntosh about 2 months ago regarding the volume control's linearity. I was impressed they routed me to someone in engineering, thought this seems positive...

Until the gentleman in a New York accent politely told me there is no issue with its gain adjustment.

• I mentioned the observation from prominent reviewers and individuals on hifi forums voicing the problem. He plainly said he and the company was unaware of any negative marketplace commentary. I offered to send links to the reviews and testimonials regarding the volume issue and he declined.
  
  
• Then asked him "well shouldn't a unity gain have better linearity then 90% of it's adjustability in a narrow 2 tick window?" He said "We recommend our customers us a preamp with a volume control, the unity should be set and not touched."
  
  
• He asked if there was anything else he could help with, I said no and thanked him for his time.

The company was prompt and polite to answer the phone, but it's difficult talking to an ostrich. :7)

Something ironic about an audio company tone deaf to the marketplace.

 

[gonzalo05]

@Nostoi You may find it interesting, I called McIntosh about 2 months ago regarding the volume control's linearity. I was impressed they routed me to someone in engineering, thought this seems positive...

Until the gentleman in a New York accent politely told me there is no issue with its gain adjustment.

• I mentioned the observation from prominent reviewers and individuals on hifi forums voicing the problem. He plainly said he and the company was unaware of any negative marketplace commentary. I offered to send links to the reviews and testimonials regarding the volume issue and he declined.
  
  
• Then asked him "well shouldn't a unity gain have better linearity then 90% of it's adjustability in a narrow 2 tick window?" He said "We recommend our customers us a preamp with a volume control, the unity should be set and not touched."
  
  
• He asked if there was anything else he could help with, I said no and thanked him for his time.

The company was prompt and polite to answer the phone, but it's difficult talking to an ostrich. :7)

Something ironic about an audio company tone deaf to the marketplace.

No negative comments?! Come on McIntosh that's plain bs. I myself have emailed them about this issue.

 

[Nostoi]

@Nostoi You may find it interesting, I called McIntosh about 2 months ago regarding the volume control's linearity. I was impressed they routed me to someone in engineering, thought this seems positive...

Until the gentleman in a New York accent politely told me there is no issue with its gain adjustment.

• I mentioned the observation from prominent reviewers and individuals on hifi forums voicing the problem. He plainly said he and the company was unaware of any negative marketplace commentary. I offered to send links to the reviews and testimonials regarding the volume issue and he declined.
  
  
• Then asked him "well shouldn't a unity gain have better linearity then 90% of it's adjustability in a narrow 2 tick window?" He said "We recommend our customers us a preamp with a volume control, the unity should be set and not touched."
  
  
• He asked if there was anything else he could help with, I said no and thanked him for his time.

The company was prompt and polite to answer the phone, but it's difficult talking to an ostrich. :7)

Something ironic about an audio company tone deaf to the marketplace.

Yup, they seem to rest a little comfortably on their reputation, it seems, while also having a slightly disingenuous relationship to their customers. It took long enough for the sales rep on this thread to concede that there was a problem...

As I say, a shame because I'm sure the amp sounds great.