[bcschmerker4]

Originally Posted by wnmnkh /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
...At last, this is the picture of the headphones I took. 
 

At least the earcups are large enough, and deep enough in particular, for motors buildable under United States Patent 5,151,943, granted to Carl Van Gelder of McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., in the early 1990's.  McIntosh® discovered the problem of magnetic interactions among the motor components as a cause of distortion and eventually developed a shield system of non-ferromagnetic, highly conductive cylinders straddling the pole pieces to solve this issue by isolating the voice coil from the pole piece, much as the +Vgg screens and -Vkk suppressors isolate the control grids from plate delta-voltage kickback in pentodes and pentagrid tubes.  No headphone manufacturer has previously used this design.

 

[Tingc222]

You can't have it both ways, they cannot make it entirely in house and have something that draws from a deep history of headphone design, so really this option is probably the best in order to get something to market in a shorter time frame with lower development costs. Let's not forget Denon and Apple who relied on Fostex to get them into the their current market position. It makes good business sense in my eyes.

 
Well said. I'm sad to see Mac being so bold but in the end, if they make a good product worthy of the name, who's to blame them?

 

[brunk]

   
Overpriced?  That's not as much a criticism when something holds its resale value.  I've had numerous McIntosh systems through the years, and every single piece of equipment I've had has been later sold for at least what I paid for it.  If you pick your components carefully, you can end up with a very satisfying system that rewards ownership unlike many competing products that come and go.  My first high-end system was Counterpoint, then mostly Threshold, then mostly Mark Levinson, and all of those pieces are worth pennies on the dollar now.

Keep in mind this is not an amplifier, it is a headphone. I also don't think the new Mac DAC/HP amp will hold any value. There no famous Mac analog circuitry, it's all digital that is obsolete in a matter of a few years. The times have changed, and they are cashing in on the younger, more mobile crowd. It's going to take more than the name to appeal to this crowd at this pricepoint.

 

[bcschmerker4]

   
Well said. I'm sad to see Mac being so bold but in the end, if they make a good product worthy of the name, who's to blame them?

As it turns out, McIntosh® has a history of subcontracting certain speaker components to reputable firms with a history of product accuracy; North American Philips provided special-design textile dome tweeters for the XR-series speaker cabs through the 1990's, and United Speaker Services handled initial production of some early cabs while the Laboratory was tooling up for speaker manufacturing in the 1970's.
 
However, I don't see beyerdynamic® being able to license Van Gelder's LD/HP motor design for initial MHP1000 production - the shielded-pole-piece design is a McIntosh® original used by no other manufacturer, and in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Bose® had to come up with completely different motor designs to work around Patent 5,151,943.

 

[gonkulator]

Does  Beyer OEM for anyone else? 
 
I suspect McIntosh's emphasis is the amp, where it has the more respect. The HP is probably just a type of smart vertical marketing.

 

[bcschmerker4]

  What people appreciate about McIntosh is that it's all made in-house, by hand, and with a pedigree. Fans enjoy the unique sound - bold, dynamic, and quintessentially American. 
 
To capitalize in an enthusiast-driven market such as headphones requires the company to have pedigree, significant R&D, and/or at least some level of originality, so that at the very least there's community appreciation of what was achieved. This move by McIntosh, from what it seems, satisfies none of these requisites. McIntosh needs what one can argue Grado has in headphones, but it doesn't even try (from what it seems....I know it's all preliminary for the time being).
 
Much like Blackberry trying to capitalize on consumer products. You can do one thing and do it incredibly well, but don't spread your efforts too thin, or you'll lose.
 
This is a weak move by Mac and I don't think it will fly. It'll flop much like their speakers did.

As for the headphone amplifier, if the article at WhatHiFi.com referenced Post 1 is any clue, McIntosh® is downscaling its own proven solid-state PO stage design in the MHA100, which packs a three-output-tap autoformer for each channel, as headphones require a fraction of the power needed for the XR and HT Series loudspeakers; the digital side is probably based on hardware already used by its current parent company Clarion® for home audio.  Perhaps beyerdynamic® requested a preproduction example of the MHA100 to help with MHP1000 development, testing and evaluation (at least in terms of their own DT 770, 880 and 990 studio-reference headphones)....

 

[Beagle]

  What people appreciate about McIntosh is that it's all made in-house, by hand, and with a pedigree. Fans enjoy the unique sound - bold, dynamic, and quintessentially American.
 
To capitalize in an enthusiast-driven market such as headphones requires the company to have pedigree, significant R&D, and/or at least some level of originality, so that at the very least there's community appreciation of what was achieved. This move by McIntosh, from what it seems, satisfies none of these requisites. McIntosh needs what one can argue Grado has in headphones, but it doesn't even try (from what it seems....I know it's all preliminary for the time being).
 
Much like Blackberry trying to capitalize on consumer products. You can do one thing and do it incredibly well, but don't spread your efforts too thin, or you'll lose.
 
This is a weak move by Mac and I don't think it will fly. It'll flop much like their speakers did.

 
Everybody wants in on the headphone game now......so the quickest way to get in is to call up some factory in China, have them slap something together and stick their badge on it and hope it sounds good. In this case, it looks like a factory in Germany and the list price reflects that. Anyway, it all comes down to the sound, as always.

 

[Phos]

  Does  Beyer OEM for anyone else? 
 
I suspect McIntosh's emphasis is the amp, where it has the more respect. The HP is probably just a type of smart vertical marketing.

Yeah, actually, Qpad has their branded MMX 300, and they also have their branded version of the chinese knockoff.  

 

[CDWMcInSpots]

  Does  Beyer OEM for anyone else? [...]

 
Quote:

The Klaus Blum Interview - 47 years beyerdynamic experience

8. juni 2011 kl. 05:03

[...]
Mr. Blum: [...]In 1990 I then switched to the production department, the headphone production to be exact, where we also assembled OEM products for well-known brands.[...]

 
QPAD has several headsets that look like beyerdynamic. Takstar also has several headphones that look like beyerdynamic. I don't know whether these are OEM, licensed or (partial) copy products though.
 

Originally Posted by bcschmerker4 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
[...] the digital side is probably based on hardware already used by its current parent company Clarion® for home audio. [...]

 
Clarion bought McIntosh in 1990 and sold it to D&M Holdings in 2003 which sold it to Fine Sounds SpA in 2012. See:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_Laboratory#Japanese_years
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_Laboratory#Italian_years
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%26M_Holdings

 

[bmichels]

when id this baby due to be released ?  Has someone had a chance to hear a demo version at a show ? 

 

[bmichels]

Confused ! The new McIntosh HEADPHONE, Is it MCH1000 or MHP1000 ? ? ?

 

[GL1TCH3D]

Haven't heard anything since this thread was posted

 

[bmichels]

nowhere I can find any first impressions about their MHP1000 Headphone !  
 
--> Has it been released yet ? Not even samples units for the press ? 
 

 

[musicman59]

As far as I know they are not out yet and I don't think they are close to be released either.

 

[wnmnkh]

It is supposed to be released in this month. It seems it is delayed tho.