[peter braun]

How would an McIntosh tube integrated amp, for example the MA-230, work as a headphone amplifier. Though the model is thirty years old, how would the headphone out be? Would it be better than my X-CANv2? It that asking too much of an older model? Here is the amp in question -

http://www.retroaudio.ru/mcintosh/integ/MA-230.shtml

Has anyone ever used the headphone jack on a Mac product? I want a new stereo amp and a new headphone amp, so I am attempting desperately to justify something that will work well for both.

 

[kentamcolin]

I've never tried McIntosh, but if you want a "new" speaker and headphone amp, you might consider the Fisher 400-X at www.2baudio.com I love mine.

 

[Gopher]

my bet...terrific! My dad has a bunch of vintage Mac gear in one of our studies, and I experimented a little with the jacks on his pre and power amps with my K501s and HD600s, and the old mac gear drove them both terrificly. If your interested, I'll take do a more critical listen in the next couple days and take some notes for you.

 

[aeberbach]

I thought you meant maybe a SE/30

 

[tom hankins]

Amplifier tech. has not changed that much like digital. My thoughts are that old amps that were good remain good amps today. You should contact McIntosh and ask about the headphone out on that amp. Mac was one of the major players 30 years ago(and still is) and I would think that Gopher is right about it being very good. I have friends that use Mac gear that old and it's wonferful.

 

[Number9]

I've been using a Mac 6200 amp, which has two headphone jacks. Very, very good.

Check out this site for Mac specs:
http://www.berners.ch/McIntosh/en/McHome.htm

I only found out after I had bought the 6200, that the headphone jacks were driven by a dedicated circuit. Bonus!! I also like the fact that I have bass and treble controls.

 

[mkmelt]

From the looks of it, this Mac integrated should be able to drive any dynamic headphone. The output tubes are 7591, the same ones used in the Fisher 500 B/C and similar to the 7868 tubes used in the stock Fisher 400 and the Fisher X-100 integrated amps. It is well documented how good these old Fisher units can sound when driving headphones. I don't imagine you will be disappointed.

 

[peter braun]

Thanks for the responses so far everyone, do any of you think though that I will lose too much in the way of dynamics with an older tube unit? Would replacing those specific tubes be costly when the time comes?

 

[kevin gilmore]

The ma230 is a great tube headphone amp.
For low impedance phones like the grado, set it for
the 16 ohm tap and run the headphones directly
on the speaker out terminals. The front headphone
jack has a 330 ohm resistor in series i believe.

 

[mkmelt]

You won't lose any dynamics with the vintage tube amplifier. In fact, the punch in the low end will spoil you for anything else.

The tubes used in the MA-230 are all available, as either new or old stock. The 7591 power tubes (4 needed) are hard to find as old stock, but are in production again and are available under the Russian tube brand ElectroHarmonix. Figure on $100 -$130 for a set of 4 tubes.