Integrated better than separates? I think so...

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RFI and EMI sounds like what? Can you pick it out from the program music?
I find that EMI/RFI noise adds a false brightness to the signal which obscures detail. I use a wide range of solutions to address it across multiple systems: dedicated AC lines, shielded aftermarket AC cords, power conditioners (for source components), shielded interconnects and linear or battery power supplies. I use a HDPlex linear power supply to feed both my Motorola cable modem and Cisco router and music server runs through a Tripp Lite conditioner.

It was quite easy to hear the difference upgrading the power supply for my previous Touch player from noisy SMPS to either a linear or battery supply. I avoided cheap switcher wall warts from the outset for my current microRendu and Raspberry PI players.

Placing an interconnect between components increases the likelihood of RFI and EMI which works against your argument and almost forces you to drink the cablers' Kool-Aid.
Unless of course it is well shielded.
 
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I'm very happy with my Oldchen tube integrateds. No tone controls at all. I find tone controls completely unnecessary.

I did try a pair of Red Wine Audio mono blocks for a bit and was left unimpressed. None of the foot tapping involvement I got from my integrated amps. Having said that if I had a pair of 300b's I think it would have been a totally different story.
 
i am using seperates
but have owned many integrated
separates allow mixing and matching
and you may still be able to listen if some piece dies by swapping in another
most [not all] integrated wont allow this and you may end up tuneless for a bit

but at the same time marantz has put out some pre's and amps as separates
but also bundled some of the same into one

think they sound different ?
 
My Pioneer SA-9500ii is a masterpiece, I don't care what anyone says....
 

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Not that I agree that that spec matters, but let's say it does... It seems to me a very spec to cheat.

So let's say under accurate testing conditions an amp puts out 120 @ 8ohm. and 200 @ 4. It would fall a bit short of this doubling into 4ohm target right?

What's to stop the mfg. to slightly under-report the 8ohm performance? If they said it's 100 @ at 8ohm, and 200 at 4 ohm - who would call them on this? Suddenly, it would meet the rarified "double at 4ohm" benchmark.

This is a silly metric, IMHO.

The problem with integrateds and 4 ohms loads usually is lack of sufficient heat sink.

Krell KAV 300i (Stereophile test)
Rated 8 ohm 150 watts / 4 ohms 300 watts
Into a nominal 8 ohm load, single-channel driven, it delivered close on 200W continuous....
.......the KAV-300i was still putting out 250Wpc into 4 ohms (both channels driven)
....and the relatively small internal heatsinks indicate that the KAV-300i will not be the amplifier of choice for continuous, flat-out duty into 4 ohms or lower loadings
An IHF 1/3-power preconditioning run was out the question, a fact confirmed by Dan D'Agostino.

Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content...ed-amplifier-measurements#1KIhwdCO8rOXUR4q.99
 
Integrated or not, the OP's MA6600 sure seems to have generous heat sinking to me.

I don't think it's safe make blanket statements purely on the basis of being an integrated, separate or whatever.

821067-mcintosh-ma6600-integrated-amp-excellent-current-model.jpg
 
That's why the word "usually" is in my statement, and I thought the heat sink was just for show anyhow on Mac gear (200 watts into 2 -4 -8 ohms).

The post was more about a previous poster (DV) citing the Krell without checking the facts.
 
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The problem with integrateds and 4 ohms loads usually is lack of sufficient heat sink.

Krell KAV 300i (Stereophile test)
Rated 8 ohm 150 watts / 4 ohms 300 watts
Into a nominal 8 ohm load, single-channel driven, it delivered close on 200W continuous....
.......the KAV-300i was still putting out 250Wpc into 4 ohms (both channels driven)
....and the relatively small internal heatsinks indicate that the KAV-300i will not be the amplifier of choice for continuous, flat-out duty into 4 ohms or lower loadings
An IHF 1/3-power preconditioning run was out the question, a fact confirmed by Dan D'Agostino.

Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content...ed-amplifier-measurements#1KIhwdCO8rOXUR4q.99

My No. 585, rated conservatively at 200wpc, clipped at 250 into 8 both channels driven, at 390 into 4 both channels, and at 395 one channel into 2 shut down thermally, no harm done. For me, more than enough power for any speaker I own, or am likely to, for this space. Stereophile test. Sound quality excellent, imo. Best audio purchase I ever made. While I feel that their separates (or some other brands) would be even better, I doubt the difference would be audible to me with my ancillary equipment.


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Integrated or not, the OP's MA6600 sure seems to have generous heat sinking to me.
That and the use of output transformers ensures lack of problems.

I don't think it's safe make blanket statements purely on the basis of being an integrated, separate or whatever
Agreed. One must look further. The best amplifiers in my experience, however, don't use $.50 NE5532 op amps in the signal path as McIntosh does with many components including the MA6600. Also, they have far stiffer power supplies for better dynamic swing and transparency. The McIntosh engineers are neither fools nor charlatans. Ask them if they believe such is equivalent in performance to their preamp at twice the investment plus an amplifier like the 2301.

Their integrateds are built to a price point. Double the ante and you could get a Pass Labs INT-250 using a JFET front end, stiffer power supply and 20 output devices per channel running class A for the first 25 watts per channel.
 
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Lol is all I can say to that. And I deal professionally with those every day. So you sir can believe what you want. :)
I have had to take care of interferences my whole career. Try getting rid of RFI from a AN/SYS-1 Radar. I just did that last week.
:beerchug:

And if you actually understand how these things work it is common sense

You, like your cable friends have dodged the central question. What does RFI/EMI sound like?
 
I went from SS separates (Audio Research LS3+Bryston 4B) to a tubed integrated amp (Mastersound 300b SE) and feel very comfortable with the change. The integrated amp is easier to use and cozier. Soundwise both sets are great and feel happy of having kept them both.
 
You, like your cable friends have dodged the central question. What does RFI/EMI sound like?

I have to dude you on this one, dude I am as far from a cable guy as you can get! I buy Home Depot speaker wire and $5 IC’s. I just recently built all my own cables from left overs at work because due to the location of my house (a few miles from the Vacapes op area) I get USN and USCG RFI all the time. I built shielded cable for my IC’s and pwr cables and unless the Navy has stopped (not) operations they took care of the problems. It sounds like a static/buzz in the background. You can really notice it if it’s from a radar (best way to train yourself for what it sounds like), from a radar it’s just way louder and a steady cycle as it rotates. I was an instructor teaching Aural Recognition (teaching people how to listen) when I retired. If from your interweb name you live close to San Diego I can demonstrate and show you next time I have a job there. :bigok:

:beerchug:
Edit: In the control ckts I work on everyday you probably couldn’t hear it but you can see it on a scope. It does cool stuff like turn pumps on and off and shit. guarantee it affects consumer audio signals.
 
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...What does RFI/EMI sound like?...

Itself at the source, it doesn't sound like anything.

What it causes however, results in all sorts of audible effects depending on the equipment and the type/strength of RFI/EMI.

Intermodulation issues, stability, oscillations, buzzes, hums, residual noise floor fluctuations and modulations in analog. And in digital, it's a all those, plus timing deviations, aliasing, non-linearites etc.

Bah. I'm just going to build one of them Faraday cages and sit in that. :)

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-tale...day-cage-to-stop-customers-using-their-phones
 
Life is too short to bother with poorly recorded material. There's enough of the good stuff available to afford us the option to ignore the crap.

Life is also too short to not enjoy the music you like instead of better recorded music which does not appeal to you also. There's entire genres of music you can't listen to without tone controls. Forget about real Blues and R&B in general, for one. For me, music first. Gear serves the music. YMMV.
 
I truly listen to everything and so far have not needed mine that I bypassed. I have thought about reversing but have not seen the need.

JMHO

Do you listen to 1950's Jazz, Blues, and R&B and 1960's examples of same (and sometimes on less than perfect pressings), I do. I listen to a wide variety of recordings, some going as far back as the early 1930's. And not somebody's over noise reduced and filtered idea of how they should sound. And often pre RIAA. Not everybody's music taste involves perfect recordings, and most of us lack perfect rooms. My reality and many others needs options.
 
Do you listen to 1950's Jazz, Blues, and R&B and 1960's examples of same (and sometimes on less than perfect pressings), I do. I listen to a wide variety of recordings, some going as far back as the early 1930's. And not somebody's over noise reduced and filtered idea of how they should sound. And often pre RIAA. Not everybody's music taste involves perfect recordings, and most of us lack perfect rooms. My reality and many others needs options.

I do! And that’s the great part of this hobby, we can do it how we like. :D
 
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