MA 7000 Review

[Zero]

Evit,

You've got a great system! Yep, moving the MA7000 is not the easiest task in the world. When I first got the unit, I had to move it around at least a dozen times within a week as I was evaluating two other amps at the same time. Suffice to say, I got my work out!

Nego,

I hope I can make AK Fest this year. Sally and Chuck are great folks. Have you checked out Chuck's band yet? If not, his stuff can be seen at:

http://www.archive.org/details/MT2009-02-05.MonkeysTyping

I love the bands name, although I think "aging hippies" is more appropriate!

Wanderfowl,

Thanks for the comment, and sorry for no rear pic. I thought about adding one, but I saw so many butt-shots in a simple google image search that I decided it wasn't necessary for the review. Instead, I went for the 'artistic' perspective. Speaking of which, I was just BS'ing around this evening listening to some music and thought I'd capture another shot of that Mac glow. The blue's in the pictures are off, but I'm hardly a photographer so no stones please! Arg, it also looks like there is additional compression and color distortion in the upload. Oh well!

 

[ron-c]

Faceplate shots should be taken at a slight angle as this will kill the reflection.

Thanks,
Ron-C

 

[Alex F.]

Ron C.:

Zero says: "Like all the other integrate (or integrated..heh) amps in the McIntosh line, the MA7000 does NOT have an active pre-amplification stage. It's just a simple passive section that was borrowed directly from the MA6900."


I was long under the impression that McIntosh's integrated amplifiers utilized active line-stage preamp sections, not passive ones. Could you please comment on this?

Thank you!

 

[ron-c]

The MA2275 preamp section is very much active and contains many parts including active amplifying tubes. You can feed in a signal of 1 volt and have it output up to 6 volts. Sounds active to me!

thanks,
Ron-C

 

[Alex F.]

Ron C.:

How about the preamp sections in other recent integrated amplifiers? Are they active as well?

 

[Zero]

RonC - I actually wanted the reflection in that pic , though I agree that using slight angles help to dramatically reduce reflection. It's either that, or resorting to using post-processing, something I am particularly not a fan of. RE: the 2275. As I understand it, though the 2275 pre-amp section has extra gain (hence why you can get 6 volts out of a 1 volt signal), it is not active. There's no separated dedicated power supply, etc..

AlexF - My info comes directly from the man who designed the MA7000. I'd imagine that he knows a thing or two about what is under the hood of the Mac gear! As far as we both know, all the integrates (to include the MA2275) contain passive pre-amps. Personally, I don't think this is a bad thing at all.

 

[Alex F.]

Zero:

Ron Cornelius at McIntosh just informed me via a telephone conversation that none of McIntosh's integrated amplifiers utilize a passive preamp section. The line stages are active indeed.

Thank you, Ron, for your always kind help. Most appreciated!

 

[Zero]

Alex,

It looks like there are directly conflicting reports on the matter from the boys themselves! Ah well, it happens!

 

[ron-c]

Zero,

You got the main thing right, it sounds good! Passive preamps use a group of resistors to turn down whatever signal a source outputs. This has two drawbacks, first you may not have enough gain to drive your power amp on low level recordings and second the output impedance will change with volume which can alter the frequency response of the system as the volume is changed. If the volume control is in front of the output tubes or transistors the preamp output impedance will be stable.

thanks,
Ron-C

 

[chuckworkb]

Excellent Review

Thanks for posting it.