mcd 201 is real balanced?
- Thread starter ouragan66
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
mcintoshaddict
Active Member
The MCD201 has balanced outputs, but it's not balanced internally. To get internally balanced you will need to buy a MDA1000. Connecting to the balanced outputs will get totally balanced from the CD player to the speakers... which is better than running single ended. (Especially if there is any distance between the CD player and amp.)
If I understood Ron-C correctly, the DACs are balanced, so the whole thing is. In a CDP, the analog signal starts at the DAC output. So, if the DACs are balanced, you have balanced signal throughout the analog path. That's the best you'll get, as there's really no such thing as a balanced digital signal (ok, there's AES/EBU, but that's not really the same thing).
ron-c
Addicted Member
Stephano,
McIntosh looks at overall performance for each model. Every model but one is balanced as far as inputs and outputs are balanced except for the MC58, 8 channel amp. All of these balanced models will always exhibit at least 40 Db of noise rejection when the balanced connections are used.
Some say there is no advantage of balanced connections unless the circuit is balanced. This is simply not true, performance wise.
Thanks again,
Ron Cornelius,
McIntosh
McIntosh looks at overall performance for each model. Every model but one is balanced as far as inputs and outputs are balanced except for the MC58, 8 channel amp. All of these balanced models will always exhibit at least 40 Db of noise rejection when the balanced connections are used.
Some say there is no advantage of balanced connections unless the circuit is balanced. This is simply not true, performance wise.
Thanks again,
Ron Cornelius,
McIntosh
mcintoshaddict
Active Member
Ron... I reviewed the owner's manual and found no reference it having balanced DACs. This would seem to be something that McIntosh would want to point out. Why was it left out of the owner's manual?
ron-c
Addicted Member
The owners manual is more about function. We do not normally discuss in detail what our DAC implementation is. We know that many get hung up on some design philosophy in CD player design and loose sight of listening for sound quality. Some of this stuff tends to be faddish like oversampling, one bit, multi bit, etc. The bottom line is always the implementation and the details that allow lower distortion and better performance. We also do not want to hand out engineering road maps to others.
I had to ask Ted in detail to answer the true balanced question. We are somewhat amazed that many players have weak DAC or DAC to analog output designs. The 201, 861 and MDA 1000 all have far better performance than other designs using the same DACs. Power supply design is a big part of the performance equation. Experience and engineering know how, combined with attention to very small details makes all the difference.
How many years have we had SACD players with very high levels of noise and distortion as an example? You will not find that in any McIntosh player for sure.
Thanks,
Ron-C
I had to ask Ted in detail to answer the true balanced question. We are somewhat amazed that many players have weak DAC or DAC to analog output designs. The 201, 861 and MDA 1000 all have far better performance than other designs using the same DACs. Power supply design is a big part of the performance equation. Experience and engineering know how, combined with attention to very small details makes all the difference.
How many years have we had SACD players with very high levels of noise and distortion as an example? You will not find that in any McIntosh player for sure.
Thanks,
Ron-C
