McIntosh CS7500 Streaming Preamplifier Brings Analog, Digital and Hi-Res Streaming Together for $12,500 Can McIntosh justify $12,500 for the CS7500?

[JimBob]

The DAC isn’t upgradable on these streamers, because in order for the the streamer to be certified by Apple, Samsung etc, they need to certify it end to end as a complete system. A replaceable DAC would mean it couldn’t be certified.

This is why the streamers have fixed DACs. This has been mentioned a few times by Ken Zelin, who was let go by Bose and no longer with McIntosh

If you have a high quality DAC 10 years old chances are it will still sound excellent today. Maybe when it's measured on a machine newer DACs might have better specs but the human ear won't be able to hear it. DAC chip chasers remind be of kids at Best Buy searching for the newest Gamer laptop. In my Game Room I have MC275, C2200 LuminU2. My DAC Prima Luna Tube EVO100 It uses Burr Brown pcm1792a chip which is 22 years old. It's an amazing DAC and still in production today.

 

[ACRucrazy]

I really enjoyed my MDA1000 when I had it.

 

[JimBob]

I really enjoyed my MDA1000 when I had it.

I still have mine. Not hooked up. Stereophile called it one of the best Redbook Dacs ever made.

 

[techguy0192]

I'm glad to see the CS7500 does not have a touchscreen, but using non-chassis-mounted RCA inputs is a major miss. On top of that, the DAC section really should have been modular.

 

[MACKIE1975]

Touchscreen is fine since most of the time you are using the app on iOS or Android.
McIntosh is not very good at software so likely it shall avoid at all cost.