DENVER — McIntosh is coming to the CEDIA Expo with six new products, including its first headphones, first dedicated headphone amp, a second integrated audio system and a 1TB multizone music server.
The brand is also extending its stereo and monoblock amp line to lower powers.
The MHP1000 over-ear headphones, due in October at $2,000, are professional-grade models said to be “perfectly suited for at-home use.” Their midrange impedance and high sensitivity allows it to match the utput of most popular electronic devices.
The new $4,500 MHA100 headphone amp, already available, is McIntosh’s first dedicated headphone amplifier, but it also features a 50-watt stereo output to drive desktop speakers. It comes with four digital inputs to play back music files in a wide variety of formats. Mc- Intosh-designed and hand-wound impedance matching autoformers are said to deliver full power into any set of headphones. It’s smaller than previous McIntosh amps
The $6,000 XL-MXA70 integrated audio system, already available, consists of two two-way desktop speakers, a 50-watt stereo integrated amp with subwoofer output, and headphone amp. It features two analog and four digital inputs, a USB input, and decoding of 32-bit 192kHz music. It joins the $8,000 MXA60 integrated system, which adds AM/FM tuner and CD player but lacks USB.
The MXA70 includes the same dedicated headphone amplifier found in the MHA100.
The 2×150-watt MC152 amplifier and 300-watt MC301 amplifiers bring McIntosh’s selection of solidstate amps to lower powers. They ship in September at prices that were unavailable. The lowest power stereo amp had been rated at 2×300.
Each amplifier features McIntosh’s blue power meters and a slim black chassis that is only 5-inches-tall.
The MC152 is rated at 2×150 watts into 2, 4 or 8 ohms, and the MC301 is rated at 300 watts into 2, 4 or 8 ohms.
The $6,000 MB100 Media Bridge, already available, isn’t McIntosh’s first multizone music server, but this one features 1TB storage, streams music from networked PCs and NAS drives, streams music from mobile devices, and streams such music services as Pandora, SiriusXM, and Spotify. It can be controlled from an iOS/ Android app, web browser or TV UI.
The MB100 also features cloud access for backup and synchronization across multiple systems. A solidstate 64GB drive houses the OS for rapid response and improved durability. It lacks Bluetooth.
