Calling all MAC owners!


I've just noticed that McIntosh is doing a trade-up program. Is this something they do annually or just every once in a while?

At any rate, I have an MA5200 that I adore! It's a great fit for the size and acoustic properties of my sound room and a good match with my other components. Regardless, this MAC trade-up program is very generous and has me thinking about the possibility of trading up to the MA7200 (without the optional DA2 module, for now). I know the 7200's extra power means it can play louder but, frankly, I don't need "louder" for my sound room. I'm much more interested in how much, if any, of a palpable difference in sound quality such a trade-up would really afford with the pair of Revel Performa3 F206 I'm using now. A little? A lot? Immediately noticeable? Almost imperceptible?

The performance specs for both these amps are very, very similar with a few notable exceptions that I'm not sure would amount to much (e.g.  dynamic headroom; input sensitivity; SNR; damping factor).

Has anyone out there upgraded from an MA5200 or MA5300 to an MA7200, without upgrading or changing any of your other components or moving your system from one room to another or anything like that? If so, did you find this was a significant "upgrade" in sound performance or fidelity or not? In other words, was it worth the money and the heavy lifting?

Thanks!

oldaudiophile

It is an excellent program. I did it last year with audio classics and got some really nice stuff. I was happy with everything that I’ve changed. If you use audio classics, I talked with a guy named Ryan. Super nice guy did it all over the phone at first and then some emails and my stuff showed up. I’ll highly recommend them.

Mac has reinstated this program because they are finally starting to get caught up with the massive backorder issues they have had for the last few years.