McIntosh MA7000

The April 2008 cost is up $1K to $8K. Wow!!

I spent a lot of time listening to a MA7000 a few days ago. I first started off listening to an Accuphase E550 and DP500 on Avalon Ascents. The sound was good but I kept feeling like the top end was "brittle" and a little thread bare. Especially on music that wasn't perfectly recorded.

So despite the drop down in cost, we swapped in the MA7000. Wow! What an improvement. It was amazing. The backup vocals were now perfectly intelligible, the top end had a natural silkiness to it, the bottom end was full and detailed with lots of authority, and the overall picture had wonderful coherence. I was really amazed at the difference. The MA7000 is totally worth the money and the dealer says it kills the 6900 in terms of detail and dynamics. From what I heard, I agree. This is quite an integrated in every way!!

Arthur

I must say upfront that I am not an Audiophile, and I refuse to listen to "Audiophile" music; that is music that is recorded well but is boring. I must also say that I packed up my listening room and sold most the real equipment when we moved into the new house. Our new home has a very large family room with 20" tall ceilings. We installed the top of the line B&W In-walls, Signature whatever.... We had been using a VAC Avatar at our old house, and in a smaller room all was fine. With the larger room, the VAC could not drive these large B&W in-walls and the music sounded lost even at low volumes. Voices in movies were not clear and the system was boring. My main consideration for buying this MA7000 was to never, ever, have to purchase another amp, so I went big.

That all said, the amp sounds great to us, music is music at all volumes, an dialog in movies and television are crystal clear. I cannot tell you much more than that because we have a 3 month old baby girl and I will not turn this beast up and scare or disturb her.

The amp seems perfect for us. Sorry that I cannot be more descriptive. You will need to wait for a review from somebody with more time, better source equipment and better speakers.

Dkgreig,

Have you had a chance to listen? How does it perform? I am currently using a MA6200 that my father gave me and was planning on purchasing a 6900 but I heard Mac had something new in the works. I have heard the 6900 with many different speaker combinations and it sounds fantastic with just about everthing I have thrown at it. What kind of speaker are you using with the 7000? I am planning on pairing the 7000 with the Acoustic Zen Adagios, I think they will work well together. Thanks.

The msrp is $7000, I paid slightly less than that out the door including tax. I did not haggle much since this is a brand new product and did not want to wait.

Dkgreig,
Was it really $7000 as I had read?

The MA7000 is available now; I have one. The dealer called Sound advantage located in Rochester Michigan has another ready to go.

I heard, probably around March. McIntosh is really putting their effort into 2 channel -- with the MT10, this new 250 watt integrated (MA7000) & their 16 KT-88 each, 300 watt tube mono blocks (MC2301's).
The MA7000 is now on the McIntosh web site.