Did you ever pull the trigger on the 8900? If so how is the soundstage depth?
I have one on order and am curious because I home demo’d an MA352 and found the depth very disappointing.
McIntosh MA8900 vs MC452 Soundstage Depth
Can anyone comment on performance of MA8900 compared to MC452, particularly with regard to soundatage depth?
I used to have the latter running directly from a dCS Paganini DAC and later a C8 preamp and liked it quite a bit. I've also had MC252 and MA352. The MA352 wasn't a good match for my system. No depth and overly saturated tone. I liked the tone of the MC252 but also found it flat in terms of soundstage and dynamics. The MC452 was a huge improvement and satisfied in almost every way.
I've gone through a number of amps and integrateds since and am possibly looking to go back to the warm, rich, musical McIntosh autoformer SS sound with the MA8900. I think the improvement of the 452 over the MC252 may have been due to the newer transistors McIntosh switched to around that time and the 8900 is a slightly newer vintage than the 452 so I'm hoping to get a similar sound in a smaller, lighter package.
Currently using a Luxman 509x, which is very impressive and ticks the right boxes in my brain but is a touch dry and clean for my taste so I'm finding it doesn't really tug at my heart strings. I am a big fan of Luxman and have an M800a in my main rig that I adore, but in my bedroom I want a sound I do not feel like I need to listen intently to and just enjoy the music.
Source is MSB Analog DAC with network renderer and speakers are Wilson Tunetots with REL T-Zero Mk III sub.
No recommendations outside of Mac, please.
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@eugene81 I have the MA8900 and can’t recommend it enough. Powerful rich sound but not overblown. Now that the 8950 is out you might be able to pick this up for a bit less. |