Opinions on McIntosh MHA200?

From what I understand, it's a very good headphone amp; I'd check out online and YouTube reviews and see if there's any kind of general consensus. Also check out forums on head-fi.com as there is almost no headphone action on Audiogon forums. That said, Mac gear does have a 'paying more than you should because of the name' thing, according to many folks. 

Given Mac products can be very polarizing and often have a particular “sound” I personally wouldn’t buy their headphone amp unless I could hear it first.  I would give Linear Tube Audio a call and ask them if their new Velo amp has sufficient power for your headphones, and if so they offer a return policy so you can try it at home with little risk.  Their headphone amps always get stellar reviews.  Hope this helps, and best of luck. 

First time I have heard a supposedly legendary brand brag that their technology is 80 years old.

McIntosh certainly knows how to market.

There's a reason that Best Buy is selling them.

@tony1954 - From what I've seen on another thread, Bose just recently pulled the McIntosh line from Magnolia stores.... 

@larsman 

I did know that. That was my error in not saying that "Best Buy was previously selling them".

I just bought a pair of KEF R11’s and my sales person confirmed that McIntosh is pulling out of Magnolia at Best Buy. Further he stated they are not even flash sale for demo products but are buying them back as well.

Guess they’re gonna have to find another brand to tame those aggressive B&W tweeters. 

Here’s another amp you might wanna consider, and like LTA they also offer a trial period.

https://soundnews.net/reviews/amplifiers/laiv-harmony-hp2a-review-the-one-that-challenged-the-many/

@soix

Thanks. I skimmed the review, but boy does Sandu Vitalia (the writer) desperately need to learn to edit. 

To narrow down the choices, I think I'm going to stick with tube amps. This HP2A amp is complete overkill for me, as well, given that I don't have low-sensitivity headphones.

Mike

I just received the MHA200 from the private seller. He said it would come with Gold Lion upgrade tubes; however, the amp specifies 12AT7 and he put Gold Lion 12AX7 in there. Will this create a problem?

EDIT: I sent an email to McIntosh support but not sure if they will answer correctly or just say some boiler plate like "wrong tube."

EDIT 2: It’s been warming up for 30 minutes. The seller said the tubes only have about 10 hours on them. So maybe too soon to evaluate. It has elegant sound, but very flat dynamics. Really not impressive at all at this point. Maybe the whole amp including the transformer wire has to burn in.