MCINTOSH MA9000 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

McIntosh has released the biggest integrated amplifier it has ever made, the MA9000. It’s rated at 300-watts per channel, measures 445×240×559mm (WHD) and weighs 45.9kg. As well as using microprocessors to monitor and control all circuit operations, the MA9000’s circuitry includes ‘PowerGuard’, which prevents the amplifier from being driven into clipping, and ‘Sentry Monitor’ which provides protection against short-circuits.

The output stage is rated at 300-watts per channel into 8 . It also delivers 300-watts per channel into 4 and 2 loads due to McIntosh using its ‘Autoformer’ transformers on the outputs. ‘ McIntosh is using new high-current output transistors in the MA9000 that eliminate thermal equilibrium lag time,’ said Philip Sawyer, of Synergy Audio Visual, which distributes McIntosh in Australia, ‘ so unlike most highend amplifiers, you don’t have to leave the amplifier switched on all the time for best sonic performance… the MA9000 is good to go almost immediately after it has been switched on. Also, unlike most high-end components, it features a discrete, eight-band equaliser that allows advanced manual adjustment of tone quality to correct for poor recordings.’ In addition to two phono inputs (one moving-coil and one moving-magnet), there are eight line-level inputs (two of them balanced) and a full range of digital inputs: two coaxial, two optical, one USB and one MCT. All the digital inputs are contained in a McIntosh DA1 Digital Audio Module which uses an 8-channel, 32-bit digital-toanalogue converter in Quad Balanced mode. The USB input can process up to DSD256 and DXD384kHz, while the other digital inputs can process up to 24-bit/192kHz. The module is removable, so that should upgraded circuitry or digital processes become available in the future, you can simply swap in a new module to provide those features.

For further information, please contact Synergy Audio Visual on (03) 9459 7474 or visit the website at www.synergyaudio.com