McIntosh MDA200
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Overview
The High Notes
A DAC for the Decades
Full Function Digital Preamp
Quad Balanced DAC
The new McIntosh MDA200 Digital to Analog Converter is only the fourth DAC in the company’s history. The D150 has been discontinued for a few years and, during that time, McIntosh Labs came up with the idea of supplying the DAC portion as a separate module you could insert into many McIntosh pieces to add digital sources should you want to.
If you know much about the 70+ year history of McIntosh Labs, you know they care a lot about creating products to last generations. While power amps and preamps do not really go through revolutionary changes over time, the digital side of things changes pretty quickly in the grand scheme of things.
What is the Design and Build Quality Like?
The MDA200 DAC features a slim profile with a timeless black glass faceplate and the McIntosh logo tastefully illuminated. Their classic rotary control knobs and custom machined aluminum end caps also let you know immediately it's another great McIntosh piece. Like all of their units with a display, you can set the dim of level in the trim settings.
We love the way McIntosh always thinks about how one of their components will look paired with others. In our testing, we put the MDA200 DAC right beside a C22 preamp, whose knobs are identical and have the same horizontal spread. Even the height of the MDA200 equaled the exact height of the glass panel section of the C22. That is true attention to detail.
McIntosh has also recently started using a new system to illuminate the front panel or meters. LEDs can lose output over time if you drive them hard, so they developed a new system using a larger number of very tiny surface mount LEDs. These are driven at a low power level and should provide decades of service. This is a prime example of how their engineers think long-term.
What Features and Technology Does the MAC200 DAT Have?
The MDA200 can serve as a stand alone DAC or a fully functional digital preamp in a digital only system. There are a few other Digital Audio Converters on the market that offer both of these functions, but we do not know of one that thought of everything the engineers at McIntosh came up with for this great new model.
Their team wanted any McIntosh owner to be able to add the MDA200 to their system while giving it modern control features. With this in mind, it has both balanced audio outputs and unbalanced RCA outputs on the rear panel. It has the standard data ports we usually see on McIntosh pieces that can pass commands. It also has a power control in and out, which means you could use the out to control power on/off on a McIntosh or any power amp with a trigger. There is also an RS232 for control system use.
The MDA200 DAC has seven digital inputs - two coaxial digital, two Toslink optical digital, 1 USB for computer audio, 1 MCT for connecting up a McIntosh transport or player with the MCT connector, and an HDMI connector with ARC.
HDMI-ARC is a great feature you to connect up a TV that has ARC or eARC to your unit. The TV and unit can then be set to accept CEC control, which means your TV remote will do all of the work - turn on the MDA200, select the HDMI input, and control its volume should you be using it as a digital preamp. This lets you get TV audio to your nice two channel system greatly enhancing its sound. Pro-tip: you will have better luck with this feature with newer TVs. In any case, it's great to be able to get TV sound via HDMI to the MDA200 DAC.
The MDA200 DAC will expertly convert multi-channel audio formats from Dolby® and DTS® and will be expertly converted to 2-channel audio for proper playback. McIntosh also gives you the option of manually adjusting the lip sync to align your speakers with the voices on your TV or you can have it all happen automatically.
McIntosh also understands their customers like to customize their systems. You can rename any of the inputs to whatever you wish and you can even set a trim level for each one in case any of them are louder or quieter than the others. All input switching is done like the current McIntosh Labs preamps, using electronic input switching which provides noiseless, reliable, and distortion free input selection.
Should you use the USB input for computer audio, know that the MDA200 DAC is designated as Roon tested. The Roon interface can access your digital library with crystal clarity.
In our testing, we learned the input codes on our C22 were the same as the factory default input remote control codes for the MDA 200. Cleverly, McIntosh allows you to assign another set of codes to work with the MDA200 Digital Audio Converter in the easy-to-use set up menu.
If you want to use the MDA200 as a DAC with your existing audio system, it will come preset with fixed output. However, it can function as a 7-input digital preamp if you go into the menu and change its audio output to be variable. Quite a few DAC’s on the market offer these two options, but a lot of them just do not have the gain to properly drive a power amp. It works, but you lose out on dynamics. McIntosh Labs gave it a very low output impedance, which means it can easily drive long cables should your power amp or amps be located at your speakers. Unlike nlike most DAC’s that top out at 2 volts RMS output, the MDA200 can put out 8 volts! It should be able to easily drive any power amp even with long cable runs.
If you are using it in DAC mode, the volume levels are done by a new precision
digitally controlled attenuator system with a tracking accuracy of 0.5dB.
But the real magic in the MDA200 DAC and the main reason we think it is going to be a timeless piece is the way McIntosh crafted the digital board. If you have followed audio over time, you know fully well, digital technology does not stand still. In just the last decade, we have moved far beyond CD quality with Hi-Res Audio and DSD. The first two McIntosh DAC’s had great technology for their time, but as new standards came out in the digital world, they were left behind.
Several years ago, McIntosh recognized this and had a complete shift in how they design two-channel digital components. They came up with the idea of a digital audio module that contains the digital components. Their first was called the DA1. We’ve recently seen the DA2 emerge. The MDA200 has a big slot on the rear panel where the DA module slides into. It's not a matter of if, but when, there will be a DA3 on the market. If you have a unit now with a DA1, you can upgrade to a DA2 for $1000. This design should keep your MDA200 current for the future, allowing you to have the latest and greatest when better tech comes out.
The DA2 has some fantastic DACs inside too. The coaxial and optical inputs process digital signals up to 192kHz with 24-bit resolution. The digital MCT DIN connection allows for streaming of high bandwidth digital signals (DSD, PCM) from external McIntosh sources.
The USB input processes PCM digital signals up to 192kHz with 32-bit resolution, decodes up to DSD512 digital signals and DXD 24-bit with a sampling rate of 352.8kHz (or 384kHz).
McIntosh Labs uses what is called their Quad Balanced, 8-channel, 32-bit Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC). You may wonder why a two-channel DAC needs 8 channels? There are two big advantages. First, if you parallel two DAC’s, you get 3 dB of improvement in signal to noise ratio. But that is just half of it. These are run in a balanced mode where there are two in one channel paralleled for the positive half of the signal and another two in parallel for the negative half. This type of balanced design greatly reduces noise.
Once the digital signal is converted to analog, it leaves the DA2 module and passes over to the analog preamp side of the MDA200. McIntosh used the circuit design in their very popular C53 solid state stereo preamp in the MDA200.
All of this great tech adds up to another wonderful piece of gear from McIntosh Labs.
The only item missing is the ability to stream music. We asked McIntosh about this and got a very honest and sensible answer. They wanted to create the best sounding DAC they could and not be limited by having to pay license fees and keep up with the software changes of all the various streaming music services. There are already several very good and inexpensive streamers on the market with digital outputs, which allows you to connect their streamed digital feed up to the MDA200 to take advantage of its far superior DAC’s and analog circuit. Both the Bluesound Node or Cambridge CXN models would be good choices, which was actually how we went about testing the MDA200.
What About the Performance?
We set the MDA200 up with a pair of JBL 4367 floor standing speakers driven by a McIntosh MC1502 power amp, with the C22 preamp, the MDA 200 as the DAC, and fed the MDA 200 with coaxial digital out from the Cambridge Audio CXN V2. This system is mostly used for vinyl playback, with the Cambridge providing quick access to digital music. For the hell of it, we played a few tracks first on the CXN V2, which in our opinion is one of the best streamer/DAC/preamps on the market today for its modest price.
When we switched over to the MDA200 as the DAC, we were not prepared for the huge improvement we heard. Yes, the MDA200 is about 4 times the price of the CXN V2, but like all recent McIntosh releases we have tested, the MDA200 is just incredibly musical with rhythm and pacing you expect to hear from the best British gear.
Our test tracks included some of our old standards like “Lay Me Down” by Crosby Nash, “Canola Fields” by James McMurtry, “Sandman” from America, and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” from Harry Connick Jr.
“Canola Fields” was first and we heard a huge, warm yet detailed sound stage with pacing that had our feet stomping. The bass line was deep and impactful but also very tuneful as well. As we played through all of these cuts, we heard dynamic contrasts exploding with an image that was on point, yet way outside the speakers and very three-dimensional.
“Sandman” is a great cut as on some systems it can sound a little edgy but with the MDA 200, it was extremely enjoyable. This led us to pull out an old favorite, that never sounds that great, but is a wonderful track, Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride.” We cranked this one up and never sensed one trace of harshness as the MDA200 revealed all kinds of small details, while at the same time allowing us to fully enjoy the song.
What Are Our Recommendations?
The MDA 200 is yet another wonderful product from our friends in Binghamton, NY. Like all McIntosh Labs gear we have heard recently, it lets you enjoy any music in your library while highlighting things you never knew were on the track. For McIntosh owners, this is a no-brainer DAC to add to your system to get you enjoying digital sources.
If you are in the market for a high-performance DAC, you should give the MDA200 serious consideration. The fact it has a DAC slot that allows you to change the digital side as things progress is a big selling point. If you own a current McIntosh piece that lets you install the amazing DA2 digital board, we highly recommend that as well.
