McIntosh MA8950 Integrated Amp: 200×2

McIntosh won’t let dealers post pricing on their higher end gear. That’s their rule and we have to comply. How many players are in the field on a baseball team?

Mac is still made in Binghamton, NY, with luscious blue meters. It’s the coolest looking and most reliable gear in our business.

Have you heard… we don’t last forever. Let’s have some FUN while we’re on the planet!

Of course you could be prudent and boring. You could just buy a Yamaguchi integrated for $500 that will sound as dry as white toast. Hey, if that’s you, no reason to read on. Head straight to Amazon.

If you love music and want to hear the heart and soul of it, you won’t get it with Chinese mass marketed boxes. Now, I’m not saying you need to buy Mac. You can buy Rogue for much less, also made in the US. But for this entry, let’s consider something AWESOME.

MA8950 is a full beefcake, back busting Mac integrated. It is the full enchilada with tons of power and heavy, rich sound. MA8950 is the first integrated in the family to employ its massive power supply and enormous autoformers. The autoformers provide a constant impedance interface between the amp and speakers. You derive a warmer sound than you’ll get without them.

MA8950 will take speakers that have a little too much ZING in their sound and make them palatable. Mass made electronics with piles of chips simply exacerbate the grainy character of speakers.

MA352 is a terrific integrated and a strong Mac value for a couple K less. We luv it. But it doesn’t offer the full she-bang of the bigger supply and autoformers. Nor does it have an onboard DAC, MC or the wide assortment of ins/outs.

MA8950 has an on board DAC, as well as MM/MC phono. It has a 5 band EQ which IS useful

because it is Mac quiet. It has a generous palate of RCA and XLR ins/outs.

If you’re like many audiophiles you’ve probably spent some real time and money chasing your tail, acquiring this and that over the years. You probably started with a Chinese built amp and when its luster wore off, tried something north of that. Well… please consider just biting the bullet and saying goodbye to the equipment rat race. Once you experience full bore Mac in your system, you’re DONE.

Rogue Cronus Dark $4500 (100×2)

Rogue’s Cronus Magnum 3 integrated amp ($3500, 100×2) has been the standard bearer at its price class for years. CM3 is a full tube integrated amp. The preamp section uses 5 tubes and the power amp section uses 4 KT88s. It has the mellow luster of expensive separates, for only $3500.

Owner Mark O’Brien has often offered TWEAKED versions of his various designs. He called them Magnum versions. There have been Magnum versions of many Rogue units over the years. Mark has decided to create an improved CM3. While CM3 is still being offered due to its remarkable performance for the dollar, Mark has created the Rogue Cronus Dark- a much souped up CM3.

With Cronos Dark, Mark has upped the ante on CM3. While the power is the same, component parts have been upgraded which belie sonic benefits if you have great speakers like Brystons or Magnepans. If you’re willing to go north of CM3 but not all the way to Mac’s MA8950,

Cronus Dark may be just the ticket.

Grado RS 1x Headphones $750

Made in Brooklyn, NY, Grado’s RS 1x headphones offer a great bang for your buck in high end phones that aren’t crazy in price.

1X starts with Grado’s 50mm, X series diaphragm. It is ensconced in an ear cup comprised of three kinds of wood. They use a maple sleeve, hemp core and cocobolo for the outer ring. These wooden materials lend a more musical, less strident sound to your music. Just as cabinet speakers benefit from great attention to detail in their construction, RS 1x benefits from assiduous TLC.

SPL runs a very high 99.8 dB. Impedance is 38 ohms. Driver matching is within .05dB. Most headphones are mass produced on the other side of the world and diaphragms are just plugged in. Variation L-R can be off significantly.

At $400 I like the Final Audio Sonorous 3. It offers a strong value. Yet RS 1x has distinctly superior transients and delicacy. You can hear precision guitar and piano work for clearly with the Grado. Yep, it runs $750 vs $400. But it’s worth it.

Did I mention Grado is made with great attention to detail in the USA?

Janis, Jim, Bob & Elvis

In their 70s…

Rega Turntables Of England

Rega was started by Roy Gandy in England in 1973. He and his wife still run the company! Audio Emporium has sold Rega since we opened in 1977.

Rega’s niche has always been to make great sounding, affordable tables. In the early years, Rega made the turntables, but bought tonearms and carts from other sources to round them out. They were outstanding for their day.

By the mid 80s Rega was making its line of tables, arms and even cartridges, in house in England. Regas have always had the fit and finish of a UK product, vs something slapped together in an assembly house somewhere else. Rega continues this quality today!

Rega is fanatical about the details of making record playing machines. These tables use precision ground belts, play 33-45 RPM, and have strong rejection to skipping when people walk around your room. All spring loaded designs, even expensive ones for $10k, skip like mad if your toddler runs by.

The sonic advantage of Rega tables vs direct drives, is that they sound more CLEAR, especially in the bass region. There is less ringing, hence less muddiness, with Rega. Guitar picking and piano attacks are more clearly spelled out. You get to enjoy the craft of a great tactician more clearly with Rega than the mid priced rumble boxes out there. Even before Rega made its own arms, we used them as tables alone. And yes, absolutely, the machine spinning the record makes a big difference in the sound.

Planar One With Carbon Cartridge $595

Planar 1 is a true cut above table, even at its entry level price point.

*Rega makes its own thrust plates to be flat.

*They use low friction bearings that ride within a brass well

*Planar 1 uses an aluminum pulley

*Planar 1 uses a phenolic platter to create a fly wheel affect

*Rega makes their own one piece tonearms, RB110 in this case, with low resonance and high quality bearings.

*Their auto bias mechanism is magnetically controlled.

*Planar 1 uses a plinth of Thermoset glass laminate.

*Their Carbon cartridge is a good tracking moving magnet design with 2.5mV output.

In short, Planar One isn’t an assembly of cheap motors and parts from Asia, cobbled together in some building- heaven only knows where- and shipped out with a fancy logo on its box.

Planar Two with Carbon Cartridge $775

Planar 2 is a nice step above Planar 1 above. It has a quieter motor and superior, 10mm glass platter. The plinth is acrylic laminate. It uses cut above RB220 tonearm with lower friction bearings than RB110. Planar 2 has heavier duty, superior isolating feet. Planar 2 has a quieter background and allows a BIGGER and more robust sound to be heard.

For Planar 2 in particular, I’d like to twist your arm to consider a better cartridge. My choice is the Ortofon 2M Blue, $239. For about a grand, you’re getting a slice of true high end performance at a magic price point.

Planar Three with Elys 2 Cartridge $1395

Planar 3 is an industry standard. It has a better motor, 12mm glass platter and better tonearm, RB330, than Planar 2. In fact, RB330 ($675 by itself) is an industry classic arm which Rega sells to a variety of vendors- who only make spinning mechanisms on their own. Planar 3 features double bracing for its arm interface, with 3mm phenolic bracing underneath the table, and a metal brace above. Planar 3 comes with its own power supply, but will accommodate Rega’s Neo supply ($445) if you want to upgrade.

It comes with Rega’s Elys 2 cart, an industry stalwart that sells for $345 on its own. Elys 2 has a one piece aluminum cantilever and nude elliptical stylus, with an output of 7.0mV. Keep in mind that almost all MM carts have two piece cantilever construction and you suffer loss of transmission energy with 2 pieces vs one.

There are many advantages to Planar 3 with Elys 2 if you can stretch your budget.

John & Yoko’s Neighbor

John & Yoko’s neighbor moved into the Dakota apartment building in NYC a few years before John’s murder. She was the first black resident of the Dakota and became fast friends with John, Yoko and son Sean. They enjoyed much neighborly time together, and shared a little music too. It turns out the new neighbor had even a larger, louder piano than John did. But the Lennons didn’t mind, because she was a talented classical pianist who happened to sing a bit too. Their neighbor… Roberta Flack.