McIntosh has put together a luxury all-in-one system dubbed MXA70. Priced at £5,995 it contains a 50-watt McIntosh amplifier, in-house aluminium loudspeakers and a dedicated headphone amp. Also included is a McIntosh DAC with four digital inputs. First unveiled at CES 2014, the MXA70 is available for the first time in the UK from Jordan Acoustics, McIntosh’s UK distributor. The speakers, finished in high-gloss piano-black, have been designed in-house to complement the electronics. It features a custom-cast “vibration-controlling” aluminium cabinet, 19mm titanium-dome tweeter and a 100mm treated-paper bass/midrange unit. The speakers are rear-ported to augment the low frequencies and have a specified bandwidth of 60Hz-45kHz. For extra bass a powered subwoofer can be connected to the main unit.
The MXA70 includes the dedicated headphone amplifier found in the recently launched MHA100 head amp. It employs an adaptation of McIntosh’s autoformer technology, which offers three selectable headphone impedance ranges: 8-40; 40-150 and 150-600 ohms. The idea being that it should work well with all manner of headphones and earbuds. McIntosh has incorporated its Headphone Crossfeed Director (HXD) technology, which is designed to allow high-quality recordings played through headphones to “image like conventional speakers”.
An internal Digital Engine (DAC) offers four digital inputs (coaxial, optical, balanced digital AES/EBU and USB), that operates at up to 32-bit/ 192kHz resolution, upsampling incoming signals before conversion to analogue. Two analogue inputs (including balanced) are included. The amplifier is a Class A/B design featuring ThermalTrak output transistorswith “precise bias current control for ultra-low crossover distortion and cool operation”. The entire unit is housed in a stainless steel chassis to compliment the illuminated glass front-panel, retro knobs and brushed aluminum end caps, but also “any room dĂ©cor”. Compared to McIntosh’s conventional sources, amplifiers and speakers, the MXA70 is considerably more compact and fits onto a desk top or “almost anywhere” in the home. Overall dimensions (WxHxD): 55.9cm x 27.62cm x 45.7cm (including knobs, connectors and cables), so not quite a Zeppelin but narrower than a Muso.