Article: McIntosh D1100 Digital Preamplifier DAC Review - Part Two

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On 8/31/2017 at 8:48 AM, Dr Tone said:

 

I guess my C47 isn't high enough up the food chain.

HI Dr. Tone

 

I had a problem with an evaluation C47 in December, 2015.  Lots of static and noise on the USB connection.  When I asked the dealer about the problem, he said he had an older C47 and that McIntosh was sending a new evaluation unit with the fix in place.

 

We haven't had any problems with the unit we purchased.  I notice that it takes a second for the first song to start but there aren't pauses after that - I don't even notice a pause on format/sample rate transitions.  I have a Mac Mini and use Roon almost exclusively for playback and occasionally JRiver (version 21).

 

Sorry you've had such a different experience.  

 

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12 hours ago, markwb said:

Anyone know Macintosh's position on MQA? I have a D100 and really like it with my WA5 headphone amp. My main system right now is using a Brooklyn Dac with Pass .8 amps and it's kinda so-so to me.

 

I contacted them about MQA upgrades for the C47.  McIntosh replied that they would not.  Here is the rationale...

 

Any device that received MQA will send unit to the DAXC as PCM, as happens on all data compression schemes like FLAC and what not.

 

Signals up to 24.96 fully unpack from the playback software in your computer, 24/192 would require a hardware change in the DAC to ‘fully’ unpack.  There are not even that many files out there in 24/192 and I guarantee you Tidal is not

streaming 24/192 at all.

 

Here is some different information about MQA from a DAC manufacturer:

 

This is from 6 months ago, but still interesting.

 

http://schiit.com/news/news/why-we-wont-be-supporting-mqa