US and Scottish brands come together
to form this amazing system and it’s a match made in heaven reckons us
Components
Mcintosh MC452 ($12,742)
Boasting 450W into loads as low as 2ohms
and tipping the scales at a mighty 64kg, the MC452 is a monstrous powerhouse of
an amplifier and one that ensures that headroom in this system will be broadly
unlimited.
Mcintosh
MC452
Art Alnico Signature ($33,000)
The latest model in the Art speaker lineup
mate’s special Alnico magnet drivers with an enormously substantial cabinet
made from layers of birch ply combined with huge pieces of machined aluminum to
produce an inert enclosure.
Art
Alnico Signature
Mcintosh MCD1100 ($16,492)
The flagship digital player plays CD and
SACD but also offers a choice of digital inputs to operate as a DAC for your
digital sources. Not enough? A choice of fixed and variable inputs means it can
also operate as a preamp in an all-digital system.
Mcintosh
MCD1100
Mcintosh C50 Preamp ($10,492)
The C50 offers a biblical choice of
balanced and unbalanced analogue inputs and will also support moving coil and
moving magnet phono stages. It has more digital inputs, has three sets of
outputs and a cracking pair of VU meters.
Mcintosh
C50 Preamp
Most beautiful systems are partnerships
between two (or more) audio brands as manufacturers that make complete systems
in house are a relatively rare occurrence. Thanks to the international nature
of the audio industry, many of these partnerships have a decidedly
international flavor to them with brands from different countries making happy
bedfellows. Sometimes though, these partnerships seem so unusual that you
wonder how they came to be.
So it is with this system that features
electronics from one of the most long running and well-known American hi-fi
brands and pairs them with speakers from a decidedly bijou speaker company
based in Scotland. The distance between Troon in Ayrshire and Binghampton in
New York is a few thousand miles and the differences in design philosophy is
arguably even wider, but trust me when I say that this system works together in
a way that some equipment designed in the same building can’t achieve.
McIntosh needs little introduction. One of
the elder statesmen of the audio industry, its sizeable range of components
spans stereo and multichannel, valve and solid state and analogue and digital
but is all tied together behind the striking McIntosh casework complete with
huge controls, gothic logos and glossy front panels. It is easy to describe
this as retro, but I’m not completely sure it’d be fair.
More source than HP
There is absolutely nothing retro about the
technology behind this trio either. As well as supporting CD and SACD playback,
the MCD1100, has five digital inputs for external digital sources and offers a
choice of fixed and variable outputs. This means you can connect it directly to
a power amplifier if you want. Doing so means you’ll miss the charms of the C50
preamp, which offers a mind boggling array of balanced and unbalanced analogue
inputs, phono stages and more digital inputs. Cumulatively, this pairing could
support a system containing 20 sources without resorting to a switching box.
Doing
so means you’ll miss the charms of the C50 preamp, which offers a mind boggling
array of balanced and unbalanced analogue inputs, phono stages and more digital
inputs
The MC452 power amp is rather less endowed
with inputs but what it loses in connectivity, it makes up for in power.
McIntosh rates the MC452 at 450W, but given that it is an organization that
subscribes to the ‘under promise and over deliver’ school of amplifier output,
there is strong evidence to suggest that it produces rather more. There are
very few speakers that this amp won’t grab by the scruff of the neck and drive
to any levels you see fit.
As
well as supporting CD and SACD playback, the MCD1100, has five digital inputs
for external digital sources and offers a choice of fixed and variable outputs
On balance, this makes the choice of Art
Loudspeaker’s Alnico Signature to partner the McIntosh seem a little curious.
At 90dB/W sensitivity and benign 8ohms impedance, these gentle giants will be
happy with less than 50W let alone nine times that amount. As the name
suggests, the Alnico Signature makes use of SEAS drivers that use Alnico
magnets instead of the more usual rare earth types. The cabinet and general
construction of the Art is in-keeping with the company name. The cabinet is
assembled from layers of birch ply, the baffle and top plate are huge billets
of machined aluminum and the fit and finish is absolutely superb. Each speaker
tips the scales at 80kg and feels immensely substantial.
The
MC452 power amp is rather less endowed with inputs but what it loses in
connectivity, it makes up for in power
So what does a combination of huge American
horsepower and Scottish craftsmanship do when combined? In short, they are
utterly convincing. This is a system that has almost unlimited headroom but
combines it with extraordinary delicacy. The huge soundstage of The Cinematic
Orchestra’s Manhatta is captured with astonishing realism, but tiny details of
musicians shifting their positions or moving their instruments are woven
beautifully into the bigger picture. The effect is absolutely unforced but
still startlingly real.
