WestSideWarrior
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- Mar 27, 2021
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Greetings, fellow ASR readers.
Long time lurker, first time poster here.
This is a quick teardown of a McIntosh MI254 4-channel power amplifier. This amp is used as a supplement to the Marantz SR6014 AVR for home theater duty. It is powering two front channels and two surround channels.
I have been a McIntosh fan ever since I saw the C712 + MC7150 set up at my uncle's place back when I was a kid. It was purchased new since the mid-90's and has been a flawless performer for over two decades. However, even though the amp is slimmer than other McIntosh models, the MC7150 itself weighs in at a hefty 26 kg (58 lbs). I assume that the majority of the weight comes from the autoformers.
Fast forward to 2019, I bought the MI254 new from a local authorized distributor. AFAIK, this is among the very first Class D amp McIntosh has ever produced, a departure from their traditional Class AB and tube designs. Aside from the MI254, McIntosh also have a MI128, an 8-channel amplifier specifically for whole home audio distribution, and most recently, a MI347 7-channel home theater amp, both of which are also Class D. Only the MI254 comes with the blue meters though.
The amp is slightly thinner than the MC7150 but weighs in at around 10 kg (23 lbs) which makes it very convenient to move around and set up. There's also an option for a professional rack mount as well.
The backside has a multitude of connections, including unbalanced RCAs and balanced XLRs, or you can switch over to Bus 1 or Bus 2 and use the amp for bi-amping or different pair of speakers. By using Bus 1 and/or Bus 2, it is possible to daisy-chain to other amplifiers for other room / zones.
Serial number blocked, for obvious reasons.
Top cover on.
Removing six screws (2 in the front, 2 in the center, and 2 at the back) and top cover comes off.
The amplification duty is handled by four Hypex NC500 OEM modules. The fact that it is powered by Hypex, along with great reviews, combined with the blue power meters made it an instant buy for me.
The NC500 module is fitted with Samwha capacitors, similar to many other NC500 implementations. There are separate heatsinks for each module.
The amp itself appears to be using a custom switching power supply as opposed to Hypex's own. It is multi-voltage though.
There appears to be a mix bag of Japanese, Korean and Chinese capacitors. I have very limited knowledge on electrical designs so I can't really comment on its duty.
Jianghai CD297 capacitors, rated at 105C.
Here's are Nichicons. I've heard rave reviews from PC power supplies using these caps so I guess they are top notch.
And here it is, with blue lights on in the theater room.
I do apologize for questionable photo quality though. There appear to be a size cap so some photos were resized.
Long time lurker, first time poster here.
This is a quick teardown of a McIntosh MI254 4-channel power amplifier. This amp is used as a supplement to the Marantz SR6014 AVR for home theater duty. It is powering two front channels and two surround channels.
I have been a McIntosh fan ever since I saw the C712 + MC7150 set up at my uncle's place back when I was a kid. It was purchased new since the mid-90's and has been a flawless performer for over two decades. However, even though the amp is slimmer than other McIntosh models, the MC7150 itself weighs in at a hefty 26 kg (58 lbs). I assume that the majority of the weight comes from the autoformers.
Fast forward to 2019, I bought the MI254 new from a local authorized distributor. AFAIK, this is among the very first Class D amp McIntosh has ever produced, a departure from their traditional Class AB and tube designs. Aside from the MI254, McIntosh also have a MI128, an 8-channel amplifier specifically for whole home audio distribution, and most recently, a MI347 7-channel home theater amp, both of which are also Class D. Only the MI254 comes with the blue meters though.
The amp is slightly thinner than the MC7150 but weighs in at around 10 kg (23 lbs) which makes it very convenient to move around and set up. There's also an option for a professional rack mount as well.
The backside has a multitude of connections, including unbalanced RCAs and balanced XLRs, or you can switch over to Bus 1 or Bus 2 and use the amp for bi-amping or different pair of speakers. By using Bus 1 and/or Bus 2, it is possible to daisy-chain to other amplifiers for other room / zones.
Serial number blocked, for obvious reasons.
Top cover on.
Removing six screws (2 in the front, 2 in the center, and 2 at the back) and top cover comes off.
The amplification duty is handled by four Hypex NC500 OEM modules. The fact that it is powered by Hypex, along with great reviews, combined with the blue power meters made it an instant buy for me.
The NC500 module is fitted with Samwha capacitors, similar to many other NC500 implementations. There are separate heatsinks for each module.
The amp itself appears to be using a custom switching power supply as opposed to Hypex's own. It is multi-voltage though.
There appears to be a mix bag of Japanese, Korean and Chinese capacitors. I have very limited knowledge on electrical designs so I can't really comment on its duty.
Jianghai CD297 capacitors, rated at 105C.
Here's are Nichicons. I've heard rave reviews from PC power supplies using these caps so I guess they are top notch.
And here it is, with blue lights on in the theater room.
I do apologize for questionable photo quality though. There appear to be a size cap so some photos were resized.
