McIntosh MX100 A/V Processor Review (by ErinsAudioCorner)

[sweetchaos]

Erin is back baby!

ErinsAudioCorner has posted his first electronics review using the Audio Precision APx555B.

The rest of the graphs are on his site.

McIntosh MX100 A/V Processor Review

McIntosh MX100 A/V Processor Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

He will be publishing a video about this review, in the future.

Discuss!

Oh cool, this is my 3000's post.

 

[tomtoo]

Good to see Erin back.

 

[Vacceo]

Good to ser Erin black!

And that is a damn good processor! Now, Mc should update it with DLBC.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Great. Glad Erin is back.

Would be good to see SINAD with DSP on.

Is MultiEQX software working with this unit or only with Denon/Marantz XT32?

 

[Koeitje]

Turns out it is possible to make an AVR/Receiver that is not shit.

 

[Vacceo]

Great. Glad Erin is back.

Would be good to see SINAD with DSP on.

Is MultiEQX software working with this unit or only with Denon/Marantz XT32?

I think you can only apply the full software on Denon and Marantz gear only.

Mac should definetly go for the full version of Dirac as an option, to be honest.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

I think you can only apply the full software on Denon and Marantz gear only.

Mac should definetly go for the full version of Dirac as an option, to be honest.

I didn’t see Dirac as an option for this amp. Did I miss it?

 

[Vacceo]

I didn’t see Dirac as an option for this amp. Did I miss it?

It isn't, indeed. This processor has been around since 2020.

However, Macintosh has included Dirac on their most recent AVR, but there is no info about what version and if it will be able to use DLBC.

I hope they give that fact a couple twists and allow it to be upgraded to DLBC multisub and, extend it to future revisions of this processor. Eventually, it would be outstanding if it could also apply ART.

The MX100 is among the top processors in engineering terms, no reason to keep it out of an equally performing software to take advantage of a superb hardware.

In usability terms, the only thing I miss in their line is more U rack-friendly components such as CD transports or phono stages.

 

[GXAlan]

That’s great. Shows that it wasn’t just bling compared to the D&M designs. Main weakness is the lack of the Audyssey app support. I wonder if it has midrange compensation on or off by default.

 

[Vacceo]

That’s great. Shows that it wasn’t just bling compared to the D&M designs. Main weakness is the lack of the Audyssey app support. I wonder if it has midrange compensation on or off by default.

Paired with Mc Class D amps (or any other hypex-based one), it could make one of the most transparent multichannel systems we can get. Transparent and plenty powerful to drive most speakers.

 

[Sancus]

Way too expensive to only have Audyssey XT32, but it is a product from 2020 so it's begging for an update.

 

[peng]

Way too expensive to only have Audyssey XT32, but it is a product from 2020 so it's begging for an update.

You can add a minidsp to use Dirac for the FL/FR and let Audyssey do the rest. Not a cheap solution, but the MX100 is expensive enough to invest $450 more for the mini if one really wants to use DL.

 

[Sancus]

You can add a minidsp to use Dirac for the FL/FR and let Audyssey do the rest. Not a cheap solution, but the MX100 is expensive enough to invest $450 more for the mini if one really wants to use DL.

Technically that doesn't work as well as DLBC because it can optimize *all* of the crossovers individually which is really obnoxious to do with a miniDSP for high channel counts.

But sure. You can also buy a JBL SDP-55 for probably ~$6K or maybe even less that just has Dirac+DLBC built-in plus lots of other features like Auro3D, Dante, etc. I just don't think this has a competitive feature set for $5500.

That said it looks like a Mcintosh and some people don't care about the above things, so I'm sure it sells well enough. It is good that it's engineered well, too, cause they could have just slapped a pretty case on a crappy processor and they didn't do that.

 

[Holmz]

Good to ser Erin black!
….

Good to see him even if he is black-n-blue.

 

[Vacceo]

Good to see him even if he is black-n-blue.

Autocorrect and Spanish are not the best friends when typing English.

 

[Holmz]

Autocorrect and Spanish are not the best friends when typing English.

C senior

I just thought it was funny with the perspective of the last 1/2 year to have the “black-n-blue” as the beat up session here… and at home.

Have a good day Sir.

 

[peng]

Looking at the specs, and now measurements too, it almost seem like the MX100 is a clone (a much better version) of a Denon AVR, or maybe a Marantz AV8805A.

 

[hmt]

Don's see how this is much better. I also see no point in using a minidsp with this. Just buy the AV10 when dirac is important top you and be done with it.

 

[Vacceo]

Looking at the specs, and now measurements too, it almost seem like the MX100 is a clone (a much better version) of a Denon AVR, or maybe a Marantz AV8805A.

I have red those coments in many other forums, particularly with users that have taken pictures of the layouts. However, I guess there are just so many ways to build an AVP with certain features. Mac and SU have never said anything at all, but on the other hand Mc has never said anything about Hypex on their class D amps, yet, users over here have confirmed that those are indeed Hypex modules.

If we see a new round of processors by fall with similar features to the newer Denon and Marantz, well...

 

[peng]

I have red those coments in many other forums, particularly with users that have taken pictures of the layouts. However, I guess there are just so many ways to build an AVP with certain features. Mac and SU have never said anything at all, but on the other hand Mc has never said anything about Hypex on their class D amps, yet, users over here have confirmed that those are indeed Hypex modules.

If we see a new round of processors by fall with similar features to the newer Denon and Marantz, well...

I was just joking. However, the distortion specs and the SINAD vs output voltage curve looks indeed very similar to that of the AVR-X8500H Amir measured. That must be just a coincidence though.

That being said, if Denon would just remove the power amps from the 8500 or the new A1H, replaced the 25 to 30 lbs power supply with a much smaller one, and add balanced output, it will be an excellent much lower cost alternative to the high end preamp processors, such as McIntosh's.