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The perfect integrated doesn’t exist…and it’s annoying


CoryGillmore

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17 hours ago, mustang_flht said:

 

@CoryGillmore 

 

The MA5300 does not measure 22 ", but 18" 3/4, so about 20 "with the cables. In addition, if you let the chrome parts of the front face protrude, you regain 29/32": which will roughly be 19 " deep with the cables, it should go through your furniture, right?

 

 

See page 5 there is a side drawing of the appliance, the distance between feet is 13" center distance, approximately 14 "from edge to edge of the outside of the feet.

 

See page 5 >>>>>   MA5300 Integrated Amplifier Owner's Manual 

 

 

It would be a shame to miss such a beautiful amp that you like so much for a dimension error, so forget the 22 "and hurray for the 18" 3/4  

 

😆

Wow thanks dude. Pretty much every online seller of this amp has the depth listed at 22 inches. But yeah I saw those drawings in the manual! Thanks again man!

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Hi,

 

You're welcome for research, it's the Klipsch community forum effect  ✌️


Here on the McIntosh brochure says 22 "deep, as you saw at the resellers, but that's with the front panel buttons and rear cables connected.

 

MA5300 Integrated Amplifier Brochure

 

 

But this is an approximate and estimated value depending on the cable used; in my opinion they get 22 "by putting banana plugs on the connectors of the speakers. And in any case it is always possible to mount angled cables, especially the mains power supply, with forks or bare for the speakers or the XLRs which are often those with the longest sockets: all are available in shallow depths, for example for professional rack mounting: where space saving is important.

 

 

example

mkp_pOBeWEpSbWsPLw.png&width=400&height=

 


Well, the main thing is to have the drawing of the amp to reflect its size, as in the manual

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  • 2 weeks later...

I ended up picking up an Audiolab 6000a Play. This is a more sensible integrated that will get me away from the A/V receiver and still leave some money in the bank so I’ll still have my eye on something more substantial down the road. Plus my Cornwalls will be paid off in June and that will give me an extra $500 a month to play with. 
 

I’m pretty excited with the purchase, it’s been pretty well received anywhere I’ve seen it reviewed. Andrew Robinson actually recommend this amp to me personally haha. 

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7 hours ago, CWelsh said:

I have a similar complaint about "media consoles". What I want is simplicity itself, but I can only find it if I'm willing to spend a couple of thousand $. GRRRR

Check out the audiolab 6000a (non-Play model). 100wpc class ab and a good DAC. No streaming capabilities. Just a simple integrated. They're $1000 shipped on Amazon.

 

I ended up with the Play model...though the goddamn thing still hasn't arrived and Amazon currently can't even tell me where it is.....their current estimated date of arrival is anywhere from today (yeah right) to November 20....I tell you: Amazon Prime is not what it was a couple years ago. 

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I finally got the Audiolab 6000a Play in my system. Let me tell you...I'm glad I didn't just stick with my first impression because I was tempted to box this thing up and ship it right back. I don't know if it "burned in" a bit or if I just needed time to adjust to the new sound, or maybe the amp needed to warm up from being in the cold from the trip to my house, but I'm glad I gave it a real chance because this thing truly sounds incredible now. I adjusted my speaker angle just ever so slightly and I also removed the plug from one of the Cornwall bass ports (AKA Cornholes). It's weird because on my old A/V receiver the bass was definitely more impactful with one Cornhole plugged up. 

 

The bass is literally perfect now, I have two subs but I haven't even plugged them into the Audiolab, and won't. They aren't needed. I'll leave them plugged into the A/V receiver for when I watch movies etc. 

 

The center stereo image was perfectly fine with the A/V receiver but with the Audiolab it's even more defined and precise. The soundstage now sounds wider than my speaker placement which is NOT something the A/V receiver could accomplish. Listening to Tools Chocolate Chip Trip when the drums are panning back and forth from left to right, the sounds go way beyond the speakers. 

 

I even prefer the internal DAC of the Audiolab compared with my Schiit Modius. Much more impactful and lively sounding. To me the Audiolab sounds best when fed with an optical cable. The streaming from my hard wired ethernet is also fantastic. I'm going to move the Modius back into my headphone rig, which is what I bought it for originally, stacked with a Jotunheim. 

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You haven't even mentioned a gain knob.  The perfect integrated amp would have a separate gain knob for the amplifier but none exist that I am aware of.  Sounds stupid but strap a HINT6 to some Klipschorns and you can hear the noise floor pretty obviously.  If you get that same setup but in separates form you have a gain knob, yet it's almost the same thing, the preamp is literally identical.  

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On 10/22/2021 at 10:24 PM, CoryGillmore said:

That thing looks gorgeous but it also looks waaaaay out of my budget. I didn’t even see a price for it but it looks every bit of 10k. My budget it about half that. 
 

Also if I do tubes I’d rather have them in the pre-amp stage. 

My PrimaLuna has HT Bypass. At least 3 of the PL's have this.

I use it in my HT with my Marantz.

IMG_2445.JPG

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8 hours ago, CWelsh said:

Now that you've had it up and running for a few days, do you have any updates on your thoughts? I assume it is still not the "perfect" integrated, but is it close?

Yeah brother this thing really is fantastic IMO. It still seems to be getting better and better or I'm just acclimating to it more and more. I can't get over how much more bass this thing puts out compared to my Onkyo AVR. This amp is basically allowing me to rediscover or discover my Cornwall IVs for the first time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my CWIVs for many months with that Onkyo AVR, but damn I had no idea what I was missing out on. I honestly expected the difference to be more subtle. 

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9 hours ago, Paducah Home Theater said:

You haven't even mentioned a gain knob.  The perfect integrated amp would have a separate gain knob for the amplifier but none exist that I am aware of.  Sounds stupid but strap a HINT6 to some Klipschorns and you can hear the noise floor pretty obviously.  If you get that same setup but in separates form you have a gain knob, yet it's almost the same thing, the preamp is literally identical.  

Really?   I had a hint 6 on my 104 dB JBLs and it was SUPER quiet (nothing is silent on 104 dB speakers if you put your ear up to them).  Perhaps dedicated electrical outlet and minimal crossing of wires contributed?   Who knows.  

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On 11/23/2021 at 7:10 PM, Westcoastdrums said:

Really?   I had a hint 6 on my 104 dB JBLs and it was SUPER quiet (nothing is silent on 104 dB speakers if you put your ear up to them).  Perhaps dedicated electrical outlet and minimal crossing of wires contributed?   Who knows.  

Agreed. With the Audiolab, if I put my ear to the tweeter I can hear noise, but nothing from the listening position. 

 

I could hear all kinds of weird shit with the AVR when at max volume with nothing playing. If you put your ear to the tweeter you could hear a weird grinding noise that was on like a 2 second interval. Not the case with the Audiolab. 

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I am sorry if this is me raining on your Audiolab parade but you should listen to this podcast by John Darko. 

 

https://darko.audio/2021/11/podcast-28-audiolab-6000a-play-review-caf-2021-value-perception/

 

He essentially says it is a great amp but the functionality of the streamer makes it a complete waste of money.  Perhaps you could return it for the simple integrated version, as he recommends and pocket the difference or put it toward a streamer that actually works.

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1 hour ago, Cicerogue said:

I am sorry if this is me raining on your Audiolab parade but you should listen to this podcast by John Darko. 

 

https://darko.audio/2021/11/podcast-28-audiolab-6000a-play-review-caf-2021-value-perception/

 

He essentially says it is a great amp but the functionality of the streamer makes it a complete waste of money.  Perhaps you could return it for the simple integrated version, as he recommends and pocket the difference or put it toward a streamer that actually works.

Hey no worries brother. I haven't listened to that but I can agree even still lol. I'm sure he's discussing what a mess that DTS Play-Fi app is. It's OK IMO, the only niggle I have is that it doesn't keep the track order of my albums on my media server. It lists them in alphabetical order lol. Though Tidal and all the other streaming services work great. But I mostly use the Audiolab with a source plugged in via optical. Accessing my local files and Tidal through the Audirvana interface. I compared the internal DAC with my Schiit Modius and I actually preferred the Audiolab internal DAC. So I moved the Modius back to headphone duty. 

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7 hours ago, veloceleste said:

https://avahifi.com/products/set-120-control-amplifier
Might this work for you? I just got one while on my quest to simplify and it sounds very good. It is a 60wpc single ended transistor amp with a four input passive preamp and a headphone jack that doesn’t switch off the speakers when a headphone jack is inserted. There is a switch on the back of the amp to turn off the speakers. It sounds very good. Fast, articulate, detailed, and solid bass. It replaced my Quicksilver Integrated which I liked a lot too but I wanted to get away from tubes because I’m in the frame of mind that if something happens to me I know no one in my family would ever want to be bothered with tube gear! Anyway, read about it if you are inclined.

Looks like a solid amp! I already picked up an Audiolab 6000a Play and am actually quite happy with it after over a week with it. It's satisfied me enough that I'm no longer in the market for an integrated. I will be keeping an eye on Schiits new, though not officially announced or revealed, class A amp, the Tyr. I'm still interested in pairing a Freya+ with a couple of monoblock amps. 

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On 10/22/2021 at 9:41 PM, CoryGillmore said:


 

I do love that the HINT 6 is class A for like the first 5 watts. Plus it’s bass management features. High pass filter, low pass filter, it really has it all. 
 

Ugh I don’t even know anymore. I may start looking at preamps and mono blocks again….

Why did you ever stop? Yamaha CX-A5200 does it all.

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