Big Mac Attack - McIntosh MX130 review

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McIntosh MX130 Review

Last MSRP $4800 in1998

First I think it would be helpful to provide you with some background regarding my personal opinion about McIntosh in the past. While the older tube-type McIntosh equipment is highly revered for obvious reasons, and I whole heartedly agree, their early solid state gear did not live up to its reputation in my opinion, and the opinion of others more knowledgeable than I. Case in point, back in the mid 70’s a friend of mine who is an electronics engineer specializing in radio communications visited his local high-end audio store looking for a new receiver. Basically, he thought the Mac’s were obscenely overpriced, and while obviously well built, the tuner section in his opinion was poor compared to the much less expensive Yamaha he ended up buying. (FYI, WFMT in Chicago used to use a Yamaha T2 & Marantz 10B tuner to monitor their own signal & another T2 in Frankfort, IL to pick up their own broadcast at a satellite transmission facility for world-wide distribution). Even an engineer I spoke with at Klipsch in the mid 80’s (off-the-record) said they didn’t really care for McIntosh that much, at least not the solid state stuff. It was noisy he said. And me? Well, I always thought the solid state Mac’s sounded “dull, opaque and dark”. I’ve had several Mac solid state components in my system over the years. None of them stayed there for more than a week. However, in recent years I’ve noticed more positive comments from the high-end audio rags and Forum members alike so I thought it might be time for a revisit.

My current efforts to simplify things, have fewer connections, free up some rack space and the desire for more convenience lead me to the McIntosh MX130. The MX130 is not one of those products I would generally consider. I always thought the “tuner-preamp” combos were a little weird and wondered why anyone would want one of these. Now, here I am, decades later, answering my own question!

I have too much equipment. I have too many racks. What started out as plenty of room with easy access to change equipment and connections has gradually turned into tangled maze of often difficult to change “anything”. Plus, with a rather large dedicated listening room, nothing is within arms reach. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I am definitely getting tired of having to get up and down every time I want to change the volume or a radio station. I listen to radio a lot nowadays. I find it’s kind of like a random juke box. I get exposed to music I might not have otherwise played. The music gets mixed up more. And fortunately, as far as classical music goes, here in Chicago we have one of the finest quality FM broadcasts in the world with WFMT.

I basically have “two” sets of electronics equipment that I use on my main system, one for always on everyday use and another for “serious” listening. The always on gear is solid state for obvious reasons. For a long time I’ve used a Crown DL-2 preamp/control center which has served me well. This is a formidable unit from the late 70’s early 80’s. It’s large and has separate external power supply module and phono amp sections which can be mounted close to the turntable, a mind boggling array of tone and image control capabilities as well as outstanding signal routing capabilities. If my memory serves me right, the last MSRP was $3000. And in typical Crown Fashion it’s a turn it on and leave it on component. It drives a pair of Crown D60 (one channel per speaker on three front speakers). I’ve also been using Yamaha T2 and T1 tuners.

The objectives for making this change were 1) the desire for remote control (the Crown DL-2 can be hard wired and remote controlled via computer but not with a hand held wireless device). 2) free up rack space so I can get everything in three racks instead of four. 3) reduce the number of connections. 4) possibly add surround sound rear channel capability. 5) have the ability to also control video sources as I’ll probably add this sometime in the future. 6) have something I could move to the upstairs home theater system when it comes time to upgrade that system’s Harmon Kardon 5 channel receiver.

Enter the McIntosh MX130. I bought this unit with my usual trepidation regarding Mac solid state products. But, it has been a while since I’ve had Mac in my system. And, in more recent years it seems McIntosh has returned to its roots. Many of their components are now getting acclaim from the press and audiophiles alike. So I thought it might be time to try a Mac again. The MX130 in particular fit the bill for my everyday requirements. Mine does not have the six channel THX upgrade but I don’t care because in my room I can’t really take advantage of six-channel anyway unless I re-orientate the room which I don’t want to do. And the upstairs home theater is the same deal. I can’t make use of six-channel due to the configuration of the space. Five-channel will do fine for my purposes.

I have to admit I was kind of leery of the Mac tuner section based on my previous experience and of those who know better than I. However I’m pleased to report that the Mac tuner section is impeccable. It’s definitely better than the Yamaha. One of my favorite radio stations, WXRT, has really bad reception at my location. Sometimes it’s fine. Other times the signal is weak, almost like its being cancelled out. On occasion there’s so much spurious noise that I have to manually switch it to mono to eliminate it, and even then the signal will sometimes intermittently drop out. With the MX130, which as far as I know basically has an on board McIntosh MR7083 tuner section, the signal has never dropped out once during three months of operation. Only on a few isolated instances has there been any audible spurious noise detected, and this only during quite lulls in the broadcast signal. I’ve never had to revert to mono to clean things up.

So what about the sound? There’s always been a big debate about the virtues of double blind A/B/X testing verses long term listening. Personally, I think they both have their own merits and drawbacks. One thing is clear however. After using the McIntosh MX130 for a few days I had absolutely no desire to go back to my previous setup! To make matters worse, my unit was damaged by U.P.S. in shipping (broken front glass panel and AM antenna mount). When I had to take it in for a repair estimate and leave it there for a week, I actually missed my Mac. That is always a good sign! And what’s even worse, when I had to temporarily put the old stuff back online, all of the shortcomings became perfectly apparent. I missed the Mac and wanted it back. What was different? Well, basically everything. Everything was marginally better. The keyword here is EVERYTHING. Not by a lot, but when you add up so many little things, it adds up to a lot. Overall the Mac is simply better balanced. No more dark dull opaque sound like previous solid state Mac’s. The MX130 had slightly more detail (than the Crown DL-2 Yamaha T2 setup). The sound was better balanced. For instance, when listening to radio, having the volume adjusted so that the music sounded right at a certain volume level, when the announcer would come back on, the Crown sounded too loud and aggressive, the voice sounded chesty yet raspy on top. I felt a need to turn the volume down so it sounded “right”. Not so with the MX130. You could keep the volume up there if you wanted. With the Mac everything is just more balanced, all the time, and stays that way regardless of volume level. Slightly more detail, slightly more “air”, imaging, tone, reception, you name it.

I paid $700 for the MX130. Selling my Yamaha tuners and the Crown DL-2 should yield me a net cost between $0 and $300. Now, that’s a bargain!!!

[Guest " "]

excellent.....the last time I mentioned deals for MX130's for less than 1000 I was stoned and put in shackle's....the deals are out there.