"G- have you heard the MA-9000 or the dartzeel lac-208?"
I don't recall which dartzeel model I have heard but if I recall correctly it had a built in dac. Heard it with some evolution acoustic speakers for like a millisecond a few years back. Sounded smooth. I walked away thinking that MAYBE I would explore it further to see if I could live with it but never did, very Swiss. I used to own a Nagra 300b integrated tube amp and the dart frankly seemed smoother but we all know audio memory is unreliable. This was with Alma Audio in San Diego and I bought some Avantgardes from them at the time. Great guys.
Haven't heard the MA-9000 but I have heard/owned several Mac integrateds pres/amps through the years with the last integrated being the MAC-6700 and I recently had a MHA-100 headphone amp. If you like McIntosh, you will like them. I am NOT a fan of the McIntosh built-in dacs at all. They are fine for background listening. They dont suck but they aren't to my liking. You may have a different opinion upon listening. For instance, the in board dac in the Audio Research GSI75 in my estimation is reference quality, stunning in fact, although I dont feel remotely the same way for the in board dacs in the macs. The new module may be better, your ears will tell you. The tone controls would likely be useful, especially if you are trying to dial in your room with your speakers. Mac service and support will be superior due to their critical mass.
You are considering some great gear but pick out your speakers first. Both of those integrateds are serious. If you want to stick with SS, you could do alot worse.
I don't recall which dartzeel model I have heard but if I recall correctly it had a built in dac. Heard it with some evolution acoustic speakers for like a millisecond a few years back. Sounded smooth. I walked away thinking that MAYBE I would explore it further to see if I could live with it but never did, very Swiss. I used to own a Nagra 300b integrated tube amp and the dart frankly seemed smoother but we all know audio memory is unreliable. This was with Alma Audio in San Diego and I bought some Avantgardes from them at the time. Great guys.
Haven't heard the MA-9000 but I have heard/owned several Mac integrateds pres/amps through the years with the last integrated being the MAC-6700 and I recently had a MHA-100 headphone amp. If you like McIntosh, you will like them. I am NOT a fan of the McIntosh built-in dacs at all. They are fine for background listening. They dont suck but they aren't to my liking. You may have a different opinion upon listening. For instance, the in board dac in the Audio Research GSI75 in my estimation is reference quality, stunning in fact, although I dont feel remotely the same way for the in board dacs in the macs. The new module may be better, your ears will tell you. The tone controls would likely be useful, especially if you are trying to dial in your room with your speakers. Mac service and support will be superior due to their critical mass.
You are considering some great gear but pick out your speakers first. Both of those integrateds are serious. If you want to stick with SS, you could do alot worse.
