McIntosh MB 50


Happy 4th of July to all. Does anyone have experience with this McIntosh MB 50 streamer? Pros and Cons would be appreciated. Thankx, Arthur
arthurd
Just checked it out and it seems like a nice little DTS Play FI box, which is both good and bad, we sell the DTS Playfi products and the app is okay, and you must control the device with your phone or tablet I do believe playback stops if you are not using wifi on your device or your device runs out of power.

You may want to also look at the Lumin D2 which is $2,200.00 the Lumin has a number of advantages:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/lumin-d2-streamerrendererdac

http://www.luminmusic.com/lumin-d2.html

1: Dual Wolfson dacs
2: Runs Lumin app which is very easy and straightforward
3: Is a Roon Endpoint
4: Is MQA capable
5: Uses a real internal power supply rather than a wall wort
6: Can upconvert to DSD 
7: Plays all high resolution fomats including Dual  Rate DSD
8: Allows for Airplay 
9: Sounds fantastic the Lumin D1 the earlier unit was outstanding in its price point the new D2 is far superior.
10: Lumin comes out with frequent software upgrades which are over the ethernet which adds new and exciting features. 
11: Lumin's streamers have been winning awards since they came on to the market and are supported by Pixelworks a large fortune 500 industrial manufacturer

Cons:

1: Now the only disadvantage is the availability of othe DTS Playfi products which can be used in other rooms, howerver, there are tons of Roon endpoint devices such as the NAD Bluesound products which can be also controlled by Roon.

2: Requires an ethernet connection if you don't have one you can use a wifi to ethernet bridge

Hope that helps, DTS Playfi is a capable platform but it does have it strengths and weakness. One good thing DTS Playfi has a lot of streaming music sources including XM radio, Spotify etc. where the Lumin app has native Tidal, Spotify, Quboz, and Tune in radio.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin Dealer


Thank you,
I do have 2 other paradigm play fi speakers. 
I have a McIntosh MC 352 amp and C48 preamp. Thinking the Mac MB 50 would be a nice match. I will look in to the Lumin. Arthur
I don't have any experience with the MB 50, but it was on my short list of streamers in that price range.

I ended up going with the Lumin D2 for most the reasons listed above and I have no regrets whatsoever. The D2 sounds fantastic and coupled with the Roon interface, I can't imagine things getting any better.