Amazing equipment and thanks for the comparison demo. The CD sounded more dynamic and punchier but I was still impressed with how good your turntable sounded. No scratch or dust sound that I can notice.
I am very happy with this amplifier because it has a very steady sound whatever you play meaning that it is always natural. You never hear a frequency that is unfamiliar to the ear. So you never care about the amp’s performance, you only enjoy the music, which has essence it is never “small” (Japanese neutrality).
It's close between Vinyl and CD here, but I prefer the more dynamic and cleaner sound of the CD.. I made the same experience on my Accuphase/T&A combination between a vinyl played on a Transrotor Classic/SME vs my Marantz CD Player. I still love analog turntables but usually the CD wins the competition. BTW Your McInosh is an amazing amplifier.
This is a great sounding amp. But the phono section is not very good. I added a trigon vanguard III phono preamp and what an improvement over the built-in phono stage in the ma 252. My analog set up consists of rega P6 with a Nagaoka MP500. And my analog sounds better than my Gustard R26 DAC
I am sure that a lot of phono stages would sound much better. What about nagaoka? Are you satisfied? I have the grado prestige gold but it lucks of dparkle. Do you think changing it to nagaoka 200 would be good?
I had a mp200 which is the sweet spot for Nagaoka. But the mp500 is better. But it's double the price . The biggest improvement was the phono preamp upgrade.
On my second McIntosh intergraded, real easy to move down the road, both were used and sold for more after years of use. $ in the bank with McIntosh gear. 🤓
Is that a new reissue of The Wall on LP? I have both the new 180 gram reissue and the original pressing. The original pressing is much better than the new reissue on vinyl.
Happy New Year. Yes, this is the reissue LP of The Wall. Do you agree about some difference between vynil and cd? Personally speaking cd is more dynamic, but not as natural as vynil but I could live with the cd easilly. What's your opinion?
@@kostasmamalakis6705 That is often a good generalization. CD does have more dynamic range. Time domain accuracy is much better on vinyl. Also vinyl often has a higher resolution than CD but not necessarily high res digital. Also vinyl mastering is often without compression. Compression will often sound better on a blue tooth speaker but no so much on a high end system. I still play lots of CDs and love them and they sound very good on my Yggdrasil DAC. But when the original was recorded on analog tapes I will almost always pick a quality original vinyl pressing over a CD. If you find an original pressing of the Wall that is in good condition at a record shop consider buying it. The impact and fullness of the drums is better. Also more dimensional. Like the acoustic guitar on side 3. I played the CD of Rush's a Farewell to kings closer to the heart and the reissue vinyl for my wife and then played again on my original pressing from the 80s. She is not into this hobby and she was really surprised at how much better the original pressing was. The vinyl reissue and the CD sounded similar with the slight edge going to the vinyl reissue due to the naturalness you mention. However the original pressing makes them both sound flat. The bells at the beginning of the track projected into the room and floated in space. The voice had more inner detail and also manifest more in space. bass more natural and fuller, more palpable. And that is my wife noticing this right away after listening for less than a min. So sometimes vinyl sounds better and sometimes not so much. Sometimes a vinyl mastering and pressing is so bad the CD sounds better. So I decide based on what recording I am getting. Sometimes I own both and play both. One thing fore sure is that I love the full size artwork, gate folds, and liner notes of vinyl. Will enjoy the ritual and lovely sound of playing my record collection as long as I am around. Will also enjoy my CDs. Much of the classical music recordings that I love are only available on CD so the choice is easy there. By the way nice setup. McIntosh gear is on my shortlist for future upgrades. Would love to heard a pair of PCM speakers some day.
@behexen250 I find your thoughts a great approach to the world of these two music formats. Since I was ten we owned a pioneer turntable and amplifier paired with jensen loudspeakers. When cd arrived its attack at mids was always annoying to me. So I started this hobby as a quest of finding the lost mids tranquility that records provided. I ve heard a lot of systems based in digital sound especially at hifi shows and I get depth, analysis, impressive sound but at the same time an unnatural attack at middle frequencies. Recently I bought a marantz all in one melody x, as first I had bought my daughter a second hand old marantz integrated which intrigued me a lot! I find marantz’s sound enough to make me stop searching for sonic nirvana. It has a simple way to perform music but matting with atc scm7 which is a speaker with essence in the mids made music a great enjoyment! So it is a great thing to analyse pros and cons of offered systems but I wish you reach a point of saying “this sound is good for me”, guys!😀
@@snowpuppy77 i always found cd's to be bright - however I prefer the tube sound so i like warm - i was there long b-4 cd's - my friend brought a 2000 dollar cd nakamichi player and years later he gave it to me. it is on a shelf. His Tandberg cassette I just sold for 1000.I should have taken his Linn when he offered it to me. lol. Now I use a Denon 1920 - nice vintage. into marantz and B&W small speakers in my bedroom. at 80 its just survival. lol,
It works great with the marten duke loudspeakers. I am very pleased about their synergy. It s like being in the music event. I think I ve reached a good quality point, so I think I will keep them together for a long long time.
Καλησπέρα σας. Δεν είμαι ο ειδικός να απαντήσω αλλά, δεδομένης της ευαισθησίας και της ωμικής αντίστασης του aria 926, θα έλεγα ότι δε θα αντιμετωπίσετε κανένα πρόβλημα. Εξάλλου μιλάμε για focal, οπότε το πάντρεμα μεταξύ τους φαντάζομαι ότι θα είναι καταπληκτικό!
If you pay attention you ll see that cd starts later when lp reaches the moment that plays the begining of the wall song. After this point i change from lp to cd and vise versa.
Amazing equipment and thanks for the comparison demo. The CD sounded more dynamic and punchier but I was still impressed with how good your turntable sounded. No scratch or dust sound that I can notice.
I am very happy with this amplifier because it has a very steady sound whatever you play meaning that it is always natural. You never hear a frequency that is unfamiliar to the ear. So you never care about the amp’s performance, you only enjoy the music, which has essence it is never “small” (Japanese neutrality).
It's close between Vinyl and CD here, but I prefer the more dynamic and cleaner sound of the CD.. I made the same experience on my Accuphase/T&A combination between a vinyl played on a Transrotor Classic/SME vs my Marantz CD Player. I still love analog turntables but usually the CD wins the competition. BTW Your McInosh is an amazing amplifier.
Really nice system Sir!
It moves bass properly. Lots of oomph. Great damping factor.
Hi, happy new year!
I am using a Sony universal player as an integrated CD player (UHP-H1).
I got the same Sony Universal Disc play and the speaker of PMC. I wanna buy Macintosh 252 right now. I am still looking for real comment now.
This is a great sounding amp. But the phono section is not very good. I added a trigon vanguard III phono preamp and what an improvement over the built-in phono stage in the ma 252. My analog set up consists of rega P6 with a Nagaoka MP500. And my analog sounds better than my Gustard R26 DAC
I am sure that a lot of phono stages would sound much better. What about nagaoka? Are you satisfied? I have the grado prestige gold but it lucks of dparkle. Do you think changing it to nagaoka 200 would be good?
(sparkle)
I had a mp200 which is the sweet spot for Nagaoka. But the mp500 is better. But it's double the price . The biggest improvement was the phono preamp upgrade.
@@eugenefudge1883 Thank you very much for the information.
On my second McIntosh intergraded, real easy to move down the road, both were used and sold for more after years of use. $ in the bank with McIntosh gear. 🤓
Is that a new reissue of The Wall on LP? I have both the new 180 gram reissue and the original pressing. The original pressing is much better than the new reissue on vinyl.
Happy New Year. Yes, this is the reissue LP of The Wall. Do you agree about some difference between vynil and cd? Personally speaking cd is more dynamic, but not as natural as vynil but I could live with the cd easilly. What's your opinion?
@@kostasmamalakis6705 That is often a good generalization. CD does have more dynamic range. Time domain accuracy is much better on vinyl. Also vinyl often has a higher resolution than CD but not necessarily high res digital. Also vinyl mastering is often without compression. Compression will often sound better on a blue tooth speaker but no so much on a high end system. I still play lots of CDs and love them and they sound very good on my Yggdrasil DAC. But when the original was recorded on analog tapes I will almost always pick a quality original vinyl pressing over a CD. If you find an original pressing of the Wall that is in good condition at a record shop consider buying it. The impact and fullness of the drums is better. Also more dimensional. Like the acoustic guitar on side 3. I played the CD of Rush's a Farewell to kings closer to the heart and the reissue vinyl for my wife and then played again on my original pressing from the 80s. She is not into this hobby and she was really surprised at how much better the original pressing was. The vinyl reissue and the CD sounded similar with the slight edge going to the vinyl reissue due to the naturalness you mention. However the original pressing makes them both sound flat. The bells at the beginning of the track projected into the room and floated in space. The voice had more inner detail and also manifest more in space. bass more natural and fuller, more palpable. And that is my wife noticing this right away after listening for less than a min. So sometimes vinyl sounds better and sometimes not so much. Sometimes a vinyl mastering and pressing is so bad the CD sounds better. So I decide based on what recording I am getting. Sometimes I own both and play both. One thing fore sure is that I love the full size artwork, gate folds, and liner notes of vinyl. Will enjoy the ritual and lovely sound of playing my record collection as long as I am around. Will also enjoy my CDs. Much of the classical music recordings that I love are only available on CD so the choice is easy there.
By the way nice setup. McIntosh gear is on my shortlist for future upgrades. Would love to heard a pair of PCM speakers some day.
@@snowpuppy77 Thank you very much for the great analysis concerning the two sound media.
@behexen250 I find your thoughts a great approach to the world of these two music formats. Since I was ten we owned a pioneer turntable and amplifier paired with jensen loudspeakers. When cd arrived its attack at mids was always annoying to me. So I started this hobby as a quest of finding the lost mids tranquility that records provided. I ve heard a lot of systems based in digital sound especially at hifi shows and I get depth, analysis, impressive sound but at the same time an unnatural attack at middle frequencies. Recently I bought a marantz all in one melody x, as first
I had bought my daughter a second hand old marantz integrated which intrigued me a lot!
I find marantz’s sound enough to make me stop searching for sonic nirvana. It has a simple way to perform music but matting with atc scm7 which is a speaker with essence in the mids made music a great enjoyment! So it is a great thing to analyse pros and cons of offered systems but I wish you reach a point of saying “this sound is good for me”, guys!😀
@@snowpuppy77 i always found cd's to be bright - however I prefer the tube sound so i like warm - i was there long b-4 cd's - my friend brought a 2000 dollar cd nakamichi player and years later he gave it to me. it is on a shelf. His Tandberg cassette I just sold for 1000.I should have taken his Linn when he offered it to me. lol. Now I use a Denon 1920 - nice vintage. into marantz and B&W small speakers in my bedroom. at 80 its just survival. lol,
Good morning
Are you still happy with ma 252 any regrets ?
Merry Christmas
None!
what preamp and dac are you using pls? thanks
Wow great sound...
Thank you very much for your kind words.
Τhank you very much!
Have you tried the Mcintosh MA252 Headphone section? Very curious on how it sounds?
I haven t tried it as i don t have headphones. I am sure it s going to be great.
How do you still like your 252? I just got one last week?
It works great with the marten duke loudspeakers. I am very pleased about their synergy. It s like being in the music event. I think I ve reached a good quality point, so I think I will keep them together for a long long time.
Okay so there was a little difference but which one was which
I start with the lp and when I show the remote control I start the bd player. Then you must pay attention to the digital display of the ampli.
It seems your room has a reverber. Anyway great hifi
Thank you Francesco. It’s just a living room with no sound proof design.
This is 50cent? Wow
?????
Καλησπερα θα ηθελα να σε ρωτησω αν ο ενισχυτης μπορει να τρεξει τα 250αρια της focal (aria 926)
Καλησπέρα σας. Δεν είμαι ο ειδικός να απαντήσω αλλά, δεδομένης της ευαισθησίας και της ωμικής αντίστασης του aria 926, θα έλεγα ότι δε θα αντιμετωπίσετε κανένα πρόβλημα. Εξάλλου μιλάμε για focal, οπότε το πάντρεμα μεταξύ τους φαντάζομαι ότι θα είναι καταπληκτικό!
but here is only vynil and not cd playing. strange comparison without cd itself
If you pay attention you ll see that cd starts later when lp reaches the moment that plays the begining of the wall song. After this point i change from lp to cd and vise versa.
Pink Floyd