McIntosh is best known for its distinctive, retro-styled components, which now embrace multichannel as well as stereo equipment (it has begun to include loudspeakers, too). The other thing it is well known for is its advocacy of valve-based amplifiers. A number of the oldest McIntosh designs date back almost half a century, and have legendary status. Some of those early classics are still in everyday use, while some of the newer models, including the MA2275 reviewed in these pages a little over a year ago, are closely modelled on those seminal designs.
Lately, McIntosh has been spreading its wings, a move that appears to have been precipitated by its incorporation into the D&M group, whose two largest member companies are Denon and Marantz. One of the more decisive moves the company has made, which was presaged at the last Las Vegas CES trade show in January, was to introduce some entry-level products – or at least what passes as ‘entry level' for an upmarket manufacturer like McIntosh. The subject of this test is one of these more easily ‘affordable' newcomers.
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To produce an amplifier that doesn't cost a King's Ransom, but which still offers plenty of grunt for not excessive money,
McIntosh has taken the solid-state route. This may not at first appear to be where its corporate heart lies, but the company has been using transistor-based design in some models for quite some time, so it's not an entirely new departure.
The basics are as follows. The MA6300 is an integrated stereo amplifier that delivers 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms, rising significantly to 160 watts per channel into four ohms. The unit has a moving magnet phono stage, five single-ended, line-level inputs and a tape input, plus one balanced input using the usual XLR terminals. The pre- and power amp sections communicate via removable rear panel links, and a single pair of speakers and headphones can be connected. In addition, each input has its own serial data control socket, which can be linked to a separate McIntosh source component for remote power on/off purposes. The volume control is an unindented analogue rotary control; a second with a centre detent is used to set channel balance.
