If you’re serious about getting the best out of your home entertainment system, it’s a good idea to have a look at the new receiver from McIntosh, the MHT300, set for release in March for US$8000.
New York-based high-end audio brand McIntosh have a solid history dating back to their formation in 1949, and then providing the 350W tube monoblock that powered the Woodstock music festival in 1969.
Now, this new 7.2 channel AVR has their many fans excited, boasting 120W to 150W per channel, totaling up to 1050W, with all that power distributed through all seven channels, so pick your film action carefully, because you don’t want to waste all that grunt on When Harry Met Sally…
McIntosh boast that this system will let you hear “every explosion, car chase and high-speed fighter jet flyby”, so maybe Top Gun: Maverick would be good to test the limits of this unit with
If there’s one downfall for this crisp and powerful sound, it’s that by default, the seven powered channels are for front-left, centre, front-right, left surround, right-surround, left-rear and right-rear speakers. There are no amplified height channels, which are a must if you want true Dolby Atmos delivery.
You can sort this hiccup out with jumper cables to route the height channel signals from the AVRs non-amplified height channel signals from the receiver’s non-amplified height channel outputs into two of the seven amplified outputs. This is a process your McIntosh dealer will no doubt be able to help you sort out.
Either way, this is shaping up to be an incredibly versatile and powerful system, with the vision side of things featuring 8K/60Hz and 4K/120HZ video for all four HDMI2.0 inputs and one HDMI eARC output, as well as support for Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HLG formats, so your vision will back up your sound.
