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01.26.2023 | Reviews & Awards
Reviews & Awards

MHA200 Receives Editor's Choice Award for Best High-End Hi-Fi Product 2022 from AVForums

McIntosh MHA200 Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier

The MHA200 Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier is meant for headphone aficionados who will accept nothing but the best to power their headphones. With its various connectivity options, nearly all headphone types can be connected to enjoy an extraordinary personal listening experience.

It has been named both "Highly Recommended" and has received the Editor's Choice Award for Best High-End Hi-Fi Product 2022 from AVForums. They call the MHA200 a "startlingly good headphone amplifier" that is "capable of extracting performance from high end headphones" in ways very few other headphones amps can. It uses our Unity Coupled Circuit transformers that have been adapted to product four headphone impedance ranges, which "means that the MHA200 produces enough power to drive all but the weirdest of headphones and does so with manageably low distortion throughout."

McIntosh MHA200 Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier

AVForums say the MHA200 "is dead silent at idle and there is not the slightest perception of induced noise at any listening level. There are no pops, bangs, unwanted humming or any hint that the circuit in use here isn’t comprised solely of the latest and greatest 21st century" component and technology even though it is powered by vacuum tubes. 

Testing with the Focal Clear MG headphones produced a "gloriously expansive" result. With no digital processing or other forms EQ, "there is nevertheless a perception of information in front of you that is spookily reminiscent" of signal processing found on other headphone amps. Reviewer Ed Selley stated he doesn't know how the MHA200 induces this perception but he does know "it's something that precious few other headphone amps do so effectively."

McIntosh MHA200 Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier

The MHA200 is "an utterly captivating piece of kit that is likely to last decades and keep delighting you all the way through."

Click here to read the full review.

(Excerpts taken from original review by Ed Selley / www.avforums.com / May 3, 2022)