Audio Video News

Responding to a call from customers, McIntosh has announced that 11 of its integrated amps and preamps have achieved Roon Tested status, meaning they have been profiled and tested by McIntosh and Roon Labs, maker of the music management software favored by audiophiles, to ensure “maximum compatibility.”

The updated models are the C47, C52, C2600, and D1100 preamplifiers; MA5300, MA7200, MA8900, and MA9000 integrated amplifiers; MAC7200 receiver; MHA150 headphone amplifier; and MXA80 integrated audio system. Roon automatically recognizes these components and sends them audio optimized for their capabilities, avoiding the need to “fiddle with checkboxes or dropdowns.”

The overarching goal is to ensure an improved user experience through Roon’s multiroom/multiuser platform, which provides a rich and engaging way to browse, organize, and listen to music with links to artist photos, credits, bios, reviews, lyrics, tour dates, and other relevant information. The platform supports bit-perfect playback, DSD and PCM upsampling, multichannel audio, and indicates the level of signal quality.

All Roon Tested McIntosh components are equipped with an eight-channel, 32-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) operating in a Quad Balanced mode, coax and optical inputs that decode music at up to 24 bits/192 kHz, and USB inputs that decode PCM signals up to 32 bits/384 kHz and support the playback of DSD256 and DXD 384kHz files.

“Being Roon Tested will make it easier for McIntosh users to enjoy music while taking the technology of their systems to its fullest potential, from streamlining first-run setup to removing the complexity of configuring Roon DSP Upsampling," said Rob Darling, Roon’s director of strategy.

To get started with Roon, owners of Roon Tested McIntosh components will need to create a Roon account and then download and install the application. Existing Roon users can trigger their system to acquire the McIntosh device icons and optimized settings by simply restarting their Roon Core and using the Identify My Device feature in Device Settings to apply the new information.

For more information on setup, visit kb.roonlabs.com.