Audio Advice Live

I attended two separate Macintosh demos at Audio Advice Live 2023. They were strikingly different. One was the classic two-channel demo, in this case using new Macintosh equipment that has the classic build quality and aesthetic. The highlight of that demo? Trying to figure out the mysteries of tube sound.

But the other demo also got my attention because it is automotive. The Jeep Grand Wagoneer McIntosh demo—held in front of the hotel—featured an in-cabin entertainment system that is about as over-the-top as any OEM system I've seen or heard in a motor vehicle.

Solid State or Tubes? How About Both
The Macintosh tubes vs. solid state demo left me so speechless that I'm just going to let the transcript of the presentation speak for itself. Yes, you could hear a difference. Yes sighted bias is a thing. And yes, there's no reasonable explanation for the difference everyone clearly heard.

"By the year 2000, they were worthless on eBay because they looked so old-fashioned. Everyone wanted skinny, tall speakers, not wide speakers. And now they're starting to sell for substantial money on eBay because what was old-fashioned looking is now considered vintage, and everyone wants vintage.

"For our 75th anniversary, we're having fun. We brought back the ML-1, but completely redone. Like the original, it goes down to 27 hertz in the bass, flat, and then even keeps going. It plays really loud. These handle 600 watts. They're 8 ohms. They're easy to drive. They have a sealed cabinet with a 12-inch woofer with a gigantic magnet and five drivers inside. So it's a vintage-looking speaker that's actually quite high-tech. So it looks like it's not going to image, and it's the complete opposite. When I play some female vocals, you'll be shocked. It's like they're floating in air.

"We've got our integrated amp here. 350 watts per channel. Great phono section. You can adjust the phono loading by remote control while music is playing from your chair with digital readout of the result on the front. Built-in high-performance DAC. But the DAC, and the DAC has inputs with HDMI for your TV and USB for your laptop, coax and optical, but the DAC is on a removable, upgradable module. So in five years, this won't become out of date.

"Here's the fun piece, the MCD12000. So we call it a CD player, but its primary purpose is that it's a DAC. Now, being in the sales department, I wanted Macintosh to put tubes in it because tubes sound better. Everyone wants tubes. And Stereophile, well, The Absolute Sound evaluates things by how they sound, but they don't measure. The engineers wanted to put in solid-state output instead of tube because it measures better, and if Stereophile magazine tests it, they'll want it to measure better. So we both won. So this has, believe it or not, on the back, left and right, balanced and unbalanced tube output, left and right, balanced and unbalanced solid-state output that bypasses the tube, and you can decide which sounds better in your system.

"Most people find that when I switch to tubes, the sound stage gets bigger beyond the speakers, and they hear more of the original room that the music was recorded in. The sound gets bigger. It's not louder. We can't measure bigness. There's no spec for, you know, plus or minus three bigs. You know, they don't have a measurement. We don't know why, but it seems to sound better with tubes. All theories are all bullshit.

"One theory is the tubes roll off the highs, but when you measure this, it's flat to a hundred thousand Hz. A good theory is tubes add harmonic, even-order harmonics, which are musically related and add richness, but the harmonic output of this tube section is 0.00017 percent, so that can't possibly be what you're hearing.

"The answer is we don't know why the tubes sound different, but they sound different.

"Sonny Rollins' Way Out West, recorded in 1957, so clearly done on tubes, sounds better on solid state. The only wild, crazy, stupid theory I can come up with is it's one tube too many when you have it on the tube setting. Too much tubaliciousness.

"So when this says tube, we're going through the tube output of this, and then you'll hear the volume go down and come back up, and it'll say SS, and you're hearing without the tube. So let's see if you hear what I hear, and I'm going to go to an acoustic. Yeah, I'm not going to play electronic music because you can't tell naturalness on that, so we're going to play the toughest recording I have.

And so it was, the tubes did what he said. Magic!

The Grand Wagoneer
Want to travel in comfort and style while listening to a profoundly good sound system? The Grand Wagoneer steps up to the plate.

What we've got here, between Macintosh and the Grand Wagoneer, is two American classics that represent pinnacles of both luxury and performance. When combined, they deliver a sublime listening experience to the passengers. Whether on the road or standing still, the comfort and the audio fidelity make this an audiophile-grade in-cabin entertainment experience. There's even active in-cabin noise cancelling, to keep the noise floor as low as possible given that you are in a motor vehicle.

I spoke with Josh Gwin, the national accounts manager at Macintosh while sitting in the luxury Jeep.

Josh: "So, with the Grand Wagoneer and Macintosh, two old American companies, there's a nice brand story behind that partnership. This is a great launch. The Grand Wagoneer is a relaunch of an old product that has quite a following behind it. The older models are collector's items. Macintosh also has units that are collector's items; it comes full circle.

"This Grand Wagoneer features our MX1375 24-channel speaker system custom-tuned for this cabin. It isn't plug and play; all the DSP corrections have been made for this vehicle. For Macintosh enthusiasts, it has our power guard circuit. We're able to get loud, powerful, but clear at all volumes. With the SPL heads out there who want it really loud and bassy, it delivers. If someone wants fine listening and low fatigue listening, it provides that as well. If you want, I can play some music for you."

Mark: "Please do. As I agree, tune it the way you want because part of car audio is just having fun. Depending on the genre, there's no definition of what is exactly the right EQ curve for a given recording or personal taste."

Josh: "Sure, it's all to taste. To me, it plays everything very well. I have a pro audio background, so I'm particular about things. Everything sounds pleasing in this. I've been listening to old funk and other genres over the weekend. Older recordings still sound pleasing, not harsh. Some tracks can be fatiguing because they have the resonance of the old gear that wasn't transparent. So it's a fairly forgiving system.

Mark: "Right, it comes across as the sound of the era instead of an annoyance."

Josh: "We've come a long way in recording. I'll play a couple of tracks. First, I'll start with Tom Petty's Wildflowers. It does a good job of demonstrating the acoustic tonality.

"So, this car has other cool features. The center console is cold enough to hold ice. There's a separate infotainment system on your side with an HDMI connection for kids to play video games. It's a neat feature with privacy film over it, so I can't see the screen from my driver's seat. Both seats in the front are massaging, heated, and cooled. The car is designed for camping. You can adjust the suspension depending on your location. The finish is top-notch. It's true American luxury with thoughtful crafty details.

Mark: "It sounds great. Are both seat positions getting an audio image? How is that achieved?"

Josh: "Through time alignment correction and a wider soundstage. It's center-focused, but you get a good off-axis sound. We use reflections. The tweeter is robust. We have 24 speakers, all individually amped with the power guard circuit. Everything is acoustically and DSP tuned for this cabin. Even the glass was chosen for its acoustic properties. It also has active noise canceling. From a Macintosh perspective, it's an acoustic environment that enhances the listening experience."

Mark: "It seems like a vacation in this would be amazing because the trip itself might be the most enjoyable part."

Josh: "Yes. The comfort of this car might overshadow a hotel room."