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Glass and Glory: The McIntosh MA 2375 Reviewed

By Joe Finn

McIntosh has announced their new MA 2375 vacuum tube integrated amplifier, their 1st new all vacuum tube amp in a decade, loaded with the kinds of performance and features we hoped for. It’s got lots of power for most speakers, a quality phono stage for moving coil or moving magnet cartridges, subwoofer out and preamp out, a high quality headphone amp, and more. This is a serious purchase at $15,000, but you get a lot for the money.

We display plenty of McIntosh products in our stores because they are one of the most iconic brands in audio, with legendary build quality and long-lasting value. They’ve been building nearly all products in the USA since 1949. In the first few years, they were built right down the road from us in Silver Spring, Maryland, before they moved to Binghampton, NY. McIntosh owners both love their products, and routinely use them for decades. 

One of the most famous concert sound systems in rock ‘n’ roll history is the Grateful Dead’s awesome Wall of Sound from the ‘70’s, with stacks of McIntosh MC 2300 power amplifiers. The Dead stopped using the system, as it took so long to set up and tear down that they were losing money touring it. But many folks will tell you it was one of the best sound systems ever.

This is an integrated amp; both preamp and power amp are on one chassis. McIntosh separates can out-perform their integrated amps, but integrated amps are outstanding values. If you build and ship one product, it’s one set of tooling costs, one set of UL approvals, freight costs for one box, etc. You get a lot of value with one integrated amp instead of pre and power amps. 

One of McIntosh’s most popular products ever is the MA 12000 Hybrid Drive integrated, with a tube preamp and a solid-state power amp. You get the sweet sound of tubes, along with the big power output of solid state. Our MA 12000 video is the second-most watched video Gramophone has ever done!  The MA 352 and MA 252 Hybrids are also very popular. 

This new MA 2375 integrated is not a hybrid, but rather, a tube preamp AND tube power amp. McIntosh were one of the first with truly great tube amplifiers, and they’ve never lost their touch.

The MA 2375 also features the classic McIntosh look, with big blue meters announcing that “this can only be a McIntosh”. The look can be polarizing, but McIntosh defines retro-cool, and lots of folks love it. Let’s run down some of the MA 2375 key features:  

It’s a 2-channel stereo amp, 75 watts per channel into 4, 8 or 16-ohm loads; just select the correct tap on the rear panel for your speakers. MA 2375 will sound great with a wide variety of speakers. It also has lots of connectivity: 3 RCA or unbalanced inputs, 2 balanced XLR inputs, and the phono input, which is configurable, meaning you can use a low or high output moving coil, or a moving magnet phono cartridge. The adjustments for impedance loading and capacitance are on the front panel. You also get some other nice touches: 

• Preamp out for connecting to a separate power amp.
• A subwoofer out. Even with superb speakers, your speakers may not be placed in the room such that you get to hear the bottom octaves. A quality subwoofer can be a huge upgrade.
• Solid Cinch speaker binding posts have a premium feel.
• A 5-band EQ circuit helps dial in the sound to your specific room, which is much more helpful than just a bass and treble control. You can completely bypass that circuit if you wish.
• Home Theater Pass Through is included, perfect if you love movies, and want to combine your music and movie systems.
• This is a fully analog amplifier. You’ll likely want a dedicated high-res streamer / DAC, connected to the analog inputs.

The preamplifier resembles the MA 352 preamp section, with a pair of 12AX7A and a pair of 12AT7 tubes for left and right. The power amp is based on McIntosh’s MC 275 power amp, with four 12AT7 driver tubes, and four big KT88 output tubes, one pair per channel. A dozen tubes total will generate some heat, so please don’t put it into a non-vented cabinet. This amp must breathe. 

You get that characteristic tube sound, with harmonics that sound like tubes - smooth, rich, and easy to listen to. So, is this the right amplifier for you? The trade-off is simple. If you have power-hungry speakers, or a big room, or speakers with a nominal 2-ohm load, or you play LOUD, or a combination of the above, you may be better off with a McIntosh Hybrid Drive amp like the MA 12000. 

You might also look at the popular MA 352, with a similar preamp to the MA 2375, but with 200 solid-state watts per channel into 8 ohms, and 320 watts into 4 ohms. What makes us happy is that you now have more amplifier choices to fit your wants and needs.  

Lets talk longevity. You get McIntosh’s famous Unity Coupled Output Transformer, which keeps the output stage stable when driving an ever-changing speaker impedance load. It’s a big part of why McIntosh amplifiers sound great for years and years. 

The MA 2375 also features a Power Guard Screen Grid sensor circuit for tube amplifiers, which monitors the current going through the tube output stage. If you drive the tubes hard, it won’t limit the output, which might introduce compression, but instead dynamically drops the input gain. You still hear a wide dynamic range, your tubes stay safe, and the music sounds great.

If a short should occur, McIntosh’s Sentry Monitor circuit acts like a fuse to momentarily shut down the output stage until it hits a safe operating temperature, and then restores power. But it’s fuse-less. You don’t have to go buy a fuse and replace it.

If you are a headphones person, the MA 2375 headphone amplifier is very good. McIntosh excels with headphone amps. Unless you have a pair of electrostatic ‘phones, you probably won’t need to add a separate headphone amp. Their Crossfeed Director circuit can add dimensionality to your listening, but is easily defeatable if you don’t feel it is adding to your headphone enjoyment.

The McIntosh MA 2375 all-tube integrated amplifier is a very complete package, and unless you have inefficient speakers in a big room, or a really demanding impedance load, we urge you to give it a serious listen. We can’t wait to get our display model in stock, arriving soon. Thank you for reading this, and please reach out with any questions: ask@gramophone.com.