Opinions on McIntosh MHA200?

@magon How are you getting on with the MHA200 by now? I wanted to love that amp but felt pretty much how you described it, pretty flat sounding. Also I don't think it has enough guts for more difficult loads. It does sound pretty in a way though.

I much much prefer the big MHA100 and nearly identical MHA150. I know, very different animals as those are integrated speaker amps with onboard DAC and headphone outputs. But they do seem designed primarily with headphones in mind, and the speaker outputs are more of a bonus. Most integrated amps are the other way around. 

@v-fi 

I replaced the tubes and suddenly there were dynamics. I'm burning in the new tubes now. I used JJ for the 12BH7 and Electro-Harmonix for the 12AT7. 

I think it's a good sounding amp in general, but my complaint is the tonal balance. Through my AKG 712 and LCD-X headphones (both about 80 ohms; using the 80 ohm tap on the transformer) the amp is bright and hot in the sibilance region. It's not a flattering sound to many recordings, especially violins. I tried the other transformer taps and it only gets brighter.

I don't know if this is a function of the tube choice.

I have never seen 12at7 and 12 ax7 tube’s interchangeable in any product I have owned. 

@magon Unfortunately I think that's just the general sound of the amp. It can be tweaked by rolling darker tubes but you'll probably never get completely free of that signature. 

I think a better fit as far as tonality would be an LCD-2 with the more rich, smooth presentation. But even so I find planar magnetic headphones like more current than the MHA200 has available, before they really "come alive". 

Hopefully you find a way to make it do what you want. If not, I guess the beauty of a McIntosh product is that you can usually resell it easily with minimal loss. 

@v-fi 

Just a couple hours ago I tried my LCD-2 headphones and yes, the sound is darker (mostly a good thing) but there is a treble resonance that's quite awful on certain high piano notes. Note sure if this a phenomenon of the LCD-2 impedance and the output impedance or freq response of the amp, or what. I haven't noticed this resonance using my other amp with the LCD-2 (a custom 12AU7/FET zero-feedback topology).

Also the amp's brightness is still there in the LCD-2 as a character of the leading edges of piano notes (for instance) - they sound a bit like the "dink" of a wine glass.