McIntosh has announced the MC257 7-Channel Home Theater Power Amplifier.

The MC257 features McIntosh’s new TripleView™ Power Output Meter that independently indicates the real time power reading of the amplifier’s three front channels. The 15” (38 cm) wide TripleView meter design is a streamlined approach to the three individual meters found on McIntosh’s previous generation 7-channel home theater amplifier. Its trademarked blue lighting can be turned off so as not to compete with the TV or movie screen.

250 Watts Per Channel

In addition to the new TripleView meter, the MC257 features many other upgrades. When using just the front left, center and right channels, power output has been increased by 25% from 200 Watts per channel to 250 Watts per channel. When using all 7 channels, each will receive 200 Watts per channel. Regardless of how many channels are used, the full 200 or 250 Watts is delivered to either 4 or 8 Ohm speakers via McIntosh’s Dynamic Power Manager® (DPM) technology. Filter capacity has been increased by 20% which has produced a 94% increase in dynamic headroom from 1.7dB to 3.3dB as well as improving low frequency performance. Also new to the MC257 are five McIntosh Monogrammed Heatsinks™ which are connected to advanced high current output transistors to efficiently and silently cool the amplifier; as a result, noisy cooling fans that can interfere with the movie soundtrack are not needed. A quiet, specially wound toroidal isolation power transformer also helps keep noise to a minimum. Speaker terminals have been updated to McIntosh’s standard gold-plated binding posts. McIntosh’s power management system that will turn the amplifier off after a set amount of time when no input signal has been detected has also been added. Finally, the front panel is now lit by direct LED backlighting .

Besides all these upgrades, the MC257 comes with McIntosh technologies like Power Guard® to prevent potential speaker damage caused by clipping and over-driving of the amplifier. Sentry Monitor™ technology that protects against short-circuits by disengaging the output stage should the current ever exceed safe operating levels (it then resets automatically when operating conditions return to normal) is also included. Both balanced and unbalanced inputs are included to connect the MC257 to a home theater processor.

The MC257 can be utilized in many ways: it can power a 7-channel home theater by itself; it can be paired with either McIntosh’s MI128 8-channel or MI254 4-channel digital amplifiers in home theaters that have more than 7-channels; or it can be used in 5-channel home theaters with 2 of its channels available to power a second audio zone.

McIntosh Styling

The MC257 sits on a polished stainless steel chassis and bears the classic McIntosh design of a black glass front panel with the TripleView meter, illuminated logo, control knobs, and aluminum end caps.

Pricing and Availability

The MC257 replaces the MC207 amplifiier and will be available this month in the USA and shortly after worldwide.

Suggested retail price in the USA $10,000 and £12,995 in the UK.

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