First launched at CES, McIntosh’s MB50 is now available in the UK via Jordan Acoustics for £2,750. The player brings Wi-Fi music streaming with Spotify and TIDAL support to connected audio systems in the home, with full DTS Play-Fi app control.
Its compact form factor also makes it suited for McIntosh’s own MXA70 integrated audio system and MHA150 headphone amp, bringing high-quality music streaming to both units.
Music collections stored on DLNA networked devices can be accessed, controlled and played back using the dedicated Play-Fi app, available for Android and Apple devices, plus Windows desktop systems.
In addition to accessing networked music collections, the app has built-in support for a variety of music streaming services including Deezer, KKBox, Pandora, QQMusic, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, Songza, Spotify and TIDAL.
The MB50 can also be used as a preamp, offering a range of connectivity options, including analogue and digital inputs, balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs, plus two digital outputs.
With source components connected, the MB50 can stream audio to other DTS Play-Fi devices on the network (such as the McIntosh RS100) via ‘Line-In Streaming’, allowing music stored on physical media (and previously limited to playback in just one room, such as CD) to be accessible in any room. For streaming in multiple locations around the home, additional MB50s can be connected to audio systems, with full app control.
DTS Play-Fi offers benefits over other streaming options and features Critical Listening mode giving native playback of up to 24-bit/192kHz high-resolution files with no down-sampling. Plus, the MB50 supports a wide range of formats, including MP3, M4A, FLAC and WAV files.
Dual Wi-Fi antennas help to ensure a strong network connection for uninterrupted playback and the MB50 can also be hardwired to networks using a USB-to-Ethernet adapter (not included).