McCormack DNA-1 Platinum Ultra

gmcman

After a few months of chomping at the bit, I received a call last week that the amp was being shipped and I was able to take delivery today.

Unfortunately work was crazy today so I made it home rather late, and I was only able to unbox it and get a few pics.

This amp started out as a very early mono amp and had it's share of weathering. Had some rusting so we opted to have the chassis stripped and powder coated.

The final product is beautiful, can't wait to get it hooked up but will need to wait until tomorrow night.

This is my first McCormack amp, I never even heard this one but the seller lived 30 min from SMC so he just drove it over.

Quite difficult to look at it and not even plug it in....

gmcman

I haven't looked around inside yet but this pic was sent to me before it was shipped.

tonyb

Don't make final judgements off the bat, let that bad boy break in some. Killer amp pal, congrats.

treitz3

The guts look eerily similar to an Odyssey amp made by Klaus. Did they ever work together?

Tom

MrBuhl

Drool-worthy!! I'm still planning to drop off my DNA-1 to Steve one of these days.

gmcman

I paired the amp with my B&K Ref 50 as that's the pre I was using before I swapped the 200.2 with the DNA-1. This way I could get a fair comparison, I'm itching to get the tube pre in there but will need to wait until I get some time on this. I'm not the best on giving reviews, but will try to portray the best image I can.


Had a few hours so far to listen to it, first impressions....the vocals are very clean, I've read reviews about being "forward" in their presentation but IMO, not so much forward, but clearly separate from the instruments, gives a good sense of depth.

Everything is more defined, the highs are very smooth without any harshness. The bass guitar stays where it is regardless of what's going on. The amp just seems to control everything and preserve the tonality of all the instruments..I guess pretty much do it's job. I did stretch it's legs a little, regardless of volume level, highest was -5 on the pre, I heard no discoloration or breakup of the highs, remained smooth throughout.

I'm pretty much blown away at how the amp can easily portray the changes in intensity, during the quieter passages of the drums, cymbals, clarity in the softer vocals, i.e., whispers...the decay time is also more apparent. I don't feel the term "lifting a veil" from the speakers is appropriate, but for the most part...it's like walking up to the stage.

I can't really find a flaw in what I've heard given the rest of my equipment, I feel a higher-end, modern SS preamp would really do it justice, like maybe a Pass X1 or similar. The Ref 50 is no slouch...but obviously there's better albeit cost.

Will get a few hundred hours on it and see how it changes. So far I'm enjoying it immensely, big game changer in my system for sure.

tonyb

Glad you like it. Should get even better has it burns in a bit. Focus more on a tubed pre amp, in my opinion, can't beat the tone and musicality.