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Amp/Preamp Asylum: REVIEW: McCormack MAP-1 Preamplifier (SS) by author@escapeclause.net

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REVIEW: McCormack MAP-1 Preamplifier (SS)

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Model: MAP-1
Category: Preamplifier (SS)
Suggested Retail Price: $2995
Description: six-channel analogue preamp
Manufacturer URL: McCormack

Review by author@escapeclause.net on May 21, 2008 at 10:04:36
IP Address: 68.214.97.45
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for the MAP-1


Back in the mid-nineties—-when I was working a conventional, dress-up job—-a friend of mine suggested I try on a pair of “flat-front khakis,” to see how they felt and (perhaps just as important) how they looked. There in the store I couldn’t have been happier in either respect: they fit me better than any pair of pants I’d ever owned and I bought six pair, on the spot, with the intention of rotating through them all week long, every week, including a spare pair for spilling chicken wings into my lap. It was the single largest clothing purchase I’d ever made, to that point.

Now if that sounds like a strange way to open a review for a piece of home audio equipment then do please bear with me because from my pants-buying adventure I learned one, very important lesson about the way the world works: Products that are cleverly different from everything else carry a big sting in their tails, because nobody else knows how to deal with them. Even if they’re better than anything else out there, by which I mean better in general and/or better for your specific needs, you’re bound to have difficulties that are tough to explain and tougher to fix because they lack the benefit of repeated articulation by others before you.

The McCormack MAP-1 that I have owned and listened to for about two months now, you see, is a multi-channel preamp. Not a conventional, two-channel stereo preamp, and not a surround processor either. I purchased this piece (and the five-channel DNA-HT5 power amp) second-hand, when it became apparent to me as the peculiar owner of only a single multichannel source that I’d be better-off letting my DVD player handle processing duties, instead of searching in vain for an audiophile-grade surround decoder that wouldn’t land me in a soup line. And, for those requirements, the MAP-1 fits perfectly: There is space on the back for one, already-decoded, six-channel RCA input signal, as well as conventional two-channel RCA inputs, and nearby (if not quite nearby enough, see below) there is an array of six output sockets, also single-ended RCA. Other than a little bit of ambiance in-fill that you can toggle on and off when listening to CD’s, the unit functions as if it were simply six channels of what every other preamp in the world has two of. What a clever solution to the whole dilemma of conventional preamps that only handle two channels, and conventional processors that make crummy two-channel sound! ...Except society doesn’t like things that take that much explaining, whether you’re supposed to pass DVD signals through them, or your left leg, either one.

In the case of flat-front khakis, everything works great until you try to have them dry-cleaned, and then every single pair comes back with a ridiculous crease steamed into them where it doesn’t belong. When you beg and plead with the dry cleaner not to put pleats in your uber-expensive, self-evidently pleatless pants, they bat their eyelashes at you and grin. And that’s if you’re lucky. If you’re me, by contrast, they accuse you of making-up the whole issue just to be difficult, and then refuse to take any more of your business.

In the case of the fiendishly clever and superbly voiced McCormack MAP-1 preamplifier, alas, the difficulty is that no one else in the industry will believe you when you tell them that your control device can be capable of gathering, attenuating, and sending six-channel signals, but at the same time doesn’t include such joined-at-the-hip features as “large/small” settings for your front channels, delay settings for the center and rears, or toggling between various surround-decoding algorithms. What you end up with (along with your six pair of now semi-flat-front pants, piled unworn in the hamper), is a home theater system at the mercy of whatever surround decoding is taking place inside the DVD player, a set of rear channels that are attenuated but not delayed, and an overall speaker layout that includes a subwoofer but no high-pass.

It was this last issue that reared its head first, and in a moderately big way that, I’ll admit, got the MAP-1 and me started off with a bit of a rocky first footing. Indeed, upon unpacking my companion Hsu Research VTF-1 subwoofer, it wasn’t even obvious that there would be an acceptable way to configure the various settings afforded at the Sub, at all, and that I wouldn’t instead have to send it back. The manual clearly called for defeating the subwoofer’s crossover if it was connected to a “subwoofer-out” socket on the back of one’s control unit, but in my case the subwoofer-out socket in question wasn’t a low-pass. In the end it took a call to Hsu Research (complete with repeated disbelief on the other end of the phone, over the span of several minutes) to verify that the “subwoofer-in” socket on the front of the subwoofer wouldn’t automatically defeat the crossover dial right next to it. Even so, the lack of a corresponding HIGH pass means that the main speakers still receive a full-bandwidth signal, all the time. It was as I said a tough way to start a relationship. I myself was determined to persevere because I really didn’t want to go back to processors, and I certainly didn’t want to buy both a processor and a two-channel preamp with an H/T pass, all for one measly six-channel source—-but this review would be less than candid if I didn’t set its tone with a stern warning to expect customized headaches from integrating the MAP-1 into the rest of a pre-existing system.

Nor is the MAP-1 without some pretty peculiar (and, at times, nerve-wrackingly exciting) little quirks. The gigantic LED display on the front apron—-as big or bigger than most clock radios—-is apparently not big enough to afford space to show half-step increments, this despite the fact that the volume and balance are both graduated in half-step increments, and so instead a comparatively tiny little “period” after the number is supposed to take the place of the expression “and a half.” In other words, “71” means “seventy-one,” while “71.” means “seventy-one-and-a-half.” And do please forgive me, but that’s ridiculous. Especially when it comes to the balance control, which can be as much as a full-step farther out of adjustment than is first apparent from eight feet away through dirty eyeglasses.

The unit comes with a setup mode that allows you to attenuate the signals being passed on to each channel of amplification, but there’s no delay feature so even the attenuated signals will come from all points at the same time. What’s more, the LED display that must be used to set up the attenuations inexplicably designates the left-front speaker as some sort of undocumented reference signal, so that the numbers shown when raising or lowering its level are not of the same scale as those displayed when raising or lowering the other channels. The end-result, at least the first time I tried it, was a signal that was fifty steps louder through the right-front channel than the left. Fortunately I blew a fuse in the amplifier before I started shooting speaker components halfway across the living room. Somewhat less fortunately, the fuses in the companion amp are found by removing the *BOTTOM* cover from its chassis. But that’s a different review, now, isn’t it.

As noted above, the MAP-1’s “Ambiance Retrieval Mode” (ARM) permits listening to CD’s with some cleverly subtle sonic in-fill in the center, rear, and subs—but if a person wishes to hear ARM content through the rears but not the center, he must set the center channel to its lowest possible volume level (which is minus sixty-three and a half, for some unfathomable reason), instead of simply defeating it, after which the MAP-1 will not allow the main volume to be turned down below POSITIVE sixty-three and a half. And that’s way, way too loud for its companion amplifier, hooked up to my 90db speakers, in my small room, in social circumstances. (This may actually be a glitch on my particular unit, since I’ve subsequently found that it is possible to “head-fake” the unit by first switching to another source and turning its volume lower than sixty-three and a half, then turning back to the CD. I would confirm the suspicion that my particular unit is acting strangely by cross-referencing the manual, except for the fact that the manual—in its entirety, mind you—is two and one-half pages long.)

Most distressing of all is the startling, nay unprecedented performance of the MAP-1 when disconnected from its power source. Interrupt the power to an MAP-1 for any reason and the unit produces a bang so loud and so targeted to the upper-midrange frequencies that, for weeks after my first audition (having casually connected the piece to a power conditioner and then casually toggled-off the conditioner), I was convinced that I’d fried a pair of speakers. Granted, the MAP-1 is not designed to be disconnected from main power, ever, because to do so would be to reset all of its attenuation settings. Instead there is a button on the front labeled “standby,” which incidentally manages to cut the LED without extinguishing the input-setting light, thus leaving you no choice but to presume that the whole preamp is sitting there all the time leaking like a second-year White House Page.

But here’s the thing: even if the unit isn’t SUPPOSED to be disconnected from power, we all know that from time to time it WILL, either through accidental disconnection from the wall, a tripped circuit breaker, external power failure, flood, fire, famine, blah blah blah. Again I say, if this preposterously loud bang—-which has happened four times since—-is a fault of my particular piece, the obvious place to check it sure would’ve been the manual.

Now you might presume from all of this that I don’t like my MAP-1 and that would be wrong: It’s an exceedingly quick-tempo’ed, detail-oriented preamp (just what the Doctor ordered for yours truly) with no sonic vices of any kind, and a self-evident commitment to rugged build quality. I can think of few pieces of home audio equipment that could be accidentally dropped down a flight of stairs with less concern for their subsequent performance. The thick silver-metal faceplate alone probably weighs as much as some of the MAP-1’s competition out there. Its sound is lively, vivacious, and, in my rig at least, tilted just the tiniest bit forward. In the first few weeks after acquiring the MAP-1 I spent a significant portion of my time in various internet forums, promising a review, only to be thwarted when listening for review purposes spontaneously morphed into listening ‘til bedtime.

On Jazz, acoustic pop, and small-ensemble arrangements of serious (AKA “classical”) music, the MAP-1 / DNA-HT5 combination is very, very, *very* difficult to fault. The combination of quick tempo, unflinching commitment to inner detail resolution, great soundstage, and muscular agility mean that every note comes through with perfect placement and without the tiniest bit of congestion or suffusion or any of the other –ion words that we find ourselves so often complaining about. Patricia Barber’s version of “Bye Bye Blackbird,” for instance, has never come through more smoky and liquid and come-hither, while the drum “solo” near the end of Cyrus Chestnut’s “Blues for Nina” suddenly consists of individual symbol-hits and brushes, and not someone scrubbing the drum set with steel wool while the rest of the performers are trying to cut a record.

Still, the detail commitment does come at a price, and that price is a concentration of effort (if not an actual emphasis, per se) in the upper midrange and low treble. This has the side-effect of rendering tizzy recordings, full symphonic arrangements, and most guitar-oriented electric pop digestible in much smaller doses than I’m accustomed to in a more forgiving system. In a fully-carpeted room with twenty-three foot sidewalls, hooked through its companion DNA-HT5 to a pair of Spendors or Kef’s or B&W’s, the match would be as close to perfect as a person may reasonably expect—especially at this price. But in my twelve-by-fourteen, all-wood-and-concrete room, hooked through its companion DNA-HT5 to a pair of notoriously bright and snappy Linn Ninkas, the sound is pure and unruffled all the way to the highest violin string, but can be more than a wee overpowering when grape and grain lead to a general breakdown in remote-volume discipline. This being said, the extra-strength gusto of the pair means that you’ll never find yourself lacking for clear, present, faced-paced dynamics, even at low volumes—though there have been plenty of times when those low volumes could have been, well, *lower*, as (make no mistake) this rig will sound loud even when it isn’t.

All of which brings me to another curiosity regarding the MAP-1, this one in the area of matching. The other piece of this puzzle, the McCormack DNA-HT5, it happens, is essentially a five-channel version of the DNA-125—a much-lauded power amp with a quick sound and tons of current, but which was designed to be used with a PASSIVE preamp. Since the MAP-1 isn’t passive (indeed, couldn’t be), the fit between the two pieces is considerably less synergistic than a gear-swapping veteran might have expected from two pieces made at the same time by the same vendor and obviously intended to be used as a set, particularly with respect to gain and noise floor—both of which are high compared with SOTA. Whether this is a quibble against the MAP-1 or the HT5 isn’t really the point (indeed if it’s with either, it’s the with HT5), so much as it should serve as a caveat for the loyal McCormack two-channel crowd, looking to cross over to the Dark Side that is home theater. If you’re used to a passive-attenuated DNA-125’s sound—specifically if you would characterize that sound, first and foremost, as *effortless* (as I would)—the MAP-1 / DNA-HT5 combo will definitely take some getting used to. With this dynamic duo, you’re getting all muscle, all the time, and there’s no forgetting it.

Let me reiterate that I am sold on this piece of equipment and its big brother amp, both for their ability to toss me copious amounts of full-throated yet detail-oriented sound, and for that clever way of getting around the two-channel vs. HT dilemma that I keep harping about. If you need convincing that my intention is to *praise* this setup, then look no further than the fact that I’ve recently entered into negotiations for a replacement… for my SPEAKERS!

Still I must also point out one, final quibble with the MAP-1 *and* the DNA-HT5: They are of non-standard width. In my system this led to some pretty significant work-arounds, since it was suddenly no longer possible for me to have my CD player in close-enough proximity to its own inputs on the preamp, without buying all new interconnects. Moreover, since my stand is designed to accommodate two pieces on each shelf, sitting side-by-side, the space-hogging chasses of the MAP-1 and DNA-HT5 left me with no choice but to permanently disconnect not one or two but *four* secondary sources, as I struggled to reconfigure things within the space I had. Granted, shame on me for not checking first, but still: I can think of no particularly good reason why the design of a piece of home audio gear should start off, from the very beginning on the very first drawing table, with a conscientious plan that it should not fit in anybody’s rack.

In conclusion, I warmly and enthusiastically recommend that you try to audition (or just buy and then re-sell, if you don’t like it) a McCormack MAP-1—-*provided* that your need for multichannel signal-handling is limited to one source, you’re not searching for laid-back, warm, or “tubey” sound, your room, speakers, cables, and choices of music don’t already tilt too far forward, and, most importantly, you can live with a few quirks. Indeed in a few days I’ll have a chance to do just such a test: my local/audiophile friend has generously offered the use of his very large, very carpeted listening room for a little fieldwork. And if it goes the way I think it will, I’ll come back with far less faintly toned praise of what is, it must be said, a pretty ingenious and professionally minded piece of gear.

Dave O’Gorman
Gainesville, Florida
May, 2008


Product Weakness: Preposterous "bang" when disconnected from power, quirky interface, lack of delay or high pass, chassis width is non-standard and too big. Unforgiving, some would say too forward.
Product Strengths: Excellent inner detail resolution and soundstage, nothing muffled or muted or laid-back about it. Ingenious solution to the usual dilemma of two-channel vs. HT


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: McCormack DNA HT-5
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): McCormack MAP-1
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Arcam FMJ CD-23, Oppo DVD
Speakers: Linn Ninka's, Linn Trikan, Totem Mite-T's
Cables/Interconnects: Blue Jeans LC-1, Element Speaker Cable
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Jazz, Acoustic Pop, Electric Pop, Symphonic
Room Size (LxWxH): 14 x 12 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments: Two d-i-y bass traps, two d-i-y tricorner hf traps
Time Period/Length of Audition: approximately 2 months
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: McCormack MAP-1 Preamplifier (SS) - author@escapeclause.net 10:04:36 05/21/08 ( 15)