McIntosh MC45 is a CES Innovation Awards 2023 honoree

McIntosh MC451 honored for innovation

*From the McIntosh news release

Binghamton, New York, USA, 4 January 2023: McIntosh has been named a CES® Innovation Awards 2023 Honoree for its MC451 Dual Mono Power Amplifier, which was unveiled in December (2022).

The announcement was made ahead of CES 2023, the world’s most influential technology event, happening January 5-8 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The 2023 CES Innovation Awards program received a record-high number of submissions this year, at over 2,100.

The MC451 is a unique combination of a valve and solid-state amplifier that uses McIntosh’s Hybrid Drive™ technology and follows the success of McIntosh’s MC901 amplifier. A more compact product, the MC451 is strategically built so that it is easier to place within an audio system and offers 150 watts from the valve section and 300 watts from the solid-state circuit.

McIntosh’s team of engineering experts took their extensive experience to seamlessly combine both valve and solid state tech to develop the company’s Hybrid Drive™ design that works to redefine sound performance. With Hybrid Drive™, the highest level of sound reproduction is now available to offer flexibility in listening capabilities.

Charlie Randall, President of McIntosh said, “We are extremely honored to be named a CES 2023 Innovation Awards Honoree. At McIntosh, we pride ourselves on the quality and sound of our audio systems.

“We are incredibly excited to share the MC451 with the world and look forward to the positive impact it will have on the joy people get from listening to music.”

The CES Innovation Awards program, owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, is an annual competition of outstanding design and engineering in 28 consumer technology product categories. Those with the highest rating receive the ‘Best of Innovation’ distinction. An elite panel of industry expert judges, including members of the

media, designers, engineers and more, reviewed submissions based on innovation, engineering and functionality, aesthetic and design.

About the MC451

McIntosh’s unique Hybrid Drive™ technology enables users to drive a loudspeaker’s critical tweeter and midrange drivers with lush valves, yet provide the more demanding bass drivers with the power, control and dynamics of solid-state. The MC451 Dual Mono Power Amplifier follows the success of McIntosh’s sizable MC901 Dual Mono Power Amplifier and reflects upon the New York manufacturer’s decades-long experience in solid-state amplifiers and even longer experience (since 1949!) with valves.

A more compact design than its MC901 sibling, the new MC451 is much easier to integrate into existing audio systems. Built on one chassis, the MC451 offers 150 watts from its valve section, plus 300 watts from its solid-state output.

Supremely flexible, the MC451 benefits from user-selectable solid state and valve output stages that can be selected using a ‘balance’ control knob. This enables users to match genres to preferred amp technology: for example, jazz using more valves, or rock using solid state.

Hybrid Drive™ technology allows users to adjust the internal crossover to determine where the bass, mid and high frequencies integrate between valve and solid-state power.

In addition, separate inputs for the valve and solid-state sections are provided for use with external crossovers.

Finally, the MC451 also features a variety of McIntosh patented technologies including: Power Guard® and Power Guard SGS®; Sentry Monitor™; Autoformer™; Unity Coupled Circuit; Solid Cinch™ speaker binding posts; Monogrammed Heatsinks™, plus a DualView™ Power Output Meter.

Pricing and availability

Orders for the MC451 can now be placed with authorised McIntosh dealers with shipping expected to begin in January 2023 (United States and Canada), and the rest of the world, shortly thereafter, £16,495.

Back to homepage