#MCINTOSH MC 250 VS 2100 TRIAL#
It’s a single box that eliminates the need for additional interconnect cables and power cords while doing away with some of the trial and error of component matching. Why am I going on about lifestyle audio equipment in a review of the Pass Labs INT-250 integrated amplifier? On the one hand, the INT-250 does have some “lifestyle” chromosomes in its DNA. (Speaking of lifestyle audio, portability – like the Deep Blue, with its concealed carrying handle – is also a plus.) You might even argue (as some have) that it’s precisely these and other easy to use, good sounding “lifestyle” products (the well-reviewed PS Audio Sprout 100 DAC/amp/phono preamp and KEF’s LS50 wireless active speakers also come to mind) that will get those pesky millennials engaged with quality audio and thus save the high-end from its insular, smug, stratospherically priced self.
#MCINTOSH MC 250 VS 2100 BLUETOOTH#
In the realm of combining gorgeous looks and high-end sonics, consider the iconic, wood and leather-clad monitors of Italy’s Sonus Faber, the smooth, gleaming colors and rounded shapes of loudspeakers from France’s Focal, or the glittering, steampunk bling offered by Dan D’Agonstino’s Momentum Lifestyle (!!) Integrated amp and wireless streamer.Īs for “lifestyle product” convenience, standing at the pinnacle of make-it-uncomplicated-so-I don’t-have-to-think-about-it design, Apple’s surprisingly good-sounding (and almost magically usable) AirPods earbuds come to mind, as does my Peachtree Deep Blue 2 Bluetooth speaker (recently updated to the Deep Blue 3), a room-filling party-in-a-box with surprisingly fine sonics. Who says that handsome, décor-friendly gear has to sound mediocre? That said, the orthodoxy that holds that good looking, easy to use audio equipment is sonically inferior is a merely a prejudice waiting to be challenged. In all these ways (if you must) it passes the fabled Spousal Acceptance Factor test. It doesn’t require endless tweaking and fiddling to sound good. It incorporates multiple functions in a single unit and provides a simple remote control to operate them all.
A “lifestyle product” doesn’t sully your living room with graceless industrial design, nor does it necessitate situating a tangled-linguine pile of ugly cables in plain view of your dinner guests. According to the high-end stereotype, a “lifestyle” product is one that combines luxurious, living-room friendly aesthetics and operational simplicity and convenience, but with suspect sound quality. In the quirky (to put it kindly) universe of high-end audio, the epithet “Lifestyle Product” is a bit of a put-down - even for an amplifier as imposing as the Pass Labs INT-250.