McIntosh MSA5500 Streaming Integrated Amplifier

The McIntosh MSA5500 is a streaming integrated amplifier: network streamer, DAC and amplifier in a single McIntosh case, so a pair of speakers completes the system.

For McIntosh that is a relatively compact proposition. The company’s reputation is built on large separate amplifiers, and the MSA5500 is aimed at a listener who wants the McIntosh look and sound without a rack of boxes.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 device rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can put it in a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

Power, input selection and volume stay with the unit, its remote and its own app. The Home app does not control those.

Before you buy

An integrated amplifier with streaming inside couples the two together. That is convenient, and it means the digital section ages at the same rate as the amplifier, which historically ages more slowly.

If you would rather keep them separate, the DS200 streaming DAC feeds a McIntosh amplifier of your choosing.

The blue meters are not optional, and for most buyers that is the point.

Specifications