# McIntosh Ford GT MX406 vs. Clarion DRZ9255 (modded) on H-Audio XR6.5M



## Velozity (Jul 6, 2007)

Well as fate would have it I've got two awesome headunits in my possession right now and I have to decide which is going to take the helm of my competition system for this season. If I find another Bottlehead that may this a three-horse race, but for now this is what I've got. First of all, I was perfectly content with my Clarion that I used last year. It's been modified by Matt Roberts to improve the signal quality of the RCA outputs and was painted black. I probably have the only black DRZ9255 in existence. It sounds superb and is everything I've ever wanted in a headunit. You all know what this radio does so I'll spare you the details. See pictures here:



















I've owned several primo headunits over the years (Sony, Eclipse, Panny tube) and with all it's features the DRZ has been my favorite all-around unit. But I've always wondered what a Mac sounded like, and I've never had enough dough to score one. So a couple of weeks ago on fleebay I stumble across a McIntosh head unit from the optional Ford GT McIntosh system. From everything I've read it is an MX406 clone, sans the optical output and changer controls. Closer inspection reveals that it also doesn't have a fader because it only has one set of low-level outputs. The Ford GT had no rear speakers. I won the auction, even though I had no idea where I would find a DC/DC converter for it. I called McIntosh and they said it was discontinued and they could no longer get it. Ford didn't have it listed as a service part either. All hope was almost lost and then our resident McIntosh expert, MACS, saved me. He supplied me with a BNIB converter that he just had lying around. Amazing. I had to operate on the unit a bit to add RCA outputs and construct a harness to run between the head and the DC/DC (props to FordGTforum for having the wiring schematic for the Mac system posted online). So here she is in all her rare glory:



















The Mac is a purist's headunit. It was purposely built to sound realllllly good. At first it would seem a total dichotomy that this unit would be offered in the Ford GT supercar. But then when you think about it, the GT is a purist's sports car, purposely built to go fast-- comfort and aesthetics be damned. So really it's fitting that this unit was mated to that car, but I digress... The Mac bleeds quality build construction from it's glass face to it's machined aluminum(?) rotary knobs and surprising weight. Compared to other single-DIN headunits this certainly feels heavier in your hands. It only has one set of line-level outputs that was designed to go to a matching Mac amp. Just like the MX406 there is no FF/RW search for the CD player. You can change tracks but no quick searching. There is no pause or mute buttons. No remote control and no clock. The only audio controls are balance and a rotary knob for bass and treble. I have no idea what frequencies it's centered at (can find out later when I hook up the RTA). As a nice bonus however, it does have a set of RCA inputs. The FM tuner is standard fare with 18 presets. That pretty much sums it up as far as features.

I am fortunate enough to own the first production sample of the best car speaker I have heard to date, the H-Audio XR6.5M. If you've been following any of the threads you know that this is a true full-range speaker, capable of sufficient sound reproduction from sub-bass to high treble. It just so happens that this is the perfect speaker to test two high-end head units on just pure, unaltered, unprocessed, audio reproduction. The amp is the same as I've been using all along. Channels 4-6 of my Aura MR675H are bridged to provide 160w to each of my XR6.5M speakers mounted in the factory location in my doors. Pic here:











No tweeters, no sub, no change in amp gain setting, no crossovers, no T/A, no EQ. Just headunit to Streetwires RCAs to Aura amp to Kicker speaker cables to XR6.5M. The reference disc of choice (don't laugh), the digitally-remastered edition of Snoop Dogg's "Doggystyle". Surprised? Yeah me too. There's a little nugget for all you diy tuners out there. Anyway...

*OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Both head units are beastly in this scenario (Clarion in Direct mode at 96kHz sampling rate), but the Mac is out-freaking-standing!!! I would be totally content to just leave my system like this for daily driving. No ******** here guys, the sub-bass is present and full, the midrange is warm and detailed, and the high end is smooth and rolls off so naturally! Of course I could tell my tweeters weren't there, but only because the music lacked air and space. I felt like all the music was still there. Granted, my doors are deadened and sealed but I was truly impressed with the low end. ZERO distortion... 

Wait, am I reviewing the headunits or the speakers?....

That's just it though, the Mac brought out more emotion in the music that I hadn't felt before. But with the gloves off the DRZ9255 was very formidable also. I did notice some harshness that wasn't there with the Mac, and the low end didn't seem as full. So now I'm torn. I really wanted the Clarion to win this soundoff so I could sell the Mac and use the money to help cover my large amp purchase. I'm going to be using a DSP6 for processing so I don't need the DRZ for processing anymore, but I've gotten used to its creature comforts like remote control, CD text display, mute, pause, 2 aux inputs, etc. And what makes it so bad is that the Clarion isn't even stock. Like I said before it's been modified by the great Matt Roberts. It's one of a kind and I just can't sell it. 

Well I just wanted to share my experience with you guys. Maybe there's some of you out there that still get excited about pure SQ like me.


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## azngotskills (Feb 24, 2006)

Thanks for the insight  Damn both those HUs are sexy....adding a Bottlehead to the mix might buy you another headache LOL


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## Melodic Acoustic (Oct 10, 2005)

Amazing head units there sir, I do not envy you one bit, and the choice you have to make.

But,

I must add one thing. Guys look, the Audible Physics XR6.5M is an Ultra Wide-Band Transducer. Ok now the amazing part of the above is; they are mounting in his doors completely 90 degrees off-axis. 

Now if he is getting that type of information that far off axis, can you image what it would be like if you can move them to the kicks and aim them on axis with the opposite side listener which would put them about 30-40 degrees off-axis to the near side listener.

The things that make you go hmmmmmm. Just a little food for thought.


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## Velozity (Jul 6, 2007)

Yes I didn't even get into how well these speakers stage, especially given their poor mounting locations (that I'm forced to use by rule ) I'm so impressed with their full-range performance that I will probably save a preset on my DRC-SL controller just for this type of demo. I hope I can turn the other outputs off in software and just run the mids with no crossover or eq and then save that setup to a preset. I plan to hook up the DSP6 this weekend, muwahahaha!.....


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## Mr. Randy (Apr 21, 2006)

Dammnn that Clarion looks soo sexy...

I should be receiving my Panny Bottlehead very soon. When it arrives, it will be soon shipped along with the MS8 to the great Matt Robert. We been discussing mods and I am very excited. I also would want to compete too in the near future, which will be my first time.

If you decided to sell that Mcintosh Headunit, let me know 

-Randy


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## Melodic Acoustic (Oct 10, 2005)

Mr. Randy said:


> Dammnn that Clarion looks soo sexy...
> 
> I should be receiving my Panny Bottlehead very soon. When it arrives, it will be soon shipped along with the MS8 to the great Matt Robert. We been discussing mods and I am very excited. I also would want to compete too in the near future, which will be my first time.
> 
> ...


Wow sir that sig is looking really really nice.


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## Mr. Randy (Apr 21, 2006)

H-Audio Inc. said:


> Wow sir that sig is looking really really nice.


Yes sir... =) I hope it sounds nice as it looks...I was not happy with my last build...but this time I think im going to love it. The Panny B-Tube and MS8 is going to be something special once modded by Matt.


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## senior800 (Nov 10, 2010)

Mr. Randy said:


> Yes sir... =) I hope it sounds nice as it looks...I was not happy with my last build...but this time I think im going to love it. The Panny B-Tube and MS8 is going to be something special once modded by Matt.


That's the headunit and processor I have in the post, on the way to be at the moment. Sadly not modified however. What have you got him changing on them?


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## MACS (Oct 3, 2007)

Velozity, 

Good to see you got that Ford GT deck modded and glad I was able to help out on this project. That is a very rare and unique head unit. I wish I had kept mine. 

Regards,
MACS.


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## EricP72 (Mar 23, 2008)

Mr.Randy please post a review when you get that Lanny with ms8 installed. I thought about that combo vs the pioneer p99 head unit. Also what are the mods and cost?


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## mitchyz250f (May 14, 2005)

I just saw one of those Mac HU's on ebay for $999. Wow.


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## Mic10is (Aug 20, 2007)

while it doesnt seem like youll miss some of those small things like ff,skip
remotes etc...
Youll be amazed at how many times youll want to have it, and when you dont it becomes very annoying.

Also, try a ton of different CDR's, all brands, all different burn speeds and see which one plays more CDs.
I cannot stand "super" highend head units that cant play burnt Cds.
hell even the sony c-90 had problems with many cds, so did the alpine 7949...

anyways, you never know who is going to want to listen to your car and for their best impression, theyll want to use their cd. dont disappoint by having the CD get spit back out at them


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## Velozity (Jul 6, 2007)

Yah, I hear ya. I've decided to roll with the Mac for a while and I'm finding that while I don't necessarily miss the FF/RW searching, I do miss having a pause button. I've gotten around it by turning the source selector one click to AUX, and back again when I want to resume CD. One thing I didn't realize that I'd miss is a numerical indication of volume. The volume on this is true analog style with no digital readout of position. I've got everything gain matched so that I can go full volume with no problem, but it's just takes some getting used to not having that indicator. In the end I'm still happier with it SQ wise, and it's just too damn cool having a McIntosh CD player with a real glass face running my system. The silkscreening is under the glass, so it will never rub off or fade. The knobs are real metal. The understated elegance of this thing is just too much to pass up. Oh, by the way I've run probably 50 or 60 discs through this already with no problems reading any of them. CD-R or otherwise. So far so good... It's relatively new with a 2006 mfg. date so I don't expect any disc read issues. Here's some eye-candy (yes I know! I'm going to work on a custom bezel to finish the look):


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## raamaudio (May 4, 2005)

You need a glass face for the processor, knobs, trim, etc, to match the HU!!! That would really look sexy

Back when I had Zapco gear, the DAC, EQ's, etc....I had the unit I need to use the most mounted behind the cup holder door in the dash, it was modded to push on it and it would flip down to expose the unit, worked great

Most excellent review, great system setup, thanks
Rick


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

Bass is 50 hertz and Treble is 10k on the tone controls.

Expect judges to REALLY love not being able to scan through tracks.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

The MX406 was basically a DRX9255.


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## Velozity (Jul 6, 2007)

Update:

Okay the novelty of having a McIntosh in my dash is starting to wear off. The sound is still outstanding, but I've re-evaluated the two units in a calmer state. Before I was blinded by the reputation, beauty, and cool points of having the Mac. Now it's kinda been there done that, so I can be a little more objective in my opinion. 

I think I know why the Mac brought out so much more emotion in my music (and in me ). It's sound is slanted more towards the warm side which led to the fullness and robustness I experienced in the lower frequencies. But this comes at the expense of extreme high end detail. The Mac is detailed, don't get me wrong, it doesn't miss anything. But I put the Clarion back in today and I didn't realize just how very detailed it was compared to the Mac. There's something to be said for the 96kHz sampling rate. Not only does the Clarion not miss anything, but it also picks up on nuances that most headunits won't. This is extreme detail. Some people may call it 'clinical', but that has a negative connotation.

Overall the DRZ is neutral, and the Mac is warm. The sound of the Mac reminds me of my first impressions of the Panny Bottlehead. I was knocked off my feet when I dropped it in my previous set up. At the time I was running a Zapco DC650.6 amp which is also regarded as having a warm, tube-like sound. So together they made for a very emotionally engaging system, but not the most detailed system. Currently I'm running Aura Mobile Reference series amps. These amps are also neutral, detailed, and mild-mannered. I would venture to say they are pretty transparent. That's what makes them good competition amps. But when mated to the DRZ, which is a good competition head unit, the overall sound can be detailed as hell (foot taps on "Grandma's Hands" and the 'bubbles' in "Correnteza") but not as emotionally engaging. That's why when I threw the Mac into the mix I was so smitten with it right off the bat. But in competition, smitten doesn't get points (well not as many) as detail and transparency does.

So to add another wrinkle to the equation, I'm changing my Aura amps to Sinfoni. From what I understand (never heard one) they have a warm sound to them as well. So when I mate them to my DRZ I should have detail and warmth right? I'm hoping this is the magic combination. In the end the Mac has been a fun ride for the last two months, and I've got more drool on my seats now from where people have oogled over it. But the features and practicality of the DRZ has prevailed and I will use it to compete again this year. Besides, it's been signed by Matt Roberts, so it can't lose .



Oh yeah, the Mac is for sale now...


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## RattyMcClelland (Nov 28, 2008)

Velozity said:


> So to add another wrinkle to the equation, I'm changing my Aura amps to Sinfoni. From what I understand (never heard one) they have a warm sound to them as well. So when I mate them to my DRZ I should have detail and warmth right? I'm hoping this is the magic combination. In the end the Mac has been a fun ride for the last two months, and I've got more drool on my seats now from where people have oogled over it.


IMO Sinfonis are not warm. My Genesis amps were warm sounding and slightly blingy up high. When i put the Sinfonis in, the sound went completely transparent. Very neutral and played the sonic signature of the headunit.
My Hybrid Legatias are also neutral and transparent so together with the MX406 i also have its a winning combo.

I think system matching is very important. Some parts of the system dont suit others.


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## Melodic Acoustic (Oct 10, 2005)

Hmmmm Sinfoni are very transparent I totally agree, but they are warm and liquidity if I have ever hared it. I have own or used/tested every one of them except the Prodigio and the Desiderio. But that is what makes them so special to me that just seem to have a great mixture of it all, that comes together to form the perfect sonic signature.


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## herrubermensch (Jan 23, 2009)

Beautiful DRZ9255 MRM! Me want!! I have a 9255 that I bought BNIB about a year ago, and I just love it, but there's always room for improvement. What mods did Matt make and how did they affect the sound? Love the black front. Very unique.

--Peter


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