Operational/Interface Performance

Since I work with computers all day, I was a bit leery of relying on one to service me for the leisurely activity of music listening. I have grown accustomed to application hangs, crashes, and corrupted files, so I was anxious to see how the MS300 would stand up to the rigors of everyday use. Thankfully, the OS was designed with a single purpose on a known hardware platform. This gives the system an enormous leg up compared to many competitors which use front end software designed to work on multiple hardware platforms.

Such an approach yielded the kind of interface performance I had hoped for. System operation was stable, with a minimum of glitches, and absolutely no hang-ups. This type of solidity enhanced the overall user experience and made me want to use the MS300 even more. I was never concerned whether a quick transition from one section to the next would cause a kernel panic like I can get with my work PC. I have always felt that an effective operating system should be invisible to the user, and save for a few lapses, I would classify this one as transparent.

While on the subject of lapses, I will note a couple of oddities that did detract, however slightly, from my enjoyment of the system. When listening to music from my main library, I transitioned over to the iRadio section of the interface just to browse the available stations. As soon as the menu switched over to iRadio, the music that had been playing cut out. I understand the iRadio feature is a separate function from the primary music interface, but I think it is logical that music continue to play regardless of your operating experience until you specifically select something else to listen to. Hopefully, a future version of the OS rectifies this issue.

I also ran into some odd behavior while browsing through albums and selecting tracks. There were instances when I would select a specific track from the main navigation menu. As the menu transitioned to the album specific page, the track selected would skip to the following track instead of the one initially selected.

When browsing music, you can use the remote to select the letters of an artist's name, and the system will track down to it, which was a definite convenience. Unfortunately the remote's keypad mimics a phone in that each number corresponds to three distinct letters. This made it unnecessarily complex to track down to artists whose names fall on that third letter of the corresponding number. I could have used the accompanying wireless keyboard for direct access, but that was too cumbersome for everyday use. I would have preferred the addition of a navigation menu via letter, or even better yet, a search field. I have a relatively small collection, so this feature wasn't essential, but a search feature could come in handy for those whose collections run into the thousands.

From a user interface perspective, the MS300 maintained its high level of performance, save for a minor complaint I will cover later. The MS300's interface puts every function in the right place with a minimum of visual clutter and easy to understand visual queues. Don't get me wrong, I like a pretty face, but it falls a very distant second to being able to successfully find and select music. I found the layout to be exceedingly straightforward and made my way through the various menus with ease. Customizations like personalized playlists and groups were accomplished with a minimum of effort. Navigation through my collection was equally painless, forgetting my whining above. In fact, so rarely did I feel lost, that the user manual served more as a reference rather than a life preserver.

Nits

When you take into account the level of complexity that goes into a piece of technology as sophisticated as a music server, you come to expect some measure of undesirable behavioral quirks. The MS300, though wholly reliable overall, was not without its moments.

As I browsed my collection by cover art, I noticed the Gracenote database the MS300 employs was lacking in the retrieval of soundtrack and classical genre covers. I do have some esoteric stuff in my collection, but when mainstream stuff from the likes of Elfman, Williams, Zimmer, and Horner came up with a generic soundtrack cover I took note. Even more lacking was the classical retrieval that left 90% of that genre faceless. I'm a visual type of guy, so these omissions did curtail my navigation experience.

While I was satisfied with the MS300's user interface, I would like to throw my two cents in about its visual look. If I had to pin it down, it would be the color palette chosen. A graphic designer by trade, I can, at times, be a bit ruthless when it comes to color and how it relates to function in design, but I have to say I did find the overall look of the OS to be a tad dingy. The menus feature a collection of browns, burnt oranges, and blues that seem to compete with one another rather than compliment and highlight data. This look made text harder to read and drew me out of the experience of perusing my collection. Overall, I'd say it misses the contrast needed to create the visual snap I see in interfaces from competitors such as Qsonix.

As much as the bewitching green glow of McIntosh's trademark front panel is a crowd pleaser to all who visit, I did find the illumination too intense during night time playback. When you are trying to enjoy Pink Floyd in the dark expanse of your theater, you don't want to feel like the headlights of an approaching car are directly behind you. I have encountered this throughout the industry lately in all manner of products, so I can't single McIntosh out, but it would have been a welcome addition of a complete front panel illumination shutdown as well as dimming options.

Another performance issue was that of noise. Since the MS300 internal parts produce quite a bit of heat, the MS300 employs a fan in the rear to maintain a proper internal temperature. Unfortunately on some of my quieter listening material, I was able to hear the fan kick in from time to time. The pitch of the fan is not terribly high, but it was a letdown to hear my digital source physically add to the noise floor of the room. By no means was the level offensive, but the anal retentive in me yearned for silent operation. I did notice the fan had more than one speed. On what I would classify as its "low mode" the MS300 was inaudible from my listening position. Instances where the fan kicked into its higher mode (complex operation, overall room temperature increase, etc.) is when it became noticeable. Between the fan noise and front panel illumination, the MS300 may be best housed in a more remote portion of your listening space.

So that I don't seem overly critical, one area I do give kudos to McIntosh is in its software updates. There are many products on the market that promise to add increased functionality through software revisions only to see products languish in software limbo. When I inquired if McIntosh would suffer the same fate, they responded with an actual upcoming feature rather than some obscure, generic promise. This year, the MS300 features peer to peer networking. This addition will enable two MS300's to operate on the same network and act as a single unit, thereby doubling the capacity and analog zones. Best of all, this upgrade will be done automatically to all internet connected units. As someone who has suffered with software/firmware updates via rs-232, I applaud McIntosh for not only providing updates, but doing so with such a painless procedure.

Conclusions

Sonically, the MS300 acted exactly as I had envisioned, which is to say I never noticed its performance. While that may strike you as a negative, it is not. The best umpires are the ones you never notice, and the same can be said for digital sources. Aside from a few hardware and software ticks, the MS300's reliable operation, ease of use, and impressive network feature suite satisfied me on the operational side of the equation. With legitimate software updates in the works, the MS300 further distinguished itself as a well conceived product that is quite capable now and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

We have now come to the sticky element of value vis a vis price portion of our story. With an MSRP of $5,100, the MS300 is a princely sum indeed. I can't say definitively that this product will represent a value to all. In fact I know plenty of people who are quite content to continuously rise from their seat and peruse their collection disc by disc during marathon listening sessions. I am most definitely not in that camp. I prefer to have my system work for me rather than the reverse. The ability to enjoy the totality of my source material from the comfort of my plush leather chair is hard to quantify. With the McIntosh, I found myself listening to tracks I hadn't in years. Songs on albums that generally sit collecting dust in my nicely furnished IKEA CD rack found their way back into rotation. I found myself delving deeper in my collection, which yielded even more satisfaction from a system that has already been quite good to me over the years. In the end, isn't that what it's is all about?
 

- Chris Montreuil -