Best solid state Mc Intosh amplifier

Hi everybody!

I'm new on this forum.

In the past, I had a C36+MC7150, and later I had an MC225 I really appreciated. I sold them all and now I only get an MR65B.

I would like to know what is, according to you, the best solid state amplifier ever made by Mc Intosh.

Some people consider the MC500 as the best one.
What is your opinion.

JérômeB

On what speakers?

To me, this is very situational......"The Best" means different things depending on the speakers driven - even in the realm of Mac. On my Klipsch, for example, I either look for tube or autoformer solid state amps - the non autoformer models are not as good of a match for them, IMO.

My "Best" for my use are MC-30 tube amps. There is NO replacement for tube rectified sweetness AND power from these vintage beauties on high efficiency speakers. For that application, they are as good as it gets. What is "best" for you may be something different all together.

In Solid State, I crave a big MC2300 for a brute, and I enjoy the early series autoformer amps (250, 2100, 2505, 2105). Other speakers and ears love the newer stuff.

I agree, this is quite speaker and ear dependent. When I still had Quads the combo of 2105/C29 was very good (!), but with Klipsch I felt the strong desire to switch to tubes. Current Mac combo: MC-30s with MX110 - sweet!

Wolfram

The current generation SS amps are proabably the best yet to come from McIntosh. 501, 402. They have won numerous awards and positive reviews in the press.

However, Roger Russell says that all Mc Intosh amplifiers sound the same... Solid state and tubes.

JérômeB

So, I understand your comments.

I owned different speakers (Spendor SP100, LS3/5a, Rogers Studio One ...) and, obvously, the requirement in term of amplifiers were very different and specifics.

Maybe I could ask my question in another way ...

What is the Mc Intosh solid state you prefer and why?

JérômeB

Jerome: excellent question I myself would like to know. I'll be using Apogee duetta II speakers and have just noticed the non-autoformer Mac's on e-bay. Sure could use some advice for these in-efficient speakers.

wineslob said:

Jerome: excellent question I myself would like to know. I'll be using Apogee duetta II speakers and have just noticed the non-autoformer Mac's on e-bay. Sure could use some advice for these in-efficient speakers.

Click to expand...

A friend of mine use Full Range Apogee and he considers that only Krell amplifiers can drive them.

JérômeB

When I first got my Apogee Duetta Sigs, I had a 2205, 200wpc. It played them fine. The great thing about the meters is you can use them like a tachometer. So, I kept it within the redline. Then I bought a MC500. Beautiful. The Aps loved the extra power and current. A friend was selling his Krell FPB600, 1200wpc into the 4 ohm load. I had it for a couple of weeks to try but I preferred the Mac. Side story: A friend of mine has produced a few CD's. His wife is a singer. When he heard I had the Krell at home he came over for a listen. After an hour or so he asked if I would hook up the MC500 he'd heard many times before. It had been unplugged for over a week. After not even 5 minutes of warmup, he says "Yeah, that's it." The Mac was more real. NOW, I'm not going to say that ONLY Mac can drive the Apogees like someone said only Krell can. That's ignorant and ill-informed. The Mac does it for me. Hey, it's my money . A year or so later I bought the MC1000 monos. Talk about ear candy.

Thanks onemug! One other question, I've read that Mac's sound "mushy" on planar's such as maggies. Supposedly because the damping factor is too low to control the diaphram. Any problems with controling the bass panel on your ap's? Oh I should state that it was AUTOFORMER Mac's that were said to have this "problem".

Hi Wineslob, Both the 2205 and 500 have autoformers. Bass was better on the 500. It has more power and much more current than the 2205, plus the 2205 at the time was 20+ yrs old. I don't remember the exact damping spec, but I think it was around 30. Not very high. (100 to 200 on the MC500). I will say this for the Krell, it really controlled those woofer panels. For me that extra damping of the Krell also overdamped the midrange and tweeter. Made it sound a little harder. I prefer a softer sound. The 500 gave me almost the Krell in the bass while keeping the sweetness of the mid and up. How much power does the non-autoformer Mac's have that you're thinking about? My advice would be get as much power as you can, if it's a Mac w/autoformer, try and get a newer one like a MC300, or more, when they started uping the current. If you do like Krell, I worked my way backward down their line to a KSA 250. That was spectacular. I had it for 7 yrs. Good luck.

I have always been partial to the MC2500. Under appreciated, tough as stainless steel and oh so smooth. I will never have to buy another amp as long as I live. Sounds as good at small fractions of a watt as it does at 550+.

r

Thanks one and rich. Im looking at a mc300 on e-bay but the price is already beyond what I can afford . Ah well, I will just keep looking. Btw the 300 has got to be the best looking amp I've ever seen! Oh, I belive the damping on the krell is 1000?

I've wondered abou the damping also. Right now I'm using a Rotel RB1080 but it doesn't sound very full and rich until it gets turned up a bit (not the best for 100db Klipsch speakers and I plan on getting Klipschorns someday at 104db). It has a damping factor of 1,000 also and the woofers put out plenty of bass and the cones barely move.

McIntosh Autoformers make damping factor far less relevant as the output devices never see any reactive load. A number of people have said that damping factor any higher than 15-20 isn't significant. In my experience if you hear something in a system driven by a Mc amp that you don't like, you can be certain its not the amp..

I think Maggies sound a bit mushy anyway. I'm not a big fan of them and I'm probably going to annoy somebody for saying so. I know they have a huge following. The very best I ever heard Maggies sound was bi-amped with a pair of 500wpc Brystons and a Bryston crossover.
Regrdz
Bill

JérômeB said:

So, I understand your comments.

I owned different speakers (Spendor SP100, LS3/5a, Rogers Studio One ...) and, obvously, the requirement in term of amplifiers were very different and specifics.

Maybe I could ask my question in another way ...

What is the Mc Intosh solid state you prefer and why?

JérômeB

Click to expand...

I like the MC2205 amps, but as others have noted, it somewhat depends on your speakers. Mine don't require massive amounts of current. In the past, I've listened to Audio Research D76a's, Levinson ML-1's, Ampzilla's, GAS Son of Ampzilla's, Mitsubishi DA-15's, Crown DC-300a's, H/K Citation 12's, H/K Citation 16's, Marantz 250's, and Marantz 510M's.

The McIntosh MC2205's are by far the best sounding amps I've ever listened to and sound more like music than any other amp I've listened to. I'm certain I'd like the newer autoformer McIntosh amps at least as well, but my MC2205's just sound too good to get rid of.

wineslob said:

Thanks one and rich. Im looking at a mc300 on e-bay but the price is already beyond what I can afford . Ah well, I will just keep looking. Btw the 300 has got to be the best looking amp I've ever seen! Oh, I belive the damping on the krell is 1000?

Click to expand...

Damping factors are one of the least important issues when choosing an amp. Richard Pierce [sp?] wrote and article explaining the truth regarding damping factor numbers. Read it at http://www.diyspeakers.net/Articles/Richard Pierce DAMPING FACTOR.pdf


To my ears it is the distortion that make the biggest diffference. Frequency response should be ruler flat at least 20hz-20kc of course but that distortion is what will get you. If you notice the specs on Roger's website you will see that as time goes on, the distortion gets lower and lower. I chose the 2500 because I felt that the distortion was better than the 2300. I viewed the 2500 as an improved 2300. The 2600 is an improved 2500. Make a small spreadsheet and it will be a little clearer why the price goes up. The other part that drives up the price is the SNR. When I made up my little spreadsheet, I included model number, street price, watts, distortion, SNR, autoformers, and PowerGuard. I like the PowerGuard circuit. Lowers the possibility of damaged tweeters by at least an order of magnitude. Very early versions of the MC2500 sported a silver front panel.

If you get a MC2500 get the latest version. There were 3 different versions and the latest is the one I like the best. It approaches the 2600 in SNR and distortion. If you want, I can look up the serial number range for the latest version. Not sure if the 2500 is within your price range.

BTW, selling the idea of getting a MC2500 to my wife was the easiest I ever had. I explained Power Sentry and PowerGuard and she agreed that to protect my speaker investment was a great thing. She likes the idea of purchasing "insurance" for expensive items.

rich

onemug said:

Hi Wineslob, Both the 2205 and 500 have autoformers. Bass was better on the 500...
Good luck.

Click to expand...

Can you tell me more about the differences between the MC300 and the MC500?

JérômeB

Vinyl Rules! said:

The McIntosh MC2205's are by far the best sounding amps I've ever listened to and sound more like music than any other amp I've listened to. I'm certain I'd like the newer autoformer McIntosh amps at least as well, but my MC2205's just sound too good to get rid of.

Click to expand...

With which others models did you compare your MC2205?

JérômeB

JeromeB,
I never owned the MC300. I made the recommendation based on it being the same generation as the MC500, same transistors etc. It would be the little brother to it. Remember when comparing amp power that the Macs with autoformers keep the same power with 2, 4, or 8 ohm speakers, so a MC300 would put out 300wpc into any of those impedances. A Krell KSA250 would be 250 into 8 ohms, 500 into 4 and 1000 into 2 ohms. Even though I don't listen to anywhere near those levels, I've found my planars seem to wake up with the extra power even at 1 to 5 watts. I preferred my MC500's 500wpc to the Krell FPB600's 1200wpc into both the Maggies and Duettos, so another factor is quality over quantity. I think Mac made a MC150 with 150wpc around the same time to if money is tight. Nobody ever said it was easy.