All McIntosh system - does it make sense?

They are great sounding speakers but being as cynical as I am, I have a feeling they are designed for stupid high power amps because McIntosh makes a boatload of money on stupid high powered amps. Designing speakers to handle 2000 watts is an odd choice.

 

Have you seen their "2000 watt" speakers? They are massive! I would think any similarly-designed (humongous) speaker system would require a similar amplifier capability to be effective.

 

This is the more reasonable set that goes for $10,000. They claim to be a good match for amps 75 to 600 wpc. I don't think 75 watts is going to get those woofer very motivated. They build speakers that drink power by design and compliment their monster mono blocks. The reality is that they are not the darlings of the audiophile world and you never see someone that chose these new unless they are all McIntosh. I may be foolish but any time I see speakers that have a matching center channel speaker as an option, I assume they were designed to be used with said center channel and for home theater.

 

I've never been much of a subscriber of the "synergy" thing, excluding issues of incompatibility/mismatched voltage, impedance, minimum/maximum power guidelines etc. Other than that, there's little reason equipment that's well designed and well engineered by various manufacturers should not perform just as well as systems where all equipment is of the same manufacturer by simple virtue of the fact.

Of course there's nothing wrong with assembling an all-Mc system- both of my systems are mostly Mc save for speakers and some sources. Personally, I wouldn't pay the premium that a "rebranded"McIntosh product is inevitably going to entail such as turntables which aren't going to perform any better than the comparable turntable in non-McIntosh clothing.

 

I'm more worried about speaker companies that don't offer a matching center channel. They're often leaving money on the table!

 

Every Mac dealer here in Moscow sets Mac's up with Sonus Faber these days. I think that's the main strategy since they are now owned by the same guys. I've seen McIntosh speakers only once lately and boy did they suck. The worst sound I heard from all Mac system.

 

I stick to McIntosh for amps and DAC only.

Plan to replace my D100 DAC this year and will more then likely stay within the family with the D1100.

For speakers and CD player, I look elsewhere

 

I wasn't impressed with the pair of MC speakers I heard either. The dealer I went to said that McIntosh sort of forced their hand into carrying their speaker line to sell with their amps. Sonus Faber with Mc is very popular and I almost pulled the trigger myself but after a lengthy audition, it was TOO much of a good thing. Too laid back for my taste, but undeniably beautiful to look at and very nice sounding speakers. I went with something that rawked a bit more. I guess Mc and B&W are no longer a big thing? I never really cared much for B&W either but they are a completely different sound from Sonus Faber.

 

The thing with B&W is that Mac's autoformers IMHO don't drive them properly given their deep dipping impendance thus resulting in a soft, not so tight bass. I'd say that JBL is a perfect match for Mac's. Always were, still are.

 

The magic of Mcintosh is with the amps and preamps.
The rest of their devices can be hit or miss, although I am very impressed with the Dac that is in their C2600 tube preamp. This dac is something else!

 

Spot on about the speakers and I'm not a fan of their (Marantz) TTs either. The rest is pure magic; I say go for it !!!

 

All Mac with Atc SCM50s.
Yum!

 

I thoroughly agree with you.

Why not make a center channel speaker, in the event that someone would like to est up a HT using their speaker's. Surround's and or rear's don't make that much difference and you can always use other speaker's for these.

What if someone wanted to use a their front speaker's for both HT and stereo and would want a matching center?

It seems kind of silly not to have one available.

As you say, they are leaving money on the table.

You are going to sell some, just by having a center channel speaker available.

I have a pair of Polk RTiA9's and I have their CSiA6 center channel speaker.

I have a pair of Polk LSiM707's and I have their LSiM706C center channel speaker.

I have a two pair of Boston Acoustic M-Series speakers. the M-350's and the M*340's and I have their M-Center speaker.

This way, I have the center's if I want to use one for HT along with using the front mains for stereo too.

If I sel any of my speaker's as a system, then I have the center's, which are not always easy to get, as part of the system.

 

Yeah, amps are the only components I'd go Mc at the moment.

 

Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, an autoformer amplifier will behave in exactly the same manner as a direct-coupled/output transformerless amplifier when impedance drops - namely an increase in current supplied with a corresponding decrease in maximum available voltage.

Therefore there's really little reason why a McIntosh autoformer amplifier would not perform just as well as any other amplifier with a given pair of speakers on that basis alone.

 

Yeah, but that's my experience with Macs and B&W. Macs sound beautiful in the midrange but don't control the bass and speed nearly as good as Classe, Krell or Electrocompaniet Nemo that I also tried at home and heard at the dealers.

 

This is why I would go with the amp preamp combo.

 

They've got a killer room correction unit too.

 

I believe they’re Clearaudio turntables. I think Clearaudio also made a Marantz table.

 

Well, maybe there are better (as well as cheaper) TT's out there but every time I hear MT10 with a Mac set up the sound was great.

 

Could it be your Speakers you are missing, or are you sure it's the McIntosh sound?

 

No, my current set up is just fine but what I'm talking about is the very specific Mac midrange magical coloration that may not be fully neutral but it's as addictive as coke. In my experience only Macs provide it, particularly solid state Macs (tube Macs sound a bit too soft for my taste).

 

Steve Hoffman liked one of the Mac tables. Also, I like that green glowing platter.

 

My advice: if you like it buy it. Life is short. Oh-Mac solid state is killer.

 

Maybe try throwing a Mac preamp in front of your current amps? I know you may not get synergy but those Nemo's are be reputation pretty amazing amps. No idea if that will give you the sound you're after and you may also consider just a tubed preamp in front of the Nemos not necessarily McIntosh. I think that's the sort of "coloration" you're after.