Quote:
Originally Posted by cmalak
On paper, McIntosh and Pass amps would not be my first choice with ARC pres. All ARC pres are recommended to drive a minimum 20Kohm load and the input impedance on the McIntosh and Pass amps tend to be in the 20-30Kohm range. I have read some commentary that suggests the combination of ARC Ref pres and McIntosh amps resulted in less defined and wooly bass. which could be a result of an impedance mismatch for sure. Others as has been mentioned above have successfully mated ARC pres with Mac and Pass amps.
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First in reply to the original post, my dad actually has a REF 5SE for his REF 150 ARC amps and it is certainly a great match.
Now, regarding the McIntosh and ARC mix and match of pre-amp and amp, I thought I would share my experience since until recently I owned but an amp and a pre-amp from both manufacturer. When I had my REF10 pre-amp, I used it to drive my REF 750 with good result - no surprise there. Once I added a McIntosh SS amp to my system, I first started to use the REF10 to drive my MC1.2KW. It worked
OK but it was clear that the sound was getting compressed because of the mismatch of impedance as suggested by cmalak. I quickly concluded that the ARC pre-amp may not be the best match for my MAC amplifier.
So I got the C1000T Mac pre-amp. Of course the match of the C1000T with the MC1.2kw was much better and more fluid because they were "made" for each other! The big surprise was how good the C1000T was with my REF750s amplifiers. My intent is not to compare the MAC and ARC pre-amp here but:
1- trying to match ARC pre-amp with a McIntosh amp - I would not recommend it!
2- trying to match a McIntosh pre-amp with ARC amplifier - GO FOR IT! I actually found my 750s to have more bass with the MAC pre-amp as they did with the ARC pre-amp...
My two cents, in case it helps anyone...Jacques
P.S.: I since then sold my REF10 to only keep the C1000T as a pre-amp in my setup because it worked perfectly with both of my amplifiers...