Quote:
Originally Posted by jpgr4blu
Hi Charles:
Just to clarify--the amp that was matched against the Mac 2102 at the dealer was a midlevel ARC amp--the designation of which I did not investigate at the time. The price was about the same as the Mac 2102. Obviously, the ARC and Mac presentations are completely different and I appreciate that anyone could prefer one over the other.
I have also heard the Dag Momentums in my system and found them to be the best solid state amps I have ever heard with Wilson.
Finally, all due respect to Sydney Corderman and his historic role in the development of modern audio. I still have the beautifully written and illustrated coffee table volume "for the love of music" about the history of McIntosh by Ken Kessler whose reference system was, years ago, Mac based and is now ARC based with Wilson DAWs.
Many will not share Mr. Kessler's preferences or mine.
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I noted that you did not name the AR amp which was the reason I used the 110. I think the 2102 and 110 fair comparisons.
After spending years on this website it is a truly interesting/fascinating phenomenon I have noted
on it, how AR aficionados want (some deep seated need?) to compare AR to Mac. I don't see this with CJ aficionados or Mac aficionados or other aficionados of various tube or SS gear.
The same can be said of Dag aficionados who really like to point out how much better they like their Dags and how much better they sound with their Wilson's than Macs,
and which they have
usually switched to from their previous Macs.
Do AR and Dag aficionados believe they are performing the uninitiated and uninformed a public service?
Therefore, one who is recently new to this website and highly interested in Mac might come to the conclusion that Mac tube technology is
not nearly as advanced as AR tube technology. Not so. In general a Mac tube amp is much lower in distortion and puts out considerably more power and at lower impedance than a comparable AR amp.
The distortion and power figures the unity coupled circuit provides has never been equaled and is used in all Mac tube amps. Mac tube amps also weigh considerably more than AR amps for their given power ratings.
AR uses fans to cool all their amps including their latest 160 mono. I don't like fans. Fans are noisy and introduce noise into the circuitry. Current Mac tube amps to my knowledge do not use fans.
I think Mac tube amps are more reliable than AR have longer tube life and do this without the use of fans. Mac tube amps consume a lot less power than do AR amps.
In general Mac tube amps are about 40% less expensive than comparable AR amps not because they are less expensive to manufacture, have inferior parts, better specs, or inferior sonics but because for every tube amp AR sells, Mac probably sells ten or more. The same is true for the C1100 when compared to the Ref 10 Line Stage pre's and other Mac pre's compared to AR pre's.
CJ has recently come out with some absolutely beautiful new tube amps that are very impressive I might add. If I were looking to go tube it would be between the MC2301 and the CJ ART300 mono block because I want the higher power.
