McIntosh with Magnepan not a good match?

[Pampero]

^
In any case, we know that Mc and Magnapan/planar can be a stable and satisfying combination! I was never very interested in 12V so I take you at your word regarding the automotive products. I'm sure they were fine. Another market that has splintered due to the factory integration offered by OEMs these days.

I'd live in Tempe/Phoenix happily during winter and now that you mention it, the Mission Palms sounds familiar though I couldn't swear to it. The hotel had a nice pool and grounds, good rooms and expansive open lobby as I recall, but it was over 15 years ago and memory dims. The bars and restaurants in the area were good, all themed around the southwest and there were so many pretty ladies, not that they noticed me!

[xv21]

I had MA8000 + MCD1100 with Magnepan 1.7 at home for testing. I wasn't totally impressed. There is finesse and warmth in sound, but it lacks something. MA8000 integrated amplifier is beautiful, but I'm not sure if it's the absolutely best combination with the Magnepan 1.7.

[c_dk]

Originally Posted by Pampero

I was the Acoustat Rep at the same time but I was ill suited to the job, entirely apart from my lack of knowledge regarding retail high end. I thought the hybrid Acoustats had a lot of promise but needed more work on integrating the woofers. I couldn't get them to sound right in my house. This too was a buzz kill when it came to selling them but I thought the panels themselves sounded great.

Getting further off the OP reservation here....

If you had one pair of the prototype hybrids we had the other pair. The cone driver woofers where designed here by Carbonaeux and the panels were sent up from Florida. The local designers brought them to our shop to audition with various amps and the panel, woofer integration issues were huge.

Finally pulled out our in house McIntosh AA2 analyzer and plotted a curve of the actual response of the speaker in various locations and mic distances. I even pulled out a MQ107 parametric EQ and smoothed out the canyon in the response to let the local designers get an idea of what might be once the huge integration issue was corrected.

I know they sent a copy of the curve down to Florida, always wondered what Strickland's reaction was when he saw the curve plotted on Mac graph paper.

[audiojunky]

Opinion needed for new possible amp MC 452 with mags on 8ohm taps

Currently running 3.7i's with the new Rotel RB 1590 Amp. Very pleased with it but have always wanted a Mcintosh and now considering a MC452. My son wants my Rotel anyway to drive his magnepans.

I am a little concerned that the Mac will be a bit low on power using the 4 ohm taps at 450 watt/channel.

The Rotel is a very powerfull amp that was conservitively rated at 350 watts/channel but in testing the unit delivered around 805 watts/channel into 4 ohms.
Tested by Hi-Fi-News-11-2015-Test-Rotel-RC-1590-RB-1590.pdf

My question is - anyone running a set of Magnepan 3.7i on the Mcintosh MC 452
My room size is 16' x 20' x 8' high.

I am currently steaming music from Tidal through a Mcintosh MB50 directly to the Rotel. The MB50 as a preamp requires me to run the volume around 50-60% for most music to reach my volume liking.

It is hard to believe the MC450 would not be enough amp and would die early using 8 ohm taps.

Maybe best to leave well enough alone as I dont expect to hear much difference in sound quality. (The Mac Products are just so nice)

Thanks in advance

[FreddieFerric]

Originally Posted by audiojunky

Opinion needed for new possible amp MC 452 with mags on 8ohm taps

Currently running 3.7i's with the new Rotel RB 1590 Amp. Very pleased with it but have always wanted a Mcintosh and now considering a MC452. My son wants my Rotel anyway to drive his magnepans.

I am a little concerned that the Mac will be a bit low on power using the 4 ohm taps at 450 watt/channel.

The Rotel is a very powerfull amp that was conservitively rated at 350 watts/channel but in testing the unit delivered around 805 watts/channel into 4 ohms.
Tested by Hi-Fi-News-11-2015-Test-Rotel-RC-1590-RB-1590.pdf

My question is - anyone running a set of Magnepan 3.7i on the Mcintosh MC 452
My room size is 16' x 20' x 8' high.

I am currently steaming music from Tidal through a Mcintosh MB50 directly to the Rotel. The MB50 as a preamp requires me to run the volume around 50-60% for most music to reach my volume liking.

It is hard to believe the MC450 would not be enough amp and would die early using 8 ohm taps.

Maybe best to leave well enough alone as I dont expect to hear much difference in sound quality. (The Mac Products are just so nice)

Thanks in advance

I used my MA8000 (300 watts) with my Magnepan 1.7's for 3 very satisfying years (I sold the Maggies recently as I am now a Canton Reference owner). I cannot see how adding an additional 150 watts would do anything but good for those speakers.

[damacman]

Originally Posted by audiojunky

Opinion needed for new possible amp MC 452 with mags on 8ohm taps

Currently running 3.7i's with the new Rotel RB 1590 Amp. Very pleased with it but have always wanted a Mcintosh and now considering a MC452. My son wants my Rotel anyway to drive his magnepans.

I am a little concerned that the Mac will be a bit low on power using the 4 ohm taps at 450 watt/channel.

The Rotel is a very powerfull amp that was conservitively rated at 350 watts/channel but in testing the unit delivered around 805 watts/channel into 4 ohms.
Tested by Hi-Fi-News-11-2015-Test-Rotel-RC-1590-RB-1590.pdf

My question is - anyone running a set of Magnepan 3.7i on the Mcintosh MC 452
My room size is 16' x 20' x 8' high.

I am currently steaming music from Tidal through a Mcintosh MB50 directly to the Rotel. The MB50 as a preamp requires me to run the volume around 50-60% for most music to reach my volume liking.

It is hard to believe the MC450 would not be enough amp and would die early using 8 ohm taps.

Maybe best to leave well enough alone as I dont expect to hear much difference in sound quality. (The Mac Products are just so nice)

Thanks in advance

I believe you’ll find the answer you’re looking for earlier in the thread.

[SomeGeoffGuy]

I am a little late to this thread, but I will throw my experience on here in case there are any future searches. I had my receiver before I had speakers (thanks to an amazing deal on Craigslist). When shopping for speakers, the Magnepans stood out with their sound quality. I figured 200 watts of McIntosh power in the 6700 would be plenty for the entry level panel speaker from Magnepan so I bought a set of .7's. Boy was I wrong. Just to get the speakers up to normal listening level, I was almost spiking the meters. If I wanted it loud, the red Power Guard lights would stay on almost constantly, and the fins on the amp would get hot to the touch after only ten minutes.

So I had to pick. I couldn't afford to sell the 6700 and replace it with a preamp and bigger amp. I emailed someone from The Music Room, and he told me that most people with Magnepans build their systems around the speakers. That was the advice I needed, because I wanted to feature the McIntosh (pretty much a lifelong goal to get it), so I decided to search for speakers that would work with it instead of trying to support the Maggies.

I probably went too far in the other direction with some of the most efficient speakers made, but I have a set of Klipsch RF7-III's on order. I listened to them at a place in Toledo running on a 150 wpc McIntosh amp and was sold.


-Geoff

[gadawg]

Originally Posted by Charles

Speaker-amp matching is very important. Most folks that buy Magneplanar are cost conscious as we all are. Modern Mac amps are capable of doing, IMO, a very good job but not the best. Take the 601 with the comparable Classe mono amp. There is little question in my mind that I would go with the Classe or a competitor of Classe that is OTL over the 601. I think you need plenty of watts and an amp (OTL) with plenty of current at low impedance to make a Magneplanar sing. They are great speakers when properly driven. I thoroughly enjoyed my Magneplanars. If the Thiel CS5 had not come out I might be owing a top of the line Magneplanar with a Krell to this day.

I think it depends on what is most important to each listener. Some like hyper detailed, some like bass that extends to the netherworld, others prefer a soundstage the size of Texas while others yet really want razor sharp images with great depth, etc... Some want it all. (Let me know what provides that!) There are some of the areas that I think the Classe will perform best in while others the 601 will sound better. I do agree there are better amps but I don't think it so much is based on OTL or transformers as much as overall good design and voicing which will make as big a difference as anything in determining which customers will like it and which ones won't. And I've owned Classe and McIntosh so I like them both!

Just my 2c.

George

[miatadan]

Originally Posted by SomeGeoffGuy

I am a little late to this thread, but I will throw my experience on here in case there are any future searches. I had my receiver before I had speakers (thanks to an amazing deal on Craigslist). When shopping for speakers, the Magnepans stood out with their sound quality. I figured 200 watts of McIntosh power in the 6700 would be plenty for the entry level panel speaker from Magnepan so I bought a set of .7's. Boy was I wrong. Just to get the speakers up to normal listening level, I was almost spiking the meters. If I wanted it loud, the red Power Guard lights would stay on almost constantly, and the fins on the amp would get hot to the touch after only ten minutes.

So I had to pick. I couldn't afford to sell the 6700 and replace it with a preamp and bigger amp. I emailed someone from The Music Room, and he told me that most people with Magnepans build their systems around the speakers. That was the advice I needed, because I wanted to feature the McIntosh (pretty much a lifelong goal to get it), so I decided to search for speakers that would work with it instead of trying to support the Maggies.

I probably went too far in the other direction with some of the most efficient speakers made, but I have a set of Klipsch RF7-III's on order. I listened to them at a place in Toledo running on a 150 wpc McIntosh amp and was sold.


-Geoff

For the volume level I play my music at, sold the MC302 and replaced it with the Bryston 4B cubed power amp as power is almost doubled into 4 ohms.

Using McIntosh C47 pre amp and hopefully will be able to add other McIntosh
pieces in future.

Dan

[audiojunky]

Bit the Bullet and Upgraded the RB 1590 to a MC 452. Not really much difference. I then added a c47 and can confirm that the Mac Combo really sounds nice with the Magnepan 3.7i's.


I have a few hundred hours on them now. Very rich sound that is full bodied with no harsh overtones. More power than I will ever need. secondly this combonation does proper justice to the Bass at all volume levels that I never saw when using the OPPO 105 as the preamp.

I can say: To me the McIntosh and Magnepan pairing is sublime if the amp has the juice to drive them properly.

Sorry for the delay in post but it takes a while to fund this kind of effort.

System: Mcitosh C47, MC 452, MB 50, Oppo 105D, Speakers - Magnepan 3.7i's, Room treatment with GIK acousitcs

All Digital now. Vinyl with ex wife.