Sorry Dave, but I never heard a Krell I liked and T & A doesn't tempt me. I have been into this hobby before you were born (I think) and after 50+ years of buying equipment and always upgrading, I realized I should have bought McIntosh since day one. I had the same attitude everyone else seems to have regarding Mac, but that all changed when I took a chance on a used MA6600 200wpc integrated amp that I purchased at Audio Classics. When I inserted I into my secondary system, for me it was a wow moment.
My personal taste runs to the warm side of neutral and I do not care for the overly detailed sound. The Mac MA6600 is a perfect match for my GE Triton Ones. I liked McIntosh so much I bought one of their SACD players and a Tuner which replaced a highly regarded Magnum Dynalab.
My main system at that time had just received the GE Triton Reference speakers and using my Conrad Johnson MF2550 (250wpc) amp made the entire system sound slow, thick and syrupy with no defined highs. I found myself hardly playing the system, so I bought a McIntosh power amp, tube preamp and their top tuner, again all from Audio Classics. It was another Wow moment and I am thrilled beyond thrilled. I ended selling off the Conrad Johnson amp, Rogue RP5 tube preamp and Magnam Dynalab MD102 tuner and recouped some of my money.. Back from 1970 until 1985, I was an audio salesman in a mom and pop store and although we sold a lot of mid fi, we did sell Accuphase, Bozak, Rectilinear, Empire plus others I can't remember. I am telling you this so that you don't think I am someone who doesn't know how or what to listen for and who is clueless about putting together a fine sounding system.
On Sunday, someone from the Gon stopped by my house to pick something up. He has Pass equipment plus a lot of other expensive pieces. He kept saying how unbelievable my system sounded and was raving about the imaging. This guy also had McIntosh at one time but sold it and purchased Pass equipment. His parting words were that he never got that kind of sound from his Mac system and never knew how good the McIntosh equipment really was.
Peace...………….
My personal taste runs to the warm side of neutral and I do not care for the overly detailed sound. The Mac MA6600 is a perfect match for my GE Triton Ones. I liked McIntosh so much I bought one of their SACD players and a Tuner which replaced a highly regarded Magnum Dynalab.
My main system at that time had just received the GE Triton Reference speakers and using my Conrad Johnson MF2550 (250wpc) amp made the entire system sound slow, thick and syrupy with no defined highs. I found myself hardly playing the system, so I bought a McIntosh power amp, tube preamp and their top tuner, again all from Audio Classics. It was another Wow moment and I am thrilled beyond thrilled. I ended selling off the Conrad Johnson amp, Rogue RP5 tube preamp and Magnam Dynalab MD102 tuner and recouped some of my money.. Back from 1970 until 1985, I was an audio salesman in a mom and pop store and although we sold a lot of mid fi, we did sell Accuphase, Bozak, Rectilinear, Empire plus others I can't remember. I am telling you this so that you don't think I am someone who doesn't know how or what to listen for and who is clueless about putting together a fine sounding system.
On Sunday, someone from the Gon stopped by my house to pick something up. He has Pass equipment plus a lot of other expensive pieces. He kept saying how unbelievable my system sounded and was raving about the imaging. This guy also had McIntosh at one time but sold it and purchased Pass equipment. His parting words were that he never got that kind of sound from his Mac system and never knew how good the McIntosh equipment really was.
Peace...………….