Disappointing On Mcintosh......help

Vegasears
I owned the TL-2.5 for two decades.
The early 12AX7 & 6350 tube model.
After rolling to the right tubes, it went to having little signature sound & little tube sound. It had more natural uncolored sound.
The I upgraded to the TL-5.5 (series 1)
After rolling to the right tubes, it went to having no signature sound & no tube sound. After going to reference quality cables, there is no house sound, no coloration, just the open & airy music without bias.
I’ve gotten to the place I wanted & glad you have too.

I've owned several Mac amps over many years. I've found all to be solidly made and their latest hybrid integrated amps are magic. The Mac 352 paired with Harbeth Super SHL Plus speakers creates sound that beats systems costing thousands of dollars more. Plus Mac gear holds its value, which makes it easy to upgrade without taking a big financial hit. 

I have heard McIntosh with speakers such as Dhalquest long ago and for its day it was impressive. More recently I heard McIntosh with Sonus Farber and the Sonus Farber speakers cost well over $50,000. They were well suited for duplicating the ambience of an outdoor rock performance which when live is amplifier with enormous banks of speakers. But let me join everyone else in encouraging you to go with the sound you like. Don't let any high prestige brand name or exotic theory get away with making you choose something that does not sound as good to you. I design and build my own amplifiers and preamplifiers and many components which are supposed to sound better disappointed me. I tried parafeed to drive the grids on my 833-A's and while it worked, it did not have the full body and detail of regular DC carrying larger step-down transformers to go from 5k to 500 Ohms. The same with a selector switch with 24 pairs bulk metal foil Vishay resistors for volume control which was far outclassed by a cheaper Alps plastic resistor with a wiper. The same in my preamplifier which sounds best by far with a less than glamorous resistor capacitor coupling input. And finally, the same was true for me of speakers. A $1400 pair of Magnepans outclassed every box speaker I ever heard for sounding as clear and like a live performance of an acoustic orchestra and live singers in the opera house I go to.I would consider McIntosh with Magnepans, but I have "outgrown" by my disappointing experiences in life with the luxury status eliciting way of life to be achieved by guests being impressed with the sight of McIntosh, which I think can be very good electronics. I prefer the exhibitionist of my steampunk style amplifiers with quart-sized radio station transmitter tubes complete with proper warning, 1000 Vots stickers on the output transformers. Finally, don't be fooled by cables costing thousands of dollars. The physics they use in their designs is faulty but it takes graduate level training to calculate how their claims calculate not to add up.

If you think Parasound A21 is better McIntosh MC452, buy the Parasound amp. End of story.