Help me get the best sound under $5K in upgrades

The McIntosh you have is an older piece from the 80's, it is very well re-guarded among MAC people. It has a lot of bells and whistles for an amplifier (which is nice) and it sounds very good. If you plan on keeping the McIntosh, I would search for some speakers that match well with it. Magnepans are touchy on resistance (they can dip to 1 ohm or less) That is not ideal for the Mac because of the large swings in resistance and amps required to drive Maggies correctly. Choose a more easy to drive type speaker (assuming you want to change your spkrs). OR you could trade that amp in to Audio Classics or sell it on the website here. Use that $$ to buy a MC352 which would match your pre amp very well and allow you to drive almost any speaker as well as sounding a lot better. The MC352 was designed by Charlie Randall and is one of the best Sounding solid state amps MAC ever made. Hope this helps you make a choice that's best for you.

Yes Mofi, I was thinking of electrostats, sorry I was confusing the two. thanks for correcting me. I always respect your comments. But I will say that 3.2 ohms is not an ideal load for the Mc2255 when compared with a 8ohm load that this MAC was really designed for, in an era when most speakers especially McIntosh speakers (for which they designed to work with THIER amps) were stable 8ohm speakers. McIntosh didn't even come out with a amp to address tougher loads until the early 90's, with the Direct coupled MC7200. The MC352 will drive anything with total control...it has a double balanced push/pull design.

IMHO,Its not. Buy one and check it out . I have .

I used it to drive a pair of Mirage M 3's and while it did drive them it was not ideal synergy. The Mac 7200 was a much better sounding amp for that speaker...Now having said that the MC352 sounds way better than both.

I'm not looking or speaking from paper specs. I have owned all of the amps mentioned and listened to them intimately. If that's worth anything. Mofi has made valid and correct statements of the specifications. I'm talking about the way they sound, driving certain speakers. that's all.