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

"Pretty cool, actually. I've never heard a difference in amps before. Now I really want to find out what else is out there."

Oh no, it's started. :-) Be prepared to spend lots of money, probably get divorced, have many sleepless nights, be on a first name basis with your local dealer, lose your eyesight reading too many magazines and blogs.

Run fast away while you can...

I need to clarify something Matt said above. Maggies do NOT go below 1 ohm, in fact they really don't even come close. 3.2 ohms is about the lowest any Magnepan will drop to and most are around a flat 4 ohm load.

One of the only speakers that go that low would be an electrostatic speaker. My Martin Logan CLSIIA's will drop down to around .8 ohms, but my Magnepan MG3.6's only drop to around 3.8 ohms.

Your McIntosh amp should have no problem with the 1.7's. These are the specs I found on your amp:

SPECIFICATIONS:

250w/ch. (500w mono)

Response: 20-20kHz (+0 -0.25dB).

Distortion: 0.02%. Noise and Hum: -95dB.

Output Impedance: 1, 2, 4 and 8.(0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 ohms in mono).

Damping Factor: 30 or greater.

Input Impedance: 50k.

Input Sensitivity: 0.75v or 2.5v.

Headphone Impedance: low.

Sentry Monitor. Power Guard. Autoformers.

Plus, this amp has autoformers, so no worries.

Matt...the MC2255 has 1 and 2 ohm taps on it. McIntosh wouldn't do that if the amp was not capable of those load impedances. Look at the specs I listed above.

Also the MC2255 has autoformers, so the impedance of the speaker becomes a non factor. The autoformer keeps the amp safe at any output or load impedance.

IMHO, this amp is perfect for lower impedance loudspeakers.