McIntosh 1900 with Klipschorns? ASAP if Possible


Greetings:

Does anyone have experience using a 1900 with K-Horns - good, bad or indifferent? Would you mind sharing them - your thoughts basic age of K-Horns. I understand all replies are based on your own hearing, other factors, but at least this will give me an idea.
Sincerely Appreciated,
whl248
whl248

Showing 2 responses by bigjoe

ive ran khorns with a ton of mac gear,tube & solid state,the mac 1900's 55 wpc isnt going to drive them very well at all,55 wpc tubes maybee but i feel that the 1900 will be too weak to make the most of what a khorn has to offer.

at low levels the 1900 will do ok but when driven it will distort,even though khorns are ultra efficient when you run them with solid state amps the performance they give when teamed up with high power mac solid state gear is fantstic.

you didnt give us much info to go on,do you already own the khorns or the 1900 ? why the rush ? if you own khorns already there are a ton of better amps & recievers that will allow the speakers to give outstanding performance but im sure the 1900 wont cut the mustard.

both the mac 1900 & klipschorns are very old designs but the khorns are capable of being a world class speaker while the mac 1900 is just a tired old reciever & i would stay away from it if i were you.

im sure if you give us a better idea of what you intend to do & tell us a few things about your budget,preamp,musical tastes & current system that you intend to put the reciever & speakers into you will get some good advice.
ok i look at it like this,you can take a vintage mcintosh mc275 & run it on your khorns then take a mc2102 & put it on them,the difference will be astounding in favor of the newer mac amp.

if its made by mcintosh then chances are that ive owned it at some point & i can tell you from experience of ownership that the older mac gear isnt even in the same league as the newer mac gear.

ive owned klipsch horns for a long time & you are correct when you say that they require very little power but power issues are only a very small part of the puzzle,when you hear how good a khorn can sound with a modern mac amp compared to a outdated & more than likely not up to spec mac amp you will know on the spot why khorns are still a top of the line speaker with very few changes being made to their design over the decades.

there will always be a strong following of the vintage mac gear due to its collectability & holding its resale value but that does not mean that its even close to being as good as the newer mac gear.

after running over 30 different amps of both tube & solid state from all vintages with my klipschorns i realized that i prefered how they sounded while being ran with modern high power amps over vintage gear & the modern gear turned them into a speaker that can compete with most on the market.

just my 2 cents.

mike.