McIntosh 402/B&W 803D Question

Try ARC and get ready to have your expectations blown away.
Even their little 55 watt tube integrated on the 803's is a knockout. Tons of bass, presence and crunch. That said, the new 200 watt solid state integrated from them will totally lift those speakers off the ground.

Yes. The Mac will drive the B&Ws EASILY

I have B&W Nautilus 803S's and they were rated as A- from Stereophile because of "a slight lack of bass". Have not heard the D's (but even with the the 3rd woofer) would think they are not the last word in bass extension for rock music. You have plenty of wattage/current so my advice is to stick with your VTL pre and amp to get the wonderful VTL house-sound the engineers built in and add one or two sub-woofers. Get subs that have EQ and seperate volume controls like you find in the Velodyne DD-series. Depending on the size of the room you might get away with using only one 10" (DD-10) sub. Seeing the bass frequency response on a monitor and dialing it into your room is truly an eye/ear opening experience. After that all you have to do is turn up the volume on the sub/s to get all you can take. BTW I love my McIntosh equipment so check out my system and remarks.

I must say I agree with Brianmgrarcom on this one. I've listened to McIntosh running B&Ws and the bottom end do get soft. I'd go with something from Krell, Gamut or even Accuphase.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for your comments/opinions. I do like my current amplifiers, and would step up to the VTL MB 450s except that the current retail price is too rich for my budget at the moment. I've received several recommendatations regarding the 402, especially when combined with the 803Ds. My only concern is the excess gain that can be the result of a tube pre and a SS amp combination. I did leave a message at McIntosh for technical advise.

Dirk...the MC402 specs can be found here: http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/mcintosh-mc402-stereo-power-amplifier.asp

If the VTL 5.5's output impedance is 195 ohms and the input impedance of the MC402s is 10Kohms (single ended) and 20Kohms (balanced), then there should be no impedance mismatch between the units. You want at least 10X input impedance of power amp to output impedance of pre. In this case you get 50x+. So you should be ok. The specs do not specify gain but you should be able to get that by calling up McIntosh. I have no experience with the amp so don't know its sonic attributes but purely on paper from an impedance matching point of view, that combo should work.

While I agree with others that the MC402 will not have a problem "driving" the 803D's, my question would be is it what you want. The 402 is soft in the bottom end, in my opinion, and the fact you want something for Rock music has me thinking you may prefer another avenue.

Nonetheless, if you contact McIntosh I suspect they will give you the specs you desire.

The 402 is a workhorse of an amp. It is very well designed and with the autoformer output stage, I can't imagine many speakers it wouldn't drive efficiently. I also think your 5.5 will mate well.

Personally I don't see a problem with Mac's & BWs.

I am surprised a 180wpc amp won't drive them well enough, even with Rock music. maybe it does make sense after all, BWs do enjoy lots o watts.

I've heard the 402 driving some hungry speakers and it worked just fine... that was with the 2200 preamp? or the top SS Mac pre a couple years back now. 2100? MC21?

Good luck... some Mc owners will be along shortly.