McIntosh - is it that great?

Porziob: Single Ended Triodes in the 21 Century! Who'da thunk it? People vote with their pocketbooks so in looking at how well McIntosh is doing, I'd say they got elected. If they don't get your vote, that's fine. I think they are aware of the transistors low impedance and it's more about impedance matching: lower it for tubes, raise it for transistors. Bottom line is if there was only one way to do things, everything else would be falling by the wayside and I don't see that happening.

I thought I'd chime in here on one of the reasons I think Mac is so great, at least for their solid state. It's their hand wound autoformers. I got this from something Ron C, of McIntosh, said awhile back. Transistors are not very linear compared to tubes. They get pushed around by speakers, which are not resistors. Mac designs the output stage to be as linear as possible within a certain design and type of transistor they're using then couple it to the autoformer. The output stage stays very linear while the other end of the autoformer deals with the reactive speaker. It seems Paul Speltz is enjoying success with his aftermarket autoformer. Imagine Macs experience with handwinding their own all these years plus they're matched for that specific amp. I hope I haven't butchered his explanation too much.