McIntosh MC501 or Audio Research DS450M for Magnepan 1.7

Go with the McIntosh. Why? because its MUSICAL as hell and sounds gorgeous,powerful,dynamic,controlled and will drive those speakers without a whimper. Not to mention McIntosh amps are built like battleships, never break, they will protect your speakers from a clipped signal (that's a big one), and the company has been making them in up state New York for over 60 years. And they look gorgeous too!


Matt M

There willl be no problem with regard to input as the ARC owners manual states:

OUTPUT IMPEDANCE:700 ohms Balanced, 350 ohms SE Main (2), 20K ohms minimum load and 2000pF maximum capacitance. Outputs (3): 2 Main, 1 Record (XLR and RCA connectors).

You can use the 10K input on the MAC (rca) or the 20K (XLR) the ARC will output well within range for great synergy...14X for the XLR input and 28X for the RCA. (10,000 amps input (se) divided by 350 (output of pre) is 28, as long as it’s 10 times or greater your good :-) The OP may want to consider RCA’s between the amps but XLR’s will work great as well.

ARC tube pre amp with a SS MAC amp is incredible sounding.

Matt M