McIntosh MC501 or Audio Research DS450M for Magnepan 1.7


Dear all - Which amp should I choose for Magnepan 1.7: McIntosh MC501 or Audio Research DS450M?

Planning to use the McIntosh D150 if I go with The MC501 or Audio Research LS27 if I go with DS450M.

Thank you in advance!
Livio
benagli1

Showing 2 responses by stereo5

Is the Audio Research DS450 a class D amp?  If it is, I would go with the McIntosh.  It has a lot of power and a lot of current.  I have the McIntosh MC152 and at 150wpc, it is much more powerful than the 250wpc Conrad-Johnson amp I used previously.

I believe those ARC amps have been listed here 2 or 3 times now. If I remember the Stereophile review, they insinuated they were more on the detail oriented analytical side. I went from Classe to Odyssey to Conrad-Johnson, Rogue, Parasound and now to Mac. There is nothing like a Mac, they are extremely musical, forgiving of lesser equipment, high resale value and they are very dependable. And those big blue meters are gorgeous.

The ARC preamp will mate very well with the ARC, Heard it in a buddys system and at a show.