Mcintosh Quality after buyout by D&M holdings

The dealer was the one that sold me the C1's and I don't believe he was actually comparing McIntosh to Parasound but wanting to make a sale and knew it was in my price range. I am new into higher grade audio. The first brand I ever saw was McIntosh and was immediately drawn to those beautiful blue meters. Ever since then its been downhill and as much research as I could do. I blindly never even looked at the history of McIntosh owners and just believed in the quality. Then he tells me his belief that it wasn't the same and I had look into it myself.

I have always liked Parasound but searching for the last couple of days I have ruled it out as an amp replacement. This seems to change frequently but as of right now I'm back the MC402 and Pass Labs X250. I just want to an amp the will go best with the C1's. The more I read, they seem to need alot of power which makes me lean more to the X250.

It really is good to hear that Mac hasn't lost sight in quality through the years of transition.

First of all, I really appreciate everyone's input. This was my first post on here and it has been very helpful. I would love to audition each amp but I cannot afford a new Mac amp and I don't have a Pass dealer close to me. At this point I was leaning towards the Pass x250 for the price. I am looking for something around 2-3k and a decent MC402 is at least 4k. I'm currently using the MC150 and it seems somewhat flat and was hoping that was because of the cables. Right now I'm just using generic 12 gauge wire. I am about to purchase some Transparent speaker wire.

My main question for someone that has owned the C1's and hopefully paired them with a mac amp. Should the MC150 be enough to properly power them? I hear so much about the C1's being power hungry and I feel like the 150wpc isn't enough. If it is enough than I know to look somewhere else for the problem whether it be cables, placement, source audio.