mcintosh vs jeff rowland

The Mac isn't a fully balanced design, I'd expect them to either be equal or RCA to be better.

The obvious thing is matching your speakers with the right amp. I would expect both the MA7000 and the Continuum 500 to be excellent units, I'd love to experiement myself.

I have owned two Concentra II's. The first I had I loved and always regretted selling, it was a great match wth the speakers I had. But I replaced the speakers and after doing so I wasn't so pleased, so I played with amps. (It was the speakers, I eventually sold them.)

I later purchased another CII in hopes of selling my spearates, as I had spent a lot on speakers and wanted to even the finances out. My separates were (and are) McIntosh MC402 and C46 and the CII was no match, at least with the speakers I was using.

Above Jimmy mentions the MA6900, which IMO is not on par with the newer MA6600 and MA7000. A friend recently purchased a MA6600 and is extremly pleased with it, replacing Bel Canto mono blocks and pre.

Again, speaker matching is important, but if you have to lean on opinions, Jprice would have to be one of your best sources as he has owned both. After reading his comments, I'd love it if he could have a Continuum placed back in his system, after some more time with the MA7000, and get further thoughts; I am surprised by the lack of 3d with the Mac, a usual strong point for them.

Jprice, how are you feeling about the MA7000 these days, are you still missing the Rowland?

Jprice, I am curious of your take, or anyone else's, on this AudioEnz review?

I don't have platinum ears like the Audio Enz reviewer.

I do wonder though if his amp was fully broken in. (several hundred hours of "normal to hard use" to make it come into its own.) My continuum really didn't become fully "musical" until I played it a lot, and then it became magic.

I don't have those gifted ears either. :) I also wondered about the break-in. Knowing that class D amps take long to break-in, I am surprised he didn't mention how much time was on the amp. There is also the possibility of system synergy, a second set of speakers can be helpful in an eval, but not always a possibility.