Yeah, sure, there's always some cheap miracle that is thought by someone to "smoke" older standbys, and they rarely do. Anyway, the "sound" of anything is judged by personal preference.
Would McIntosh Auto Transformers affect speaker sound?
I have a question about McIntosh and its auto transformers. The auto transformers allow the wattage to be the same on all ohms. However, you have to pick which ohm to run on the amp to the speaker.
Since a speaker can be dynamic in ohms (dip between 8 ohms and 4 ohms typically), does this mean the McIntosh will not correctly match the dynamic range change? Would it cause the speaker not to give the same soundstage or holographic sound that a traditional amp would give?
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I have had all ARC and/or Mc’s since about 1980 and feel like I’m familiar with the sound of the two manufacturers. Going through the list: ARC D 52, VT 100 II, D 70 II . D 52 was dynamic, but smeared the highs with no imaging. Failed and blew up a pair of ProAc Studio 1s. VT 100. Powerful and dynamic. Very detailed but thinned out the lower midrange to achieve this clarity. D70 II. Best of the lot. Dynamic and “warm” but preserving great detail. I sold one but just bought another. Mac MA 230 and MAC 1500, both rebuilt with the preamp section bypassed and acting as a basic amp. Quite dynamic, not slow at all. Punches above its weight. Have the 1500 now. Mac 2105. A nice sound, powerful but not the last word in detail. Mac 275 IV, pair in mono. Dynamic, warm, reasonably detailed. Mac 275 VI. Detailed and powerful, but only after replacing stock tubes with 6550s, Sylvania AT 7’s, and real Telefunken ax 7’s.
Mac MA 6900. Slow and heavy, the only Mac amp I just didn’t like. Now I use the 462 for movies and tv, and the 462 for bass and the D 70 for the mids and highs for music. The best sound I’ve ever had. Sorry to be long winded, but broad brush assessments don’t tell the story. The sound varies from model to model. The most recent transistor Mac’s are the opposite of the 6900. They are detailed and dynamic, and not especially warm. The 462 is very neutral in its sound.The most recent ARCs reflect the house sound as to dynamics, as to other aspects of the sound I haven’t been able to hear them much. Hope this helps. |
@degx1000 thank you, this was actually really interesting. Question please. Have you heard the MA12000 unit? If so, how would you describe the sound?Also, Does that use to modern transistors that you mentioned that are not particularly warm? |
dman I have not heard that model and frankly, don’t want to be tempted to change again. As an answer to whether autoformers affect the sound, it doesn’t seem to be the case. All the above amps have output transformers. The overall design of the amp seems to have more effect on the sound than the presence of output transformers. BTW, the design of the autoformers on the 452/462 must be incredible to yield the extremely low distortion figures that the amp has.
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- 40 posts total