Mcintosh MA 6900 integrated vs Mcintosh separates?

This will not be much help but, I have owned the 6900 for almost three years now. I have had Thiel CS 2.3's and now the Vonschweikert VR4jr hooked up to it. It is one musical integrated amp! I have heard other speakers hooked up to it at my dealer (B&W, Martin Logan, etc.) and this is just one special integrated that mates well with many different speakers.

The 46/402 combo and 6900 are a match soundwise, the 6900 has plenty of power for your 87db/W/m 805's the 46/402 has more power,dynamics every... The c2200 will utilize those tweeters and mids more effectively and add some needed life (to my ears which prefer a different sound to B&W) than the previous combos. I would consider c2102 amp optimum. Ma2275 integrated looks super and sounds like a 75% clone of 2200/2102, and better than other combos in one box. If you play exloud rock and have a exlarge room it might not be enough juice all other discussed are good matches or overkill.If you live around binghamton ny audio classics offers hundreds of bw-mac combos. Try as many till your happy, hopefully my rankings will fill in any gaps, before i get hassled 402 is more powerful and would be needed for panel type speakers but if wfa let you have electrostats and all that other boxes don't wimp out the 2102 sounds best in monobloc config which requires owner to flip a switch,and pony up another $6100.

The separates are better than the MA6900 but the MA6900 is a great unit itself! I've had the MA6900 and now have the C2102 and C2200 and love it! The tube pair is more natural sounding than the MA6900, but more money, more stuff, and more heat. TAS recently thought the Mcintosh 402/46 and 2102/2200 combos were some of the best they've ever heard, and agreed you can mix and match them. If you can, demo them. My local dealer had them all available for demo so it was easy. Knowing what i know now I would start with the separates.

I auditioned the MA6900 back-to-back with the C46/402 combo (with B&W N803) and the latter is definately better. However it also costs twice as much! I wouldn't say it was twice as good - they were quite similar overall - but there was more detail and ambience with the combo. That same day, we also played with the C45/252 combo and I think it was closer to the C46/402 than 6900 in terms of amount of detail. Otherwise, very very similar. Arthur