Why so much love for Mcintosh?

bump,  I went with A C49 and pair of Mc611's about a month ago to drive a pair of Kef Blades I bought 2-3 years ago. The previous amp had 525 watts into 4 ohms and over 2k into 1 ohm, so stable and powerful enough I thought. What impresses me so much about the Mac gear is how dynamic everything sounds at low volumes. Contrast, soundstage, and pinpoint imaging all improved beyond any expectation because I never imagined how much audible difference a single watt could make.

My previous listening sessions would be in the mid 90's with +100db peaks and I still can, but I don't need to when I can get the music's full measure at idle. IDK if Mac pairs this well with all speaker brands, but I have no reason to shop further. 

I have a c2700 feeding mc275.  Best sound I have ever had.  
 

In the times I have really listened to Mcintosh gear it sounded very natural and big sounding, of course these were usually expensive systems with big tall floorstanding column speakers so maybe the big impressive sound was more because of those.  I think the older stuff can be soft sounding, like alot of older tube gear, Marantz Fisher stuff like that in the old days.  But the company has been around forever and always had a strong customer base, so it is doing something right, and their high end stuff gets into nose bleed territory.

Mac are as good as anything out there if they are matched with the right speakers.  

Have a C2700 feeding a pair of MC611s. I no longer have any urge or intention to upgrade. The bass/midbass competes with anything out there. The midrange is beautiful. The highs are a little lacking, but I fixed that by adding a pair of Nordost Valhalla 2 XLRs from my DAC to the preamp. Now, this system is complete from top to bottom.