Macintosh vs Pass labs

McIntosh is like a Buick Park Avenue. Where Pass amps are more like a BMW M5. Performance, design and implementation of the Pass Labs amplifiers is heads above the Mc.

And what's up with the cheap turn buttons on the Mac? Do they just visit some junk yards looking for some 1950s, 1960 cars, rip the buttons off their radios and mount these on their amps and preamps? C'mon!
Take a look at the latest McIntosh creaton - their turntable. It's as beautiful looking as Pontiac Aztec. Who aproved that design? Stevie Wonder?

Know_talent, I read your post few times and I can't seem to understand it.

Though McIntosh autoformers deliver rated wattage at 2, 4 and 8 ohm terminals, they still double power as they go down. That is why people experience thermal overload when hooking up B&W's to the 8 ohm taps. The current draw heats up the unit and it shuts down.

Rated wattage for, let's say MC402, is 400w/ch. If this is what the amp delivers into 2, 4 and 8 ohms, how does it double down?

I've heard a 100w/ch McIntosh stereo amp in the store driving B&W N803 for about 40 seconds on a normal volume. Well, I wasn't the one who experience thermal overload. That McIntosh amp was. It just shut down. At the time I had at home a McCormack DNA-0.5 Deluxe, that was rated similarly to that McIntosh amp. I never had a problem driving the N803s with it. Granted, the speakers were underpowered by this amplifier, but it never stopped playing. That McIntosh amp simply gave up in a relatively short time. I call that unacceptable.

Now, your last paragraph, again is unclear, when you mention that a MC501 only delivers 250w/ch from its 4ohm posts into an 8ohm load....how's that? A speaker(i.e B&W 800 series) can have an impedance curve and go from 8ohms to 3ohms, depending on what's playing and how. So what good would the MC501 be?

I understand things like brand loyalty and I'm not bashing McIntosh amps. I think they're fine amps and there are certainly people with the right speakers with which these amps sound great, but, I guess I just don't understand all this autoformer principal and how it works(if it even does).

Know_talent, thank you for taking the time to explain.
I still don't think McIntosh are as universal of amplifiers as some other amps, but that's just me.
I won'd be calling McIntosh as I have no interest in their amplifiers. At least not right now. Your explanation is enough.