I have had alot of Mac equipement ( MC 75, MC2300 , MC 2155, C28 , C11 , MX-117) And let me tell you the Mcintosh is really a tube lover. Even now in their solid state electronics they use output transformer instead of having the transistor driving the speaker directly wich result of some sort of tube sound but limited with the output transformer ( tried the Mc 2300 300W/ch on B&W Matrix 801 and the amp meter was always near the 300 watt output when my little Marantz 250 125W/ch had not problem at all driving the B&W even louder) But when it come to OLD mcintosh tubed stuff they are really special my setup was the folowing : C-11 tube preamp , MC75 tube amp pair driving old JBL L100 century. And let me tell you the their was someting magic in the music, I can't describe what but it was one of the best sound I've heard even now (MY curent system: YBA 2HCDT AMP , YBA 2 preamp , JMLAB mini utopia speaker, all wired in transparent reference. Also keep in mid that Mcintosh are not ment to be played LOUD when you listen to a MC at low volume they are great but when you push them a little bit the sound become fuzzy and all the instrument merge to made a big noise.
Why do no audio enthusiasts use McIntosh?
With the exception of some of there tube gear, not many really use this stuff(or admit to it anyway), I am mainly referring to there amps. They look pleasant, they look good on paper and have the price of high end gear, but I seldom hear anyone claiming to like or one day dreaming of owning McIntosh. I have never really listened to there stuff, no good word of mouth sort of scares me away from it, the only people who like it are those who sell it, an uncanny coincidence? I don’t know. Sorry it this has been covered many times in the past, I ran a search and could not find anything.