New McIntosh MA252

Hey donjr,

yes, simple and elegant. But I’m gonna miss those big baby blues and a separate button or knob for each function. But overall, incredible sounding, like they figured out how to put more music in there than the original recording. Actually, just great to hear so much fullness and clarity from the same Music you’ve heard so many times!! 

teboerio

I did  research/read many posts and reviews about ma252 on internet including this forum.
Finally I just brought one home last Friday. Only I can say is 'Wow'.
It's paired with B&W 805 with sub. It makes perfect harmony with my speakers and fill my listening room with beautiful sound. Its sound is definitely different from full solid state/tube amp, but it matches with my sound preference with my rest of system. 
Thank you so much for all comments on this thread. It helped me a lot. 

Congrats on taking the plunge! I've been living with my MA252 for almost a year now and I couldn't be happier with it.

New member and first post.  

I've had mine for a month or so and I'm so impressed with it.  I sold a Musical Fidelity A5.5, which I really enjoyed, and I have no regrets.  Originally I was using a pair of Tannoy Precision 6.2 LE (mass loaded), which sounded wonderful but I just upgraded to a pair of Focal Aria 926.  Wow, I'm blown away.  I have no complaints.  The Arias have such a balanced sound, a little more than the Tannoys. I find the Tannoys needed a precise seating position to get that sweet spot and the Arias don't demand this.  The main difference, imho, is the bass. The Tannoys impressed me with its bass, when I first go them, but with the Arias there is simply no comparison.  Lower and tighter... Jazz bass lines wound so authentic, and this is coming from a musician for over 30 years.

For those who own the MA252, I have a question.  My Cardas cross speaker cables have spades that are too narrow to fit onto the Mac's posts.  So I purchased Cardas locking banana plugs, which work wonderfully.  What quality!  But in order to use the banana plugs I had to follow the MAC instructions which states you need to: finger tighten the post, then using the MAC wrench turn another 1/4 turn.. or 90 degrees.  I did this for all 4 posts, however one of them seemed to have "let go".  What I mean is that now when I want to loosen the post, the entire post is coming out, which will no longer allow spade use.  The other posts work like they're suppose to.  I've tested the speakers, one side with the other, and I don't hear any difference.  Is there something that I can do if I pop the cover off?  It doesn't affect the speaker so I guess I can leave it that way, but it is really bothering me.  

Any constructive thoughts?  Thanks everyone.

I remember reading in the MA252 manual about giving the speaker terminal nut an extra quarter turn after snugging it up but I didn't want to force it, so I left it like that. If I were in your shoes and it bothered me that much, I'd contact McIntosh to see if they've dealt with this before. The only issue I would wonder about is if the terminal needs to be tightly bonded to the chassis for grounding purposes.