McIntosh MA6500 Integrated amp

Some people are willing to spend the extra money for the autoformers so McIntosh takes advantage of the situation. Many long-time McIntosh owners do not what to part with the perceived advantage of the autoformers. I toured the McIntosh lab before purchasing my MA6500 and confirmed with the engineers that the MA6900 and MA6500 sounded the same.

Williammeredith,
You cannot confirm with the engineers, but with your ears only. This I have done, and these amps sound different, as experienced by others who have compared them - see the thread mentioned above. As far as Mac´s engineers are concerned, they are very much from the measurement-school. Chuck Hinton e.g. told me it did not pay to bother with speaker cables, "as they sound all the same". However, changing speaker cables has made one of the most noticable differences in my present Mac-system.

Brianmgrarcom,
I went from a vintage Luxman L85V integrated to the MA6500. Needless to say the improvement was immense. The Mac is super quiet with low distortion so detail is extreme with no listening fatigue.....zero!
My brother has the MA6900 and both amps sound very similar but not the same. One thing to consider is the 6500 (without autoformers) has a greater damping factor which should control your flabby speakers a bit better than the autoformed 6900. I confirm this in comparing our two systems.
My only peeve about my Mac is the cheap plastic knobs....should be aluminum. Also, the meters although pretty put out some heat. Wish they could be turned off.
All told I like my MA6500 a LOT. Good luck and happy listening.

Before you buy that Mcintosh ma6500, go listen to a Anthem i-225 int amp !...the best of both worlds !...

This thread was started 9 years ago!