Speakers to mate with McIntosh gear

wait it out & find a pair of mcintosh xtr 22's,they work fantastic for home theater & for music they are really something special,the xrt 22's are nothing like the 4 ohm plastic woofer speakers that mcintosh now sells as high end.

bass down to 20hz,great mid's & the sweetest/cleanest high's you could ask for & well within your budget.

ive ran my xrt 22's with a c2200 preamp & a ton of different mac amp's including the mc402,the mc402 c2200 combo would be a match made in heaven.

For a Mac MC402, the Sonus Faber Cremona and Cremona Auditor are exceptionally synergistic. Also beautiful workmanship and visual design. The Cremonas are $8K per pair, and can be had used for your price range, and the smaller Cremona Auditors are right in your price slot with stands and will work beautifully in your space.

Also, Zu Druids, but you won't need all that power. However, it can't hurt either.

Phil

They are a little out of your price range, but Paradigms signature s8's are my current ownership experience. They are fantastic, the s4's are good if you listen to nothing with big bass, but the single woofer is somewhat overloaded

Markd51:
I'm with you on the JBL's. There's just nothing like that effortless sense of impact with those Alnico 4" voicecoiled 15" jobs. What I have found very helpful in taming the JBL's is using a fairly high quality 5 band fully parametric eq like the Phase Linear or Technics of the late 70's.

I also have the Mcintosh MC-402 and I have a MX-119 for a preamp/processor. I am using the Vienna Acoustics Mahlers for the fronts, Waltzs for the rear surround and a Maestro for the center. I am using three bridged channels of a Mcintosh MC-7106 for the center and surrounds at 320 wpc.

I do most of my listening as two channel and with the MC-402. I love my Vienna Acoustic Mahlers. They retail for $10k, but I was able to buy a mint pair at $3900. There are deals out there especially on this website.

A long time ago I did own a pair of JBL 4343 speakers, I loved them, and they were very special to me. I foolishly sold them when I went back to school, but they were nice. They were a very different speaker than the VA Mahlers though!

My wife will tolerate the Mahlers, but just barely! (They also sound a lot better in many ways!)

The JBL speakers are great and if I was able to rock out and was single I might be look for a pair, but I am at a different stage in life and am seeking something with a little more refinement that can still kick ass (bust discreetly of course!)