McIntosh MC252 with Totem Mani2 / Sig's

my MF tri vista sacd player only has single ended outputs, which i am running into the c2200. is there any point to my using the balanced connections to hook the pre amp up to the power amp, if i'm using an unbalanced connection from the cd to the pre amp?

I have the same set up, C2200 MC252 on one of my systems. I have used both balanced and unbalanced cables to the amp. Personally I like balanced cable connections better as they are more secure. High end balanced cables are less money and sound great. Try Canare, or Ethereal Home Theater Cables as they are both around $50 for a stereo pair. very high quality.
By the way the MC252 shares a bunch of parts with the MC501 mono blocks which the reviewers love. These two amps were developed together.

Ron-C

I have MC252 with a C38 preamp. I used this system to run my Thiels 2.2 and found it lacking. Thiels are known to be difficult and subsequently found different amps to drive them. But right now i am using the Mac to run a pair of Ushers x719s in my office and have to say...wow....
i am running these of the 8ohm tap and the speakers are rated at 88db...
in general it seems that given a tough load the amp will have a rough time

I have the MC-252 with a C-15 preamp and am very happy with it. I drive a pair of Totem Mani-2s and find the 252 to be more than enough power. Mac amps have VU meters with great ballistics and when you listen at normal levels or above, and sit down in front of one of them, you find out just how much power you really use/need. I can really crank the 252 into the mani-2s and it never runs out of steam. Skuras--, good decision. you couldn't go wrong either way. You will love the mani/Mac combination, now this is a pair of keepers!

For what it's worth I have an MC206 and two MC202 amps. The 202 sounds a lot better then the 206. I run 10 channels in my home theater system.

I bought the MC202 amps from Audio Classics. Frank Gow at Audio Classics and I talked about the sound differences between some of these amps. He said the MC202 and the MC252
sound exactly the same, the 252 simply has 50 more watts of power. Frank said that if I wanted to go to the next level in sound that I would have to go to the MC352 or the replacement MC402. He says that I would hear a difference using these amps.

I know, can you really believe a salesman? All I can say is that Frank hasn't let me down yet. Audio Classics is a good place to deal with.