One Amp To ‘Rule’ Them All....

Tim I am not beating around any bush. 

I’d love to hear some McIntosh gear. It’d be helpful to hear a McIntosh amp that can handle my current speakers. This is a pleasant aside to my primary goal.

My primary goal for beginning this post was: I wish to define for the whole audio community one or more common, competant, reliable, well executed, sonically comprehensive, reasonably affordable amplifiers that we can begin to use as ‘reference amplifiers’ to judge other amplifiers by. That’s it. 

I am interested in hearing the Audiogon community’s continued thoughts.

OP- you may want to start here.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/my-long-list-of-amplifiers-and-my-personal-review-of-each

Like most audiophiles seeking answers such as yours, there is mud and sludge one must go through reading all these experiences with all these amps to find some answers. This guy (who started the post above) has stated he had the opportunity and resources to do much of the work and has tried many quality amps. So it’a good read, to say the least.

Gentlemen, I am well aware of ‘the dance’ that is assembling audio reproduction gear. But we need to start somewhere and so far in my experience amplifiers are the heart and soul of any system. Speakers are a close second. Power quality is third.

And honestly, still being relatively new to serious audiophilia, ‘the dance’ seems more like a slow-motion mosh pit than any dance I’ve ever seen.

I am 44 and a professional visual FX artist. I know art. I know tech. I know some engineering. Audiophile land is a weird wild world and not always forthcoming or inviting. It’d be nice if we worked together to help each other out.

McIntosh can handle difficult loads, I have Maggies that are 4 ohm speakers and love current.  

You have to hear them as many love them and others not so much.

They typically bench test far in excess of rated power.  My MC501s are listed at 500 wpc and bench tested about 750 wpc.

The synergy between amp and speaker is important.  I hope you can hear them.  What is your amp budget and how much power do you need?

brettmcee:
"And honestly, still being relatively new to serious audiophilia, ‘the dance’ seems more like a slow-motion mosh pit than any dance I’ve ever seen."
     
Hello brettmcee,

     I think I can speak for my fellow Audiogon members and state that you're more than welcome here and we're willing and able to help you with most issues or questions you might have.
  
    What's confounding me, and perhaps others, is the roundabout way you asked about good amps for your multiple Infinity Kappa speakers. 

Never mind how and why someone, who claims to be "new to serious audiophilia", owns three different models of Kappa audiophile type speakers.  And why it took you so long to communicate that you're aim is actually to find a good amp that can handle the difficult low impedance loads of your Kappas.
     I think I'm just accustomed to posters adopting a more straight-forward approach.
     But, in an effort to help you out, I suggest we just ignore all of the above and you just transition your thread question, from this point forward, to one that is clear, concise, can be communicated in 1-2 sentences and reflects exactly what assistance you're requesting.

Thank you,
   Tim