McIntosh MA252 Hybrid Integrated Amp

One of my audio buddies who is not a McIntosh fan heard the MA252 driving a pair of Focal Kanta speakers (not sure if they were the 2's or 3's) and reported that they paired very well.

I have McIntosh separates driving a pair of Focal Sopra No2's, speakers that need a more "warm" sounding amp, and it appears from my friend's comments, that the MA252 drives the Focal's very well.

I wasn't impressed. I bought one of the very first units that hit the market. It didn't have enough juice to drive my Gemme Audio Katana speakers. I replaced it with Gold Note IS1000, a much better integrated amp.

I am using a MA252 with Joseph Audio Perspective upgraded to the graphene 2 and it handles them with ease

@scarbpaul12

What are your speakers? You mentioned that your speakers are inefficient. The MA252 hybrid will not be up to task driving highly inefficient speakers.

I’ve only heard the MA252 paired with the KEF LS50 passive standmount speakers in a non-ideal environment and speaker placements and wasn’t impressed at all.

I’ve also heard the same KEF LS50 paired with some $70k++ Naim separates (Naim streamer/DAC, Naim preamp, Naim power amp) in a different listening room and was absolutely amazing, very musically engaging and involving. I know this was a very unlikely pairing. Can’t imagine someone would pair $1500 pair of standmount (bookshelf) speakers (KEF LS50) with separate electronics costing some $75k. However, unlike any other speakers in their price range, the KEF LS50 do need good quality amplification and upstream electronics and source component in order to shine. These speakers are different from any other $1600 worth of speakers. I wouldn’t recommend pairing these speakers with an AVR or some mediocre electronics as the overall end results would be very dissapointing. These speakers are very sensitive to the signal fed through them. They always performed and sounded very different with different electronics. 

@scarbpaul12 

In regards to the performance of a built-in phonostage in the MA252 I can't comment as I didn't use it. I only listened to its linestage input fed from a McIntosh DAC. I would suggest you get an external good quality phonostage pre for your turntable as it will perform better than some onboard phonostage in an entry level integrated amp such as the MA252.