Stereo or monoblocks

If you can, mono blocks are the way.  Which ones is a different story.  If you like the Mac sound, you can double down and get Mac’s. If you want dilute the Max sound, there are many amps that sound good with your preamp.  Last year I was at a friends house and he had a Mac preamp and PS Audio BHK 300 mono blocks playing through KEF Blade speakers.  I didn’t want to leave!

Just buy the best amp(s) you can afford with an appropriate amount of power for your needs. Mono doesn't automatically mean magic, it means separate left and right chassis and the imaging will be better, everything else being equal. 

The MC402 runs around $4500-4900. Just get the best amp you can find in that price range. @normantaylor liked the Magtech amps better not just because they are monos, but because they are better amps and they really lit up his Maggies. 

It is interesting to see the enthusiasm with monoblocks and if you like monoblocks you will love active speakers which typically have hand picked monoblocks... for each driver. My active speakers have a 150 watt monoblock for the woofer and a 50 watt monoblock for the tweeter that were handpicked by the speaker designer, saves $$$ on speaker cables too.. 

@kota1 Wrote:

It is interesting to see the enthusiasm with monoblocks and if you like monoblocks you will love active speakers which typically have hand picked monoblocks... for each driver. 

I love monoblocks and active speakers.  The speakers below have an active crossover with no power amps built in and are excellent speakers. Also, my home audio speakers are actively bi-amped with 4 mono block amps, no built in power amps and sound great. A speaker, with built in power amp(s), is called a powered speaker, active or passive is in reference to a speakers crossover topology. In my opinion, amps inside speakers is not a good idea because the amps are subject to all the vibrations and air pressure inside the speaker cabinet. FWIW, my speakers are JBL 4435's. 😎

Mike

@ditusa

Congrats, that sounds like an ideal setup, I love JBL’s 😍

and own the Studio 2 series in the mancave home theater.

Going the active route like you did is OTT.