is McIntosh known for good dynamics?

For several years I’ve been using Focal Sopra 2 Speakers driven with a Simaudio 700i integrated amp.  Last summer I upgraded to a Macintosh MA 9500 integrated amp using Cardis Clear Reflection Cables with an Esoteric K-03 XD SACD player. While the 700i has a lovely sweet and detailed sound when I switched to the MA 9500 the change in dynamics was instantly noticeable and much better. There simply was no comparison. I heard deep bass that I never heard before and the warmer Macintosh “House” Sound was far more suited for my Sopra 2 Speakers. 
I auditioned a Pass Labs 250 at the Dealer and I preferred the Macintosh with the Sopra 2.  The Pass Labs sounded similar to the Simaudio, which was not bad, actually very nice but the Focal/Macintosh combo was a match made in Audio Heaven.  The Focal Sopra 2 is a very efficient 98db speaker and the sheer power and dynamics of the MA 9500 made them come “Alive” in ways I never imagined. 
They sound more like the much larger Sopra 3 speakers. 

I didn’t put on material that had large macro changes so I don’t know about the macro. Does your idea about the distortion contributing to dynamic impressiveness apply to micro dynamic presentation as well?

@magon Yes. If the amplifier is generating higher ordered harmonics then the scale of the dynamic contrast isn’t important. The amp will simply contribute to it, making the presentation more ’dynamic’.

When the amplifier power is clean, you’ll find that there is a tendency to use more of it because the amp isn’t generating ’loudness cues’. So to get the sound pressure you’re looking for, you simply need more power. This is why so many SET users say things like ’8 Watts is plenty of power for me’. A sound pressure level meter will verify this.

The mark of the best systems is a relaxed presentation, even if the sound pressure is 95dB. It should not sound loud.

When it comes to SETs, unless that SET has feedback, the distinctive dynamic quality of the amp is entirely due to distortion. You’ve heard it- that is how insidious this is. You don’t hear any harshness (normally associated with higher ordered harmonics) but the additional distortion is there anyway, masked (masking is the ear’s principle where a louder sound makes it difficult or impossible to hear a quieter sound) by the lower ordered harmonics. If you turn up the volume high enough though, the SET will sound loud, even though its not making that much power.

This is a difficult thing to understand until you do that test I mentioned. At that point you really get that the ear has developed in the most efficient way possible. It has trouble gauging the sound pressure of a pure sine wave since they do not exist in nature. That is why it pays so much attention to the higher orders. Many designers didn’t understand this fact in the past, and created solid state amps that had considerably lower distortion than most tube amps, but because the higher ordered content, while low, was not masked, it caused those amps to sound bright. The ear of course assigns tonality to distortion in the same manner that allows you to distinguish musical instruments through their harmonic structure.

Put another way, most of the differences you hear between amplifiers is due to their distortion signature; its not frequency response. If you put the amp on the bench you find out its frequency response is flat, yet one amp sounds bright while the other does not. Since frequency response isn’t why, its easier to understand that distortion is the culprit.

I’ve not heard one of Boyk’s recordings in a long time.

My Mc611's have a low damping factor of 40 while the previous amps I was using were like 3000 so I expected terrible bass in the demo yet the opposite happened? I always try to listen since I can still make no sense of how measurements effect the listening experience regarding speaker amp pairing.

@steve59 Damping factor, typically is an indicator that an amplifier has a low output impedance, generates high current and can drive more reactive speaker loads and is also less likely to have variations in frequency response as a result. Mcintosh uses autoformers which mitigates those effects and allows their amps to drive any load to full power.