Macintosh vs Pass labs

If you want a McIntosh amp, by all means get one and try it. That way you can make your own decision. You can always resell at no loss if you make a wise purchase.

Personally, I feel the latest McIntosh amps have superlative microdynamic detail and information, which make instrumental timbre exceptionally accurate. They also have a natural coherence that puts the soundstage together perfectly IMO. Give it a try and see what you think.

Arthur

Just reading along: I get confused as to which Mac blocks are their best. I read many here think the 501's Then in TAS I see they use the 436'es to review 25k speakers. Which is better? I probably would have gotten the Pass 350.5 but it it just to heavy; untill I get that car-motor engine lifter installed in my ceiling.

listened to the Pass XA100.5 monoblocks recently at a dealer- the highs seemed a bit 'strident' to me (Hovland HP-200 preamp; Gershman Avantegard speakers). Feel that my Symphonic Line RG4 MKIII monos do not have this issue, and be much more even across the frequency spectrum... MAC would interest me more than Pass.

I own the 501's and when I was auditioning against the 402 I thought there was a big difference, not so much sonics but power and total lack of compression when pushed. This was important to me because I drive Thiel 3.6's.