Marantz vs Mcintosh

nice equipment...speakers are the key.

Jaybo is right - speakers are the key. The 6300 and the 6900 do NOT sound similar. The 6900 is all about smoothness and coherence whereas the 6300 is about impact and agility. A nice middle-ground, and not just in the name, is the 6500.

Also, what would you change in the way your current system sounds?

Arthur

My current system sounds very good (with Opera Quinta speakers). I am just wondering if Mcintosh amps would make the music sound more real.

Hmmmm...I would venture a guess that the 6300 would be the first one to try out on those speakers. I was very impressed by this new amp - and I even heard it on some of the most ruthless speakers ever made: Klipsch Cornwall III. The 6300 may even make you feel like keeping your speakers afterall! ;)

But if you do sell them, don't change amps until you get another pair of speakers.... The speaker/room interaction is what dictates the majority of the sound signature. The amp should merely compliment it because it can rarely do much more than that anyway, even though the 6300 is balanced and powerful enough to be polyvalent.

I always questioned whether or not I was hearing real music until I discovered McIntosh. After tons of other brands (and I still experiment a lot), McIntosh does it for me like very few others.

Arthur

I did audition the 6300 and 6600 in store. I agree that 6300 has better impact and 6600 offers fuller sound. The salesman advised that the 6600 was very very similar to the older 6900.