Price Paid:  $4500.00 from Audio Video in Colle

Summary:
This is a great sounding amplifier. Numbers never tell the whole story, and reading posted specs can never make up for listening to something for yourself. This amplifier may have modest ratings, but it has incredible performance.

It has an amazing sound. It's smooth, detailed and accurate. I've rediscovered all of my CD's and movies again. It has great control over my speakers - detailed highs, lifelike mids, and tight bass. There's no harshness in the amp at all.

This is a great amplifier, especially if you're looking for something that's capable of driving your entire surround sound system.

Strengths:
Classic Mac look and sound
Powerful
Sounds great

Weaknesses:
No bridging capabilities
No balanced inputs

Similar Products Used:
Proceed HPA3, Sunfire Cinema Grand, Proceed AMP 5, McIntosh MC7205

Price Paid:  $4500.00 from Pro Sound in Vegas

Summary:
Some consumers believe that power output is directly proportional to quality. This may often be true, but never with a McIntosh amplifier. The 200 watts per channel (4 ohms) delivered by the MC206 is pure McIntosh power, & an ample amount for most listening rooms. IMHO, the MC206 is well-suited for most multichannel home theater systems. This Class A-B amp runs very cool & uses less than one amp when idle. Visually, it's the most beautiful Mac HT amp with its three VU meters glowing.

With "Power Guard" (keeps the amp from going into clipping), I didn't hear (nor see using Mac's MPI-4 oscilloscope) a single harsh clipping characteristic, and it never exhibited any signs of strain even when I stressed the limits of my speakers and understanding neighbor's patience. Reasonable heat dissipation with no need for a fan.

If you like the warm sound similar of tube amps, please make the effort of finding one to "test-drive" in your neighborhood...

Strengths:
Very deep low end. Warm smooth midrange & musically acoustic scene with lush attributes similar to a good tube amp. Remarkable clarity. The MC-206 seems quite forgiving of poor quality audio companions.

Weaknesses:
No channel bridging -- Mac addressed this issue with me stating size, weigh & cost prevented them from designing the amp to be bridgable. No balanced inputs, though not a big deal.

Similar Products Used:
Amps by: Krell, Crown, Marantz, McIntosh, Denon, and Sony.