Price Paid:  $3800.00 from Sound Perfection, Me

Summary:
Very different sounding transistor amp. I demo'd about 4 different transistor amps including the one I already had on the same interconnects/speakers/preamp/CD_player. One amp cost nearly twice as much as this one. They all sounded similar, with subtle differences. Then I tried this one. Immediately noticable difference in the highs. My belief is that this is by virtue of the output transformers, which all tube amps have. The transformerless transistor amps all had an extra fuzz, kind of like a raspiness, in the high frequencies(like 5K and above) that just isn't in the source material. As soon as I heard this one I could tell the highs were right there. Natural. Everything was there but nothing extra, which is what an amp is supposed to do. My decision was made right then and there.
The midrange is smooth and detailed. I can't comment on the bass as I'm using a subwoofer in conjunction with this amp.
At first I didn't like the way it looked. But in time I came to enjoy it thouroghly. It gives me a throwback to the seventies when, as a boy, I first started getting into high-fi.
My opinion is that McIntosh hit a home run with this one. And it'll be a sad day if they ever discontinue this one. Worth every penny of the 3.8 Killobucks I paid for it. No complaints.

Strengths:
Beautiful look.
Perfect highs, everything's there and nothing extra.
Smooth as silk midrange.
Selectable output taps can drive anything from 16 to 2 Ohms.

Weaknesses:
None that come even close to bothering me.
One quirk: I can't see how the reading on the power meters relates to anything. I put it on a scope and neither the peak nor rms power levels seem to agree with what the meters say, this was with an 8 ohm resistive load. They boast in the literature about how accurate the power meters were but I was scratching my head. Doesn't really matter though because I rarely play the amp at anything close to clipping. The meters look really cood to and I'm glad they're there.

The amp may be a bit heavy for some. I'm just glad I'm still young and can lift it LOL. But audiofiles typically like heavy stuff anyway.
Also, you have to be careful when you lift it because of the glass on the front, salesman told me you can easily break it if you lift it by the glass.

Similar Products Used:
None. I only have experience with transformerless, transistor amps and Tact Audio switching amps.

Price Paid:  $4500.00 from Professional Sound

Summary:
I use the MC 252 to drive a pair of full range electrostatic speakers (Acoustat 2200). The result is astonishing. These inefficient speakers can dip down to 1.2 ohms at frequency extremes and the MC252 just drive it with its output set for 4 ohm speakers. The autoformer works like a charm. I also experimented with the 2 ohm setting, but found that setup with reduced power and less transperancy. The 250 watt amp at 4 ohm setting can easily provide the extra power at 1.2 ohm without stress (I tried other SS amps, even at twice the power rating, that cried for help).

The sound is warm, smooth, and coherent -- i.e. all the good things that come with tube -- but also powerful in bass and low in distortion -- i.e. without the bad thing about tube. This amp replaced my Sonic Frontier SFS-80. Occasionally, I still miss the tube amp's slightly better musicaliy, esp. with chamber music, but the SS Mac is is made for my speakers that I thought was an "impossible" load.

The MC 252 may not be the best amp in the world, but it is close to perfect with respect to its price, its musicality, and its ability to drive difficult loads.

Strengths:
Tube sounding SS amp that can handle very difficult load.

Weaknesses:
Take time and care to setup: for best results, one should experiment with different output settings. Simply matching the speaker's nominal impedance with the output tag may not yield the best sound.
Also, the amp has lower than average input impedance (10k ohms), which means that it prefers shorter cables to a preamp that can drive low impedance power amp. To my surprise, my Sonic Frontier preamp does not work as well as my volume controlled DVD-A player. Later I realize that the DVD-A player is designed to drive 10k amp inputs.

Similar Products Used:
Zero autoformer, Sonic Frontier SFS-80, Rotel RB-1090, Bryston 4BSST

Price Paid:  $3100.00

Summary:
After 15 years in tubes, I became tired of the hassle of finding/replacing tubes, tube rolling, etc. Most other solid-state gear I've heard has the typical grainy sound that sent me to tubes so many years ago. Having not listened to McIntosh gear in many years, I visited a local shop and had a listen.

The MC252 has the attributes of tubes, namely smooth, detailed sound without the downsides of tubes, that being less than tight bass. I also found the MC252 was non-fatiguing after long periods of listening.

Some say the MC352 or 402 are better amps, but from my hearing the MC252 is as flawless an amp as I've heard.

Strengths:
Tube like sound, but solid-state like bass control.

Weaknesses:
May need to use a McIntosh pre-amp to obtain the synergy I hear.

Price Paid:  $3500.00 from Natural Sound

Summary:
What a terrific amp, the baby of the line, and what a baby. Smooth and open, tube like in many ways, great control over the speaker, efforless sound, and you can get another one...mono or biamp its up to you.

Strengths:
musical. opem lush and dynamic

Weaknesses:
heavy...but thats Mac

Similar Products Used:
goldmund, linn, vtl, levinson