stereo5 wrote: It is funny because my Triton Ones in my other system, being driven by a 200wpc McIntosh integrated amp, sound better on the 8 ohm setting. Go figure.

As Wayne would say, YMMV.

I believe the 4 ohm recommendation was only related to use of tube amplifiers, not sure if we know if that applies to Mac solid state amps with the autoformer and multiple taps. Is that a solid state amp? If so, then perhaps you have given us the answer to that question.

The McIntosh MC152 amp is very powerful. It specs out at 238wpc at clipping which is plenty of power for the Triton Refs and the Triton 1. The sound is relaxed, very lush and tube like. It is extremely musical and a little more forgiving of very bright cd's. I purchased mine used from Audio Classics. I paid under 3 grand for it and it looks brand new, performs flawlessly, came with the double boxes and packing, manual and it is backed by Audio Classics. I bought 6 pieces of Mac gear from them and highly recommend them. The amp is a current piece and in the current Mac line up.

The Mac amp I use is solid state and the 4 ohm setting is definitely better in MY system. It may be different in others.

stereo5 wrote: The Mac amp I use is solid state and the 4 ohm setting is definitely better in MY system. It may be different in others.

stereo5,

This is where I really get confused (and I do get confused easily). My solid state amps have a few milliohms output impedance, so they are very insensitive to changes in speaker impedance over frequency. But how do you get a solid state amp to have a 4 ohm output impedance? Assuming that's what the 4 ohm tap means. And why would you want that? You now have an amp where the voltage at the speaker changes with speaker impedance, and thus the sound.

I think I must be totally off the rails here.

My McIntosh solid state amp uses output transformers just like a tube amp. Therefore the 150wpc rating of my amp is into all loads, 2,4 or8 ohms. There are 2, 4 and 8 ohm taps on my amp and it was a matter of switching the positive from the 8 to 4 ohm taps. McIntosh is one of the few audio companies that uses output transformers on their solid state gear and that is what gives the Mac their lush tube like sound. I just played the system earlier this morning while wifey was out. I had the volume control on my Mac preamp at 45 (it goes from 0 to 100) and when I looked at my spl meter, I was hitting peaks of 106db with absolutely no strain and the sound was so glorious! The best part, the amp was only hitting 35 watts on peaks.

Oh my, Steveo, I can see the drool coming down Bro Anthem's face right now!!!!!
MERCY!!!!!
Does look like a sweet amp though.
Happy listening,
Happy buying Bro Anthem,
God Bless,
Wayne