Performance
Two words: fast and smooth. The latter is probably somewhat predictable, the former definitely not. Nonetheless, those were the words that came to mind after my first hours of listening to the MC452 in my system. I’m not sure if the new ThermalTrak transistors account for a sense of speed that I’d never heard from a McIntosh amplifier before, or if the Mac Labs engineers have successfully refined the circuitry in some other way, but the MC452’s sound was the antithesis of tubby and slow. It was as deft and agile in my system as an elite athlete at the NFL Combine. But don’t think Spectral-fast here -- for better or worse, depending on your perspective, the MC452 didn’t have that type of sound -- but it was quick and responsive, precisely tracking micro- and macrodynamic swings. In that respect, it did not in the least sound “tube-like” (as some call it).
It was also smooth as silk throughout the entire audioband. I had the MC452 paired with a set of the original EgglestonWorks Andra loudspeakers, which are known as smooth operators -- more so than the resolution monsters I’ve had in the Music Vault the past few years. Still, that Dynaudio Esotar tweeter in the Eggs is a very revealing drive-unit that can fully expose a strident-sounding amp. But no matter what type of music I threw at it, I could never get the MC452 to sound strident or stressed. I could still hear the flaws in bad recordings, but I had to be deliberately listening for the tiniest of these details to make them register in my mind as flaws. What I heard with the best recordings was at once detailed and smooth, never icy or sterile or hyper-revealing. For instance, Ola Gjeilo’s acoustic piano in his “North Country II” (
TWBAS 2012 Hi-Rez Demo, 24-bit/176.4kHz FLAC, 2L/SoundStage! Recordings), was at once beautiful in tone and smoothly rendered, but I could also hear deep into the soundstage. When the other instruments enter, the MC452 kept all the players distinct and delineated in a purposeful manner. The MC452’s sound is a really nice balance of detail and smoothness that I think will suit most loudspeakers well.
Speaking of suiting most loudspeakers, the MC452’s power rating of 450Wpc should be taken very seriously. I could never stress the MC452, no matter how loud I played my music. McIntosh makes monoblocks rated to deliver more than three times the MC452’s power output, but it’s hard to imagine needing more watts than the MC452 can produce -- unless you have the biggest speakers in the biggest room. With the Andras in my 23’6”W x 20’1”L x 9’H listening room, I never reached the MC452’s power-output limits. In fact, rarely did I see its meters (when set to Hold) move past the 45Wpc output level -- a mere 10% of the amp’s continuous power rating! The MC452’s power-producing capability really seems to be in the super-amp category. For a reviewer like me, it’s a joy to have on hand an amplifier that can squeeze out so much clean juice. For the great majority of audio systems, I can’t imagine the MC452 being a limiting factor.
The control the MC452 exercised over the Andras’ bass was just short of the iron-fisted variety you might hear from a much-more-expensive Gryphon or Vitus amp. Then again, the Andra’s bass reproduction is slightly more round and plummy than that of, say, a Rockport Technologies speaker. So that was a bit hard for me to judge. There was never any truncation of bass
depth, however, and that made for a powerful sound. There were times when the MC452 astounded me with the way it made my music sound huge and enveloping, fully pressurizing my room for sustained periods. I never tired of listening to large-scale music or bass-laden tracks. For instance, “Low,” from solo electric bassist Jonas Hellborg’s
The Silent Life (16/44.1 ALAC, Day Eight Music), was visceral and room-flexing, and at the same time deftly agile and textured. The bass wasn’t overdamped, but full of expression and feeling. I could easily hear the sonic fluctuations of Hellborg’s bass.
I mentioned that the MC452 could sound big and powerful, mimicking the way it will look sitting between your speakers. It could also pinpoint a lead female singer on the soundstage as well as almost anything I’ve had in my system. But I wouldn’t call the MC452 hyper-precise; again, it struck a nicely balanced perspective in most sonic parameters on which audiophiles might judge it. But don’t mistake that balance for ambiguity, or detail gone missing in action. The MC452 wasn’t a laser pointer, but it let me map the soundstage with large, round images.
Gryphon vs. McIntosh
Sounds like a crazy comparison, huh? Well, yes, I suppose it is. The
Gryphon Colosseum stereo amplifier retails for a massively expensive $43,500. As beautiful as the McIntosh MC452 is, it can’t hold a candle to the Colosseum in terms of elegance and strikingly beautiful styling -- but then, neither does anything else I’ve seen. I don’t think the Colosseum has ever been equaled in terms of industrial design. The Gryphon, however, does seem to suffer in terms of specs compared to the big Mac: it’s rated to deliver “only” 160Wpc into 8 ohms. This, of course, is misleading -- the Colosseum operates in class-A, and doubles its output with each halving of impedance. The Colosseum’s 176-pound weight hints strongly at its power reserves.
In many ways, the MC452 sounded like a mini-Colosseum, whose sound I described early in 2011: “The music was presented as huge, bold, and
oh so grand.” The same could be said of the MC452. I also said of the Colosseum that “there was never a hint of stridency in the sound, and absolutely no grit or hash.” Check that off the list for the McIntosh as well. Lastly, I observed the Gryphon’s “proverbial ink-black backgrounds from which music emerged unchallenged by any hint of noise.” This trait was especially true of the MC452 -- the Mac was dead silent in operation, maybe even a touch quieter than the Colosseum. Where the Gryphon pulled away from the MC452 was in its ability to dig deeper into the acoustic space of the recording, pulling out microdetails that the MC452 sometimes slightly scaled back. The Gryphon also had greater abilities at the frequency extremes: bass that was more Rock-of-Gibraltar solid, highs that were more expressive and airy.
Still, the fact that the MC452 could hang with the Gryphon for less than one-fifth the price is a minor miracle. It’s likely that most of you reading this article might be able to afford the MC452 -- either now or as an aspiration -- but could never consider the Colosseum. And some would never spend $43,500 on a stereo component no matter
how much money they had. That’s OK. The McIntosh MC452 gives you a wonderful alternative at a wholly sane price. You won’t be missing nearly as much as the cost disparity between these products might indicate. For what you’ll save alone, you can build the rest of your top-flight audio system!
Conclusions
The McIntosh MC452 is one of the best bargains in high-end amplification that I know of. I can’t think of another amp that can come as close to super-amp performance for a lower price, or even several thousand dollars more. It’s super-quiet in operation, immensely powerful, gorgeous to look at, built like a tank, and sounds like silk. If you buy one, you can be assured that you’re getting a long-lasting component from a company that has been making power amplifiers for longer than many of us have been alive. What’s not to like about that deal?
