I have a friend who bought one to replace his 2205 that pushed ML-2C's. The 2205 when working sounded very good, but it was having connection issues PC board connection issues an intermittent meter and on and on. So to keep from over driving his fragile golden domes from ML-10's at the end of production of the ML-2 and super tweeter he chose a MC 152. We connected it and it sounded great especially after the problem prone C-28 was replaced with a C-48. This was about 18 months ago. After hearing my XRT 28's he decided to replace his ML-2's we had re-foamed years previously with a pair of XRT 28's. We loaded his ML-2s into my truck with a bunch of my stuff I wanted Audio Classics to repair for me and to sell. He listened to his XRT 28's with MC 3500 MK II's, 462's and 1.25's using a C-53 and and a few others. He discovered his 152 sounded as good as the 462's and the 1.25. Even today he very seldom drives his speakers where the Power Guard Flashes. Now I use MC 830's and there is a slight difference where the 152 is a bit warmer it seems to me and the tweeters top octave isn't quite as prominent. But because of his asymmetrical listening space he procured an Ashly 3102 Eq which I voiced for him using my analyzers. My speakers also are in a non-symmetrical room, but I use a MQ 107, but I use 4 custom caps to get the response I want. Mine develop a bit more of the lowest octaves with a bit more definition even though we have the same bass response. His highs are little smoother, too, because of the Ashley and the MC 152. The Ashly allows the 13 KHZ peak to be made smooth where I can't. But his C-48 has a bit more clarity than my C-34 so when comparing systems everything becomes almost identical.
Now as I am a Sheffield fan as is my friend, and I have a very large collection of Reference Recordings and Telarc and my own recordings I made live with professional equipment and his preference for LP's means his system doesn't have to deal with the dynamics I do. He is not a big pipe organ lover either so he doesn't deal with very low frequencies like I do. So the 200 watt capability is all he really ever needs from his 152. I seldom need to use 200 watts either, but occasionally I do. I always want 6 to 8 db of head room, where my friend does not. Being a Concert Master and a Symphony Conductor he prefers a very intimate sound produced by his speakers. Myself having been a remote recording engineer, a sound man for live groups in concert and a former musician myself I have always preferred line arrays to get away from the horn sound of speakers I used professionally all through my career.
The point of this rambling is that a 152 in my opinion is a great amp driving XRT 28's. It did a great job driving Klipsch Corn walls and JBL DD67000 we also auditioned while auditioning the XRT 28's he purchased. It has a clarity I still think is better than his 2205 or a MC 7300 and the previous century amps before his was introduced. . It is probably more listenable than my former MC 7200's, too when driving XRT 28's. Its better than my 207's in some respects. Only when driving infinite baffle speakers do I think the two channels of a 207 or my MC 830's are better. But thats my personal preference.
