Macintosh vs Pass labs

I've never heard Pass but have heard mcintosh and do like it. Interesting though I know someone who was a very large Pass dealer and brought in Conrad Johnson and at that point the pass sales declined to the point he dropped the pass line. He said with the two on the floor at the same time the cj sound won out in most cases. I own cj stuff and its hard to want anything else although I'm upgrading now and no cj dealer here but my main dealer I buy from sells mcintosh and I will give them a strong look out of loyalty to the dealer.

I see Pass amps come up for sale X250,X250.5 and are gone in one day. Not just on one ocaasion. Also after more research I think Audfile's analogy is on the money. I also think that for the VRSR the pass is a perfect match. I am going to confirm that with Albert. Any one who has not listened to these speakers should. Just upgraded mine to the mark II and they sound even better then I could have imagined.

It seems that Macs are are very synergistic with karaoke systems because I've seen a few of those.

If we're making Euro auto analogies I'd argue that McIntosh is more like an Audi A8L than a Buick...

Though McIntosh autoformers deliver rated wattage at 2, 4 and 8 ohm terminals, they still double power as they go down. That is why people experience thermal overload when hooking up B&W's to the 8 ohm taps. The current draw heats up the unit and it shuts down.

The 501 monoblocks were tested by Stereophile and found to deliver 720 watts into a 8 ohm load (and similar from their respective 4 and 2 ohm taps) so the overall 500 wpc rating is quite conservative.
Hook B&W's up to the 4 ohm terminals and the 501 is capable of delivering over 1000 watts into 2 ohm load.
Conversely, when running off the 4 ohm terminals the 501 is only delivering approx 250 watts into an 8 ohm load.

Know_talent, I read your post few times and I can't seem to understand it.

Though McIntosh autoformers deliver rated wattage at 2, 4 and 8 ohm terminals, they still double power as they go down. That is why people experience thermal overload when hooking up B&W's to the 8 ohm taps. The current draw heats up the unit and it shuts down.

Rated wattage for, let's say MC402, is 400w/ch. If this is what the amp delivers into 2, 4 and 8 ohms, how does it double down?

I've heard a 100w/ch McIntosh stereo amp in the store driving B&W N803 for about 40 seconds on a normal volume. Well, I wasn't the one who experience thermal overload. That McIntosh amp was. It just shut down. At the time I had at home a McCormack DNA-0.5 Deluxe, that was rated similarly to that McIntosh amp. I never had a problem driving the N803s with it. Granted, the speakers were underpowered by this amplifier, but it never stopped playing. That McIntosh amp simply gave up in a relatively short time. I call that unacceptable.

Now, your last paragraph, again is unclear, when you mention that a MC501 only delivers 250w/ch from its 4ohm posts into an 8ohm load....how's that? A speaker(i.e B&W 800 series) can have an impedance curve and go from 8ohms to 3ohms, depending on what's playing and how. So what good would the MC501 be?

I understand things like brand loyalty and I'm not bashing McIntosh amps. I think they're fine amps and there are certainly people with the right speakers with which these amps sound great, but, I guess I just don't understand all this autoformer principal and how it works(if it even does).