McIntosh MC501 or Audio Research DS450M for Magnepan 1.7

kinda like when IBM sold big blue mainframes..

” nobody ever gets fired for buying IBM “... ditto for the big blue meters...

i currently own   just 4 Mcintosh components, so take my comments  with a grain of salt....do you like the sound of those autoformers ?
you do have other choices in brick S house build quality - Bryston was named - so just be sure to check them out....

i agree the DSM-450 not the amp, i gave it 30 minutes driving Vandersteen 7 and it had been on for days.....lots of bang for buck....but.....

I was considering Mcintosh for my Maggie's  called several McI dealers and they said autoformer would not mate well with Maggie's. You would need to have 500 watts or more which I quess is what you are looking at.
Which amp did you end up with and how is it going?

I went with a ARC D200 power amp to drive my Maggie MMGs pairing it with a ARC LS25 mkI. Sounds wonder and very dynamic presentation. I would say look for a ARC D400 with was in its day their best SS amp.

@stereo5 Can you please shed some more light on the differences between McIntosh and CJ? I myself drive my Maggie1.7i's with CJ 2275 with satisfying results. But I have not used any other amp with the maggies, so curious. Is the CJ SS amps class D ?