MAC Autoformers?

" The only negative with Mac autoformers is in doubling the amplifier cost and weight"

So true!  I had to get help from my neighbor to get the carton from my car into the house, get the beast unboxed, unbolted from the plywood base, and lifted up onto my wall unit!

"I have been looking at integrated amps and when researching the Mac I noticed the only ones without auotformers are the lowest rated at 100w. I wonder why that would be the case are they not needed in the low watt amps? I assume they could use them just as easy in a 100w integrated as a 200w integrated.

My guess is that this is strictly a marketing issue, by not including autoformers in low power amp they are offering entry level Mac products  for those who do not need big power, big weight and big price tag but still like to own a McIntosh.

After owning a newer solid state amp from McIntosh with autoformers, I have come to believe it is their attempt to have the amp take on some of the characteristics of a tube amp. This myself was confirmed that the bass produced was loose and did not have the impact/slam of a Direct Coupled amp. Further I felt the midrange was more on par with a tube amp in that it was full and fleshed out.

That is the first time I’ve heard a claim that the autoformer was a hindrance to better performance;

Why hinder the performance of a well designed solid state amp with an autoformer, unless it was a bad designed one to start with.
A simple test is to put a well known Auto Former that’s used on OLT’s to make them "sort of work" into speakers they can't drive without them, on the rear end of good solid state amp (say a Pass Labs) and watch it transform into rubbish.

Autoformers are "band-aid fixes" for amps that are not right before them to be able to drive into loads they shouldn’t be on without them. Get the right amp to start with, don’t just put a band-aid on.

stanwal
For us non Mac enthusiasts the autoformer has always been proof positive that Mac had no idea how to design a transistor amp, perhaps they are coming to their senses at last.

+1

nsgarch

I agree with Stan. I just wrote this a few minutes ago:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1262654269&read&3&zzlNolitan&& Report this

+1

Cheers George

The autoformers restricts the ability to vary power with impedance / sensitivity and ergo compromises frequency linearity with the vast majority of loudspeakers.
There’s a good reason so many other amps don’t use them.