McIntosh MC611

  • 2 min read
The King is dead, long live the King!  The new 600 watt McIntosh MC611 mono-block amplifiers have arrived at Pearl Audio Video, and our older 600 watt McIntosh MC601's are not happy about this.  

Do you want to hear what real bass sounds like?  Do you want to hear what a speaker can really sound like if it has ALL of the power it's capable of handling?  Put a pair of these into your system.  We've been a/b comparing these to our outgoing McIntosh MC601 amplifiers and cannot believe how much more dynamic and spacious sounding these are.

For fast dynamic transient music, these have the ability to go from zero-100 in an instant!  What the heck is a fast dynamic transient?  Well, it's when you hear the immediacy of big drum thwacks and the massive electrified energy of an rock groups electric bass cranking through these.  For example the opening to 'When the Levee Breaks' sounds like the drums are making the building shake when John Paul Jones hits them with his 'hammer of the gods' sound, yet you perceive more of the actual drumhead sound, that drum head on wood sound of a real drum comes out even more.  A smaller amplifier leaves this intro sounding slower, less dynamic.  

The simple reason for this 'slow dynamic' is that a smaller, less dynamic amplifier cannot get your speaker woofer moving as quickly.  It's a little like when you try to climb the passing lane hill in a 4-cylinder car - you hit the gas, then sometime, at some point, in the future, after much hesitation and consideration, the car will eventually inch it's way up to the 50 mph freeway speed. It's a good thing you brought along Yanni's Greatest Hits.  The guy with the 500 horsepower V8 pickup that just blew past you has generate instant power, the automotive equivalent of a fast dynamic transients. Thwack!

The MC611 has received numerous updates and improvements compared to our previous 600 Watt monoblock model. Chief among them is that filter capacity has been doubled which has resulted in a dramatic 55% increase in dynamic headroom from 1.8dB to 2.8dB. This twofold increase in filter capacity also helps improve the performance of low end bass frequencies. 

We have the new 611's cranking away at Pearl Audio. We also have dozen or so  current McIntosh amplifier's on hand, including tube amps if you wish to compare. 



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