--- MCINTOSH MC501'S MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER ORIGINAL OWNER PRICE DROP

AMAZING MCINTOSH MC501 PAIR MONOBLOCKS IN BEAUTIFUL CONDITION,ORIGINAL OWNER WITH ORIGINAL BOXES, MANUAL SERIAL NUMBERS WU3814 AND WU3817. PREFER LOCAL PICK UP BUT I WILL SHIP AT THE BUYER'S EXPENSE. 2 BOXES TOTAL, EACH ONE 106LBS. PAYPAL PLEASE AD 3% MORE TO THE TOTAL

FROM STEREOPHILE MAGAZINE

The design of the MC501 is straightforward and extremely burly. Not only is the amp capable of delivering 500W into any load between 8 and 2 ohms, it's also rated to deliver more than 100 amperes of output current. It seems exceedingly unlikely that there is a speaker that the MC501 could not drive.
The '501's circuitry is described as Double-Balanced Push-Pull. Each half of the amplifier is fully balanced from input to output. I've never seen each phase of a signal rendered in balanced configuration before, but there you go. The four output signals of the two balanced circuits are all reunited at the Autoformer coupling transformer.
Right from the get-go, the MC501s showed their basic character. From first listen, they exhibited sound that was totally relaxed yet completely controlled. They could easily manage mighty peaks with no apparent effort, and had superb bass control.
The '501s' bass was something different from the norm of powerful solid-state amps. As John Atkinson observed on hearing the Macs in my system, they define the leading edge of bass transients in an especially lifelike way: to the ear, the transients of bass instruments are seemingly slower but no less precise than those of upper-midrange and treble instruments. The Macs perfectly captured this quality.
The MC501's midrange was far more like that of the best tube amps than that of any but the very finest solid-state amplifiers.
The Mac did something very few solid-state amps can do—it breathed, with sometimes long and languorous pauses. The '501 caught attacks and decays with the tempered variety of intensities that one seldom hears from audio components
Images were placed in space with an authority and solidity so great that there was no electronic artifice to notice. Things were just there, without exaggeration or underplaying. The Macs' dynamic performance was exemplary.
Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can indeed go home again, at least when the amps at home are from McIntosh.