Control against command

I use one word for what the MA9500 did with my Wilson Yvettes, and another for the MC611 monoblocks. The integrated controls them admirably. The monoblocks command them.

The difference is not about volume. The MA9500 delivers 300 W per channel from one chassis, while each MC611 dedicates 600 W to a single channel. With the separates, dynamic swings happen effortlessly, crescendos build without any compression, and the speakers finally have the authority behind them that they were designed for.

Don't misunderstand me, the MA9500 was never the problem; I had no complaints with it. The upgrade was a decision to trust Charlie Randall, Ken Zeitlin and their team at McIntosh, whose engineering suggested that the C12000 and the MC611 were what the Wilsons wanted.

Not to beat them into submission, but to tame them, if that is even the right word for speakers this capable. That is the line between control and command. Control keeps a speaker in its lane; command lets it do everything it was built to do.

Beating a speaker into submission wins a fight nobody wanted. The engineers built mine to tame them.