So you're saying it can be upgraded, but it can't be repaired ? Not sure I follow.....
Don’t buy used McCormack DNA 1990s amps
This is a public service announcement. There are some yahoos on other sites selling 1990s McCormack DNA amps, sometimes at ridiculous prices. While they’re great amps, and I happily owned a DNA 0.5 RevA for 20 years, they’re all gonna fatally fail. Why? Because their input board is at the end of its useful life, and when it fails your amp is dead and not repairable by anyone — not even SMcAudio. It’s a boat anchor. The only option is to sell it for scraps or get an SMcAudio upgrade that’ll cost around $2000. Given my love of my amp I chose to do full upgrades given what else I could’ve gotten for the same same price and just got it back and will forward thoughts if anyone cares. But the purpose of this post is to warn off any prospective buyers of a circa 1990s DNA amp that it’ll fatally fail soon, so unless you get a great price and plan on doing the SMcAudio upgrades just avoid these amps on the used market. You’ve been warned.
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@winoguy17 Yeah, I know it seems strange on its surface. Apparently there is no replacement input board available and the old board is not repairable. So what they do is reuse the case (and maybe the transformer) and rip everything else out and rebuild the amp with all new, and much better, parts so it’s basically a new amp. |
Fair warning. Thanks @soix |
@winoguy17 Not at all man. Believe me I had the exact same questions you did when my amp failed. To the others with excellent and, IMO, rightfully skeptical questions, my cursory understanding is that after about 25 years or so the traces on the board break, fail, whatever, but when you repair the failed areas the traces just start to fail in other areas so it becomes a house of cards. I think the input board was a custom-designed part that is no longer manufactured and I’m guessing, as McCormack is no longer producing amps in large quantities, paying to develop a replacement just isn’t economically feasible or maybe they just don’t wanna spend the time/effort to do it to revive really old amps — I honestly dunno. Please don’t shoot the messenger here, but SMcAudio have been straight shooters with me and I’ll commit to either getting more info or maybe having Steve or Pat respond directly to this thread. Just FYI and FWIW, here’s my rationale on the thing and why I decided to spend $2500 on rebuilding my amp versus selling my DNA 0.5 RevA for parts and putting the $$$ toward a new amp. First and foremost, I love the way my amp sounds both for my tastes and within the context of my system, and I think we all know how valuable finding that synergy thing is. Second, while it’s certainly possible I could find another $2500 amp that would make me as or more happy is a bit of a crapshoot that I wasn’t sure I wanted to partake in. Third, as SMcAudio reused both my case and transformer, arguably two of the most cost-intensive parts of any amp, I kinda felt like that gave me a leg up over buying a whole new amp. Fourth, Steve has had decades to find parts, wire, gravity base, etc. that meaningfully improve his already-legendary design to another performance level entirely. As a brief aside, the reason he’s been able to do this is because they do mega high-end consulting work for other companies that build cost-no-object products (like Berning) and the fruits of his consulting work funded at that level trickle down into his SMcAudio mods that would’ve never otherwise been possible — win win. Last, given all these points above, I’ve no idea what my fully-modded amp with premium parts would cost if I could even find it new, but I’m pretty sure it’d cost at least twice what I paid for the upgrade and probably closer to 3x when all is said and done. So, doing all this “audiophile math” in my head and being fairly sure I would not only get the similar sonic qualities of my prior amp but all of it at an entirely higher altogether level, I went for the upgrade.
Ok, sorry. I did not mean for this to be so long-winded/boring, but bottom line is I commit I’ll get your enquiring minds a more specific answer as to the input board issue one way or another. Past that, have a Happy New Year!!! |
@pwayland To me you sound like a lot more than “just a diy guy,” at least relative to my ignorant ass. Like I said, I’ll get some answers, but if I’m Steve McCormack and even if I could do it, do I wanna spend my time reviving input boards on 25-30 year-old amps that probably need a cap replacement anyway? If you’re gonna replace the input board and caps, at that point you’re really not far off from getting an amp that performs literally more on a reference level at its price point. If you’re gonna go thru the labor to replace both an input board and caps that I assume would cost $1500+ on its own, why not just spend your time creating truly special amps at not much more $$$? That said, with many more 1990s DNA amps likely to fail from now on maybe you could set up a cottage industry just replacing those input boards. Do you think that’d be a worthwhile business? Could be I guess. To me, I got 25 years outta my amp and time to move upward and onward one way or the other. But kuddos if you think replacing input boards on 30yo amps is a viable business model. Just my thoughts from a business perspective, but I’m all happy happy doing just doing the full-Monty upgrade. But that’s me. |
@soix Yeah man your point is well taken, admittedly I'm on the high end of idiot savant in the DIY world and it likely doesn't make sense for the average consumer to pay someone to perform this kind of fix.... and the McCormack wasn't produced in high enough numbers to create any kind of economic model for anyone to take on this kind of project.... That being said, I'm all about sustainability and keeping great amps alive! and its really silly though. PCB's are so cheap if you have the layout. I can order 5 for less than $50. If you are of a mind to, mail it to me (just the pcb) and I'll send you new pcbs at cost. Would be fun to see Jims AFE circuit. I would also put the gerbers on the diyaudio site for anyone else to utilize. Peace |
McCormack Audio was purchased by Conrad Johnson many years ago and they no longer manufacturer McCormack amplifiers. SMc Audio is owned operated by Steve McCormack, the original designer of McCormack Audio amplifiers. SMc upgrades the older amplifiers and they also manufacture entirely new products, including amplifies, preamplifiers, and several unique ancillaries. SMc Audio has created new boards that can be used in failed McCormack Audio amplifiers. However, because of the labor involved, it is a better value to commission an entire upgrade of the amplifier, which would include the new boards. Yes, it is expensive but you can end up with an amplifier that approaches world class, depending on your upgrade choices. SMc performs the upgrades using mostly only the chassis and heat sinks from the older McCormack amplifiers. Otherwise, sell your failed amplifier to a buyer who wants to send it to SMc Audio so they can use the chassis and heat sinks to build a fully upgraded amplifier. I have owned some pretty good sounding amplifiers, including the following monoblocks: Clayton M300 and M200, Lamm M1.2 Reference and M1.1, Cary SA-500.1 and 500MB, and Herron M1. None of those displayed as satisfying a combination of dynamics, tonal density, and clarity as my SMc Audio DNA-1 ULTRA G monoblocks, that began their lives many years ago as two separate McCormack DNA-1s. Mine are the pair at the bottom of the first panel of pictures on the SMc Audio home page. While you are on the site, take the time to watch the 6-part video interview with Steve McCormack to become familiar with their business and product range.
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@pwayland You and I are so totally on the same page! If I coulda swapped out an input board for a few hundred bucks, man, I’d a been all over that. But that I maybe got lightly forced into spending a bit more for what is likely gonna be a reference-level amp I’ll likely live happily with for the rest of my life (and who knows what future upgrades will come my way) — well, I guess I just gotta live with that. Heh heh. But I’m also about sustainability, so if I did my little part by recycling my case and transformer and that they’ll both live on for decades more rather than landing in a landfill — yeah, I kinda feel good about that. Peace my friend!
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@curiousjim Great question, and yes upgraded SMcAudio upgraded amps do rarely show up for sale, but the same rules still apply — if the input board hasn’t been replaced you’re dancing with the devil. Whether it’s worth the $$$ for the upgrades, we’ll, I’m gonna have to get back to you on that cause I honestly, and frustratingly, haven’t gotten to listen to the damn thing yet but I will say this though — Steve has been refining his amps over decades — think Porsche 911 — so my bet is the classic has only gotten MUCH better but I’ll definitely letcha know fer sure. Please feel free to text me if I don’t follow up in enough time for you. Also, if u in the NYC area you’re more than welcome to come listen for yourself. After all, what are we if not a supportive community? And this offer extends to my other A’gon brother/sisters as well if anyone else who might wanna hear this amp with their own music. Just sayin’. We get what we give, right? @mitch2 That is a REALLY interesting perspective considering you compared your SMcAmps to some of the best amps ever made, at least IMHO. But, you just exemplified why I chose to upgrade my humble DNA-0.5 RevA rather than just buying another amp. |
Absolutely correct, soix, and I am excited to hear how you like your rebuild! I had a DNA-1 Deluxe for 20 years, loved it, and then it died suddenly. Board and/or caps failed. I had been in discussion for several years with Steve Mc and Patrick at SMc Audio to do one of his full upgrades but hadn’t. When it died I called them, and they gave me $400 for the dead amp. A mistake on my part, because I have decided I might like the latest "Full Monty" rebuild he does with his "gravity base" system on the DNA series and I can’t find a dead DNA-1 as the platform for it. When I’ve searched used ones, 20 years old for $1500-2500, I just laugh because they are time bombs. It’s not a question of if they will die (for the reasons Soix described), but when. |
@soix - you cannot say that the board cannot be repaired by anyone. Do you do repair work yourself? Any product can be repaired unless the parts cannot be identified or there are no replacement parts available. That being said, you do not have to get a new board made, you can simply made the part point-to-point wired and get rid of the board altogether. But you need a competent repair person like we do. |
Audio Research Corp will not repair their solid state amps. They say it is not possible. A stupid story. I bought my McCormack DNA.5 Deluxe from Progressive Audio on High Street in Columbus OH in 1996 or so. Shortly before, Steve had come to Progressive to give a presentation and promote his gear. There were maybe thirty people in attendance including Progressive's staff who were known to be a bit arrogant. I wanted to mentally justify the purchase and when Steve was taking questions from the audience I sheepishly asked if his amps had a finite life span and if so, how long. The whole audience seemed to let out a collective groan that I had asked the most stupid question imaginable. |
I too bought my McCormack DNA 0.5 power amp and the TLC-1 pre amp from Progressive Audio in the late 90's. I had a friend who was a great Stereophile with the keenest of ears. He took me to Progressive to listen to high end equipment like Wilson speakers and a Mark Levinson CD transport and separate DAC that then cost $20K. The point was to hear high end and then listen to the McCormack gear. To see the great SQ I could get for so much less; about $3k for the McCormack combination. Many years later I had some problems with the TLC and that''s when I contacted SMcAudio and started working with Pat, who ran their upgrade program. In the end, based on Pat's sound, experienced advice, I instead upgraded the DNA 0.5. which at that point was still working fine but Pat felt was the better place to start in upgrading my system. Along with other of his suggestions; dedicated 20 amp circuit, Furutech receptacles and quality power cords; which I implemented. Pat was superb to work with. No high pressure sales pitches just working to get me the best quality and results I could afford. I've never regretted following his directions and for the $2500 I put into the DNA upgrade, I have an amp that's would have cost 3x or 4x more!! If you can find their old gear at a reasonable price it's an excellent option to have them upgrade it. By the way, I decided to let go of the TLC. Pat had clients who were eager for it and so I sold it to SMcAudio for $450; a fair deal. Now some other lucky person has an upgraded TLC which I'm sure makes them very pleased!! Really appreciated this dialogue!!!! |
I bet we either know each other or know of people in common. I went to tOSU from '78 to '84 for both undergrad and law school. As I bet you know, Scott, the owner and founder of the store started out selling speaker building kits in the nearby alley of 13th at High St. I have fond memories of just going to look and listen in awe of the some the mega-priced gear. Robert was always on the phone behind the counter at the back but always treated me respectfully and gave good advice. Scott was super-amiable too. Some of the other employees not so much but I did not have the funds for the high priced stuff back then (or now :-) ). Btw, I bought the passive McC preamp at the same time I bought the DNA.5 Deluxe and it was the first to go in my system, soon replaced by an Audioprism Mantissa tubed preamp that I bought a Progressive. Progressive did not normally sell Audioprism gear but Robert said "no problem" and ordered one to sell me. I will never forget that he was curious to hear the Mantissa and inserted it into one of the upstairs systems with uber-priced gear. He listened for less than three minutes and announced "sounds hi-fi" in a dismissive tone and walked out of the room. I loved the Mantissa anyway and it remained my preamp for about twenty years. It mated very well with the DNA.5 "Full Monty". AND, I vividly remember having long telephone conversations with Steve McC and in one of them he told me that he did not believe after-market power cords could possibly make a difference. Back then they were not common. I sent him one my LAT PC's to try and he called me to tell me he had changed his mind. |
@bigkidz Due respect for your skills and knowledge that I’ll never have, but I don’t think I said the board couldn’t be repaired by anyone. In fact, Pat told me people had repaired them by soldering in the “cracks” in the board but that the board would just fail soon after as other “cracks” appeared. The point-to-point solution makes a ton of sense to me, and had I’d known you could do such a thing I’d surely have contacted you, but what would such a repair cost? Whatever input board SMcAudio uses in their upgrades should last 30+ years along with all the other parts upgrades and Gravity Base I got with the rebuild. Sounds like you think I did the wrong thing, so just wondering what my other options would’ve been or what you would’ve done? Very honestly curious of your thoughts. |
@fsonicsmith Very interesting about the power cord thing, and what a classic pic of The Speaker Company!!! |
@soix I wouldn't think twice about having had your amp rebuilt by SMC. What could be finer than to have what is essentially a brand new amp with all new, better and modern parts installed by your amps original maker? I don't actually know why you would even think otherwise. In fact, I had my original Museatex Meitner mono amps rebuilt exactly the same way by a person who worked with Meitner, only the case and transformer were reused. I love it. One of the monos had failed. And Happy New Year! |
@soix I was responding to you original post "Because their input board is at the end of its useful life, and when it fails your amp is dead and not repairable by anyone — not even SMcAudio." But I am always available to help anyone who needs repair, upgrade, modification or if someone needs something build for them.
Happy Listening. |
When did you turn the TLC over to SMc? I might be that lucky person. SMc did the full monty upgrade on a TLC-1 that I purchased from them some years ago. It is the black one pictured in the middle of the stack of upgraded equipment on their home page. Steve said my upgraded SMc TLC-1 Signature Edition sounds "very close to the VRE-1 preamp." and I am not surprised. |
To Steve McCormack's change of mind on upgrading power cords. I upgraded the power cord on the upgraded DNA 0.5 based on the advice of his colleague Pat. Pat had a serious focus on the importance of the electrical path. That's why I've tried to move all critical components to higher quality audio cabling: DC, AC, Ethernet. One of the services SMcAudio provides is "burning" in of power cables, which they did on several for me. And built a better cable to replace the one that came with the Node 2i. Mitch2, I sold my TLC back to SMc at the end of 2020. Could be it's my old one. I'm sure you're very pleased. Like I said, I still have some regrets giving it up, though I'm not sure if it would have added much to my system since I'm only using one source; digital. Fsonicsmith, I love the photo. When I was listening to equipment at Progressive, Scott was the person I worked with. He was great to work with; no pressure and knew his stuff. And I found all the other staff I interacted with there to be great! And I didn't start working in Dublin till 1991, so not much chance we met. I was sorry when I found out Progressive had shut down. They were one of the best Audio stores in the whole Midwest! |
Thanks @soix ! How am I supposed to sell my DNA-1 now? I was banking on some poor unsuspecting audiophile to overspend on my 25+ year old amp and that will never happen now. All joking aside though, it's still a really good amp and I'm caught between having SMC do the full upgrade or take that money and invest in a new amp. I sometimes listen to the DNA-1 but more often use Belles Aria monoblocks. They don't go as deep as the DNA-1 but they are a little better at the top end and in the midrange - at least to my ears in my room in my system. I also got to spend some time with Orchard Audio's Starkrimson Ultra GaNfet amp and that was a great combo of what I like about my old DNA-1 and the newer Belles. At some point soon, I'll make the decision to either go SMC upgrade or buy a new amp (either class A/AB or D). I'm looking forward to learning more about your experience with your upgrade and what you think. Thanks. |
@soix in response to your initial post. You're being extreme. All DNA amplifiers are not doomed to failure. Do original amps have a much higher failure rate than normal, probably so. However, I'd be willing to bet that 50% or more of them will still be kicking with their original input boards 10 years from now. Being that this is the internet you're going to hear more about failed units than about those that are still working because people go out in search of help when they fail. I've worked on a couple of DNA-1's recently. They had clearly different manufacturers of the input boards, but the actual layout was identical. One I worked on was a full upgrade on a late model, circa 1997 or 1998, DNA1 Deluxe for a local audiophile. The other was a dead early model that I picked up off of Ebay and have since fixed and fully upgraded including the "C" mod. There are some problems with the input boards and the construction of them. If you have one and take a look at the few IC's on the input board you'll notice that the solder didn't flow through to the top side of the board and up on the legs of those IC's on the board. This is a big issue on the pins that have through-hole connections because those pins can lose contact eventually. I contacted SMc Audio a while back asking for schematics for the amps and, in addition to saying no to giving me a schematic, they pretty much confirmed my observations. Here is what I was told "The problem is with the through-hole plating between the top and bottom copper layers of these two sided driver boards and attempts to repair them is not recommended or supported." All holes on the boards are not considered through-hole. Only about maybe 20% of them are. Through-hole is when a signal comes in on one side of the board and travels through the plated hole and then travels out the opposite side of the board to a different component on the board. Through-hole issues can be corrected and overcome. Its a lot of labor to do so, but the faults are not irreversible. Through hole connections need to have a solid solder connection on both the top and bottom of the hole. When these boards are upgraded care needs to be taken to offset the new capacitors about 1/4" off the board and apply solder to the leads on both sides of the board to make a solid and long lasting connection. I think its not a stretch to say that the impetus for the "C" mod initially was to eliminate the AD712 opamps that were driving the DC servo in the DNA amps because of failures. The reason was that if a through hole failure occurred due to a poor solder joint on one of these 2 servo opamps then the servo could drive the output into a heavy DC situation and smoke the speakers. Pulling the servo op amp and installing a manually adjusted DC offset trimmer (aka "C" mod) into the same location basically solves this issue. So IMO the C-mod was a reliability upgrade and not necessarily a sonic improvement. The DC servo works great, when its working properly. I would ask how many of the amps that SMc upgraded from the late 90's up until about 2014 have failed? In those years SMc was upgrading the stock input pcb's. Has anyone heard of one of those amps failing? Probably not, because the stock amps were already randomly failing back then so Steve implemented fixes for some of the issues he was seeing. However, SMc is now selling a new product to go into your old DNA chassis. Its not easy to sell that new product if the old parts are repairable and if you were happy with how the amp sounded before. How many people would pay $2k+ (I've heard of costs approaching $4k for some) when they might pay $500 - $600 to just get it repaired and not just functional but more reliable than it was and sounding just as good as it did prior?
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@nymarty Sorry to undermine the potential sale of your amp and glad your is still working! And yes, I’ll let you know my thoughts on the amp once I get some hours on her. The through-hole plating issue is a global issue with the driver pcbs for DNA-1, DNA-0.5, HT-1, HT-3, DNA-2 and ALD-1. It affects the power supply, driver stages and protection circuit on the PCB. It is a real problem that caused us and our customers lots of grief as odd failures were repaired only to have a different odd failure crop up weeks or months later. Attempting to repair these boards reliably becomes an expensive game of Wack-A-Mole and often results in solder doing the job of carrying power and signal instead of copper which sounds bad and isn’t reliable. The issue does not affect the output PCBs of these listed amps nor do they affect the Virginia Series amplifiers such as the DNA-125, and DNA-225 because these amps only have plating on one side of the PCB (so through-hole plating issues will never be a problem) We made the decision in late 2014 to no longer work on these boards and made a replacement PCB that eliminates the potential of plating issues (better PCB material, much heavier plating and redundant vias where necessary) These PCBs are superior in everyway and have proven to be exceptionally reliable and they incorporate the 20 years of mods and revisions that SMc Audio has developed however the replacement PCB is not a drop-in replacement and requires additional work on the amplifier. Hope this helps. People can always give us a call if they’d like to. |
@kchamber You’d be willing to bet based on what? Faith? Other people’s money? Where does 50% even come from? Outta your butt? You’re willing to “bet” means precisely ZERO to someone buying one of these amps. And by the way, who wants to buy an amp with a 50% failure rate even if you’re right, which you probably are not. The design is prone to failure, especially after 20+ years for the reasons stated by the guys who built the amps, which is not you. Period. |
Convinced of your belief, you are being harsh and extreme, IME. You also have no basis to claim the converse-that every 1990's McCormack amp has either failed or is on the verge of failing. IMO, kchamber's viewpoint is likely more realistic. I can not think of too many consumer products that have had a 100% failure rate, not even the dreaded Yugo. |
You're correct I pulled that number out of my butt, using nothing but my 35yrs of experience designing and working on electronics in semiconductor manufacturing and research. Guess what? Krell & Levinson amps of the same vintage are also very failure prone. In fact, probably more so for some models due to heat stress. The people buying those 30yr old amps for kilobucks do not seem to care? Does that make you angry too? Anyone that is really concerned about one of these DNA amps failing should invest in having a true DC protection circuit installed by a competent tech. That includes the new input boards that SMc is selling because they do not have true DC output protection either. The DC protection in the older DNA amps is only an input muting circuit.
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I'm located near Dallas. I mainly do work for local audiophiles because I work as a research engineer M - F so this audio work is done in my spare time. I do some work on Acurus and Aragon preamps for folks around the country. I have a set of specific upgrades for those preamps. I used to take in various amps from people around the country but it became too much for me to keep up with so I had to stop taking in amps. I now only accept amps from local audiophiles. I have a full array of test equipment and can fully test amps up to over 1000WPC on my bench using an Audio Precision analyzer. |
Yes, you pulled that number outta your butt. But you don’t have 35 years working with McCormack amps, nor did you design or build them. I’m spreading info from the guys WHO ACTUALLY BUILT THE AMPS. Tell u what — I’ll go back to the guys WHO ACTUALLY BUILT THE AMP and tell you why you’re absolutely wrong.. |
@nymarty I would direct the funds towards a purchase of a new amp and noy have the old DNA modded. @soix looks like you’ve taken on a function of being a proxy for SMc Audio to deliver a message of vested interest. No one can possibly predict when the amplifier is going to fail and I don’t recall reading much about these amps becoming boat anchors all of a sudden. |
If you had any technical knowledge on electronics then you’d know that you do NOT have to build the exact same piece of electronics to understand the location and nature behind a failure. Especially when that failure is a mechanical issue in the basic board itself. SMc isn’t saying there are deficiencies in their special top secret circuit design and they had to change this design. SMc is saying the basic board has mechanical problems. Manufacturers like SMc do not produce their own boards, they get PCB manufacturers to produce them. Whether that board is in a Kenwood, Marantz, Krell, McCormack, etc. most are from the same PCB manufacturers and run side by side on the same production line using the same processes. So anyone who has worked on repairing boards in electronics is qualified to make these statements about the repair of such.
If you do not understand that there may be a possible motivation of profit behind SMc telling people that their original amps input boards are not repairable then I do not know what to tell you. So yes, please do keep asking the fox to tend to the hen house. When you talk to SMc ask them to come onto this thread and post closeup images of the mechanical issues on these completely irreparable input boards. Certainly SMc has documented this issue many times over. There are other folks on this thread that seem knowledgeable about board repairs and I’m sure that they would like to see high resolution images of the failures too.
Your initial post reads as a person who needs to justify the expense of this purchase and is angry that others can still sell their functioning amps for a decent price. So lets address your initial all or nothing statements,
No ALL DNA amps are not going to fatally fail, not by a long shot. Whether the number that survives a decade from now is my butt number of 50% or not, your statement is extreme and ridiculous. I personally believe that number will prove to be much higher than 50% and will probably be better than say a Krell or Levinson of the same vintage. BTW There’s a very good way to judge this reliability. When you begin to see far more dead DNA amp’s than working units for sale on the common audio sale sites then you can surmise that extremely high failure rates are present. I mean, based on your own opening statement, they cannot be repaired right? So they’ll remain dead until they’re sent to SMc to be upgraded or they’ll be sold as dead units and if they’ve been upgraded by SMc then the sales ad will state this fact.
Other’s have already pointed out your error in this statement. Unless a board has been completely burnt to the point it becomes conductive then it is generally repairable. However, I’ve seen boards that had burnt sections and people cut out the burnt section and P2P wired in that portion of the circuit. I’ve seen double-sided boards that literally snapped into two pieces and the tech repaired them by rebuilding each individual trace with a solid joining wire soldered to the traces and in the end creating a stronger board. In the end, whether or not a unit is repairable most of the time depends on the amount of a time and effort a tech wants to put into that unit. I’ve personally worked on a number of components over the years from the 1960’s and 70’s that had far more delicate and easily damaged circuit boards in them than the DNA input boards. |
I believe you guys are making assumptions based on facts not in evidence, and unfairly casting SMc Audio in a negative light. If you know Steve and Patrick, you would also know that there are not many folks in the audio industry who care as much about the satisfaction of their customers as they do, and you would also know that they have had more than a steady flow of work for years now. Steve continues to move forward with new products benefiting from his 40+ years in the business and, for him, creating high quality audio playback equipment is clearly as much or more a calling than a business. SMc certainly do not need to add clients by fear-mongering owners of old amplifiers manufactured by the former McCormack Audio into taking action before the inevitable failure of their amplifier's input boards. IMO, the presentation of the OP was a bit over the top, with the whole "public service announcement", calling sellers of McCormack amps "yahoos", and then basically laying a turd on anyone who is trying to sell their McCormack amplifier. Thanks for the warning, old stuff fails, shocker. It seems in at least some cases, repairs are possible and unless the amps are blowing up and houses are burning down it would probably be sufficient to simply say "be aware, this could be a problem." I suspect SMc's responses to some owners of the failed McCormack amps are similar to the analogy of how many patches do you want to put on an old bicycle inner tube? At some point, taking the wheel and tire off and the work required to patch the tube is simply not worth the effort any more. That doesn't mean it can't be done and it doesn't mean that the fifth or sixth patch will not hold for a year instead of a week, but the odds are against you. In addition, patching failed input boards may simply not be aligned with SMc Audio's business plan, which includes performing high quality equipment upgrades of former McCormack Audio electronics and developing/manufacturing new products that make their customers happy. However, as discussed in some of the posts, there are others who can make the repairs. |
I respectfully disagree. I think Steve is a brilliant designer and I stated my admiration for his amplifiers (sans the modded 225). However, the manner in which the information here and in another post was delivered and broadcasted by @soix who apparently had more than one conversation with Steve/SMc Audio and in one way or another was given explicit or implicit consent to go on with it, led me to think there’s vested interested involved. I am not accusing anyone of trying to run a business and make a living. But I do have a problem with the nature of OP’s two threads (one targeting specific classified was already removed). |
