2. amps-preamps
  3. 181722-96

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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Showing 2 responses by fsonicsmith

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fsonicsmith
934 posts
 

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. 

fsonicsmith's avatar
fsonicsmith
934 posts
 

 

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@dmader48 

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. 

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