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. 

soix
mitch2
4,006 posts
 

FWIW, pmy monoblocks have no power switch at all, if they are plugged in then they are powered on. My SMc DAC has the magnetic switch.  For my preamp, I believe there is a power switch on the outboard power supply.

ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
3,151 posts
 

My DNA 0.5 has no power switch on the front panel either. It has a breaker on the side for powering on/off.

fishagedone
43 posts
 

Well, I had a good conversation with Pat this morning and it appears it would be unfair to malign him or SMC audio over this incident. It looks like this was probably more the result of a miscommunication with a seldom-used outside sales person that deviated from his normal "direct-to-consumer" sales approach. He indicated that I could contact him directly and purchase from him directly from this point forward, which would probably avoid any future incidences. One thing I did learn is that it appears there is no shortage of support for SMC audio, and Pat does appear to be stand by his business.  Who knows, maybe there could be a SMC amplifier in my future after all.

ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
3,151 posts
 

@fishagedone 

Good on ya for clearing this up. As you can see, there is a lot of respect and support for the work Pat and Steve do, and for good reason. I’m glad we all have a little better perspective on what happened.

cheeg's avatar
cheeg
246 posts
 

@soix thanks for the tip - can’t believe I didn’t think of that… 🙄  

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