I have seen some Interesting comments about Mcintosh lately

As a current McIntosh owner in my late 20s, I have found the RIGHT pieces in the RIGHT combination to be one of the better values out there.  Scoff if you like, but I am a fan.  As so many have said, if it works for you, great - if you can't see the appeal, that's fine too.

One thing I'll say - my wife is constantly ribbing me (half-seriously, by the way) that "there's really no difference between all of my 'stereo boxes' and the sound out of our computer speakers.. it's just LOUDER."  The first time she walked into the room after I unboxed and hooked up my MA7000 Mc integrated, she looked, paused, and said, "well, it sure is pretty," before just as quickly leaving the room.

I count that as a win.  Even if it is visual approval from my wife - that has to say something, haha!

Regardless, some of the pricing has gotten ridiculous.  I was excited to see the introduction of the MB50, a streaming music player with balanced outputs and all.  As a 'millennial' I am interested in getting into lossless streaming, etc.  How better to do so than with McIntosh?  But after seeing that this 8" wide box with two antennas on the back, weighing in at 10 lbs or so will retail for about $5,000.. are you kidding me?

Let's not alienate the next generation of enthusiasts (me) with 1000% markups.  For now, if I want to venture into streaming, I'll buy a Sonos unit and a halfway decent external DAC.

I agree with your next to last sentence, NCKempfert, only the very well-heeled will be buying new Mac's in the future. Their pricing is getting out of hand for guys like me who are retired. The used market is all that holds any future for me. Look at their turntable as an example of ridiculous pricing, along with most of their other gear. I still love their amps & preamps, the looks, the re-sale value, and sound, but the pricing is another matter.

sid42, Mac re-sale value IS one small consolation, no doubt.  And I think the inflation of their factory price list will help this trend to continue, as more and more seek used gear.

Great when I want to sell, frustrating as a bargain-seeker!

The reputation of McIntosh and B&W has extended to many Asian countries such as China, India and Vietnam. There are plenty of buyers who are willing to pay any price to own a McIntosh B&W system. In the future, US buyers will see even more "ridiculous" price increase for these two brand names.
A canon 80mmm f/1.8 costs $370 while a f/1.2L is $2000. People always says the 1.2L is better but not 5 times better. It's not about many times better or how much an L lens should cost. It's about how many people are willing to pay the extra. You consider the McIntosh MC275 a piece of art and try to save dollar by dollar until you have enough money to buy it. It is not the case for many guys in China or India. for them, it just a matter of writing a check!
The manager at a local store was nice enough to set up a multi processor system using 7.1.4 Focal Electra speakers to compare among Integra 80.6, Marantz 8802A, Onkyo PR-SC5530 and McIntosh MX160. It took me virtually no time to figure it out which processor I needed.
Buy what you bank account allows and love what you have. Don't compare because you'll never know the true answer.

The "tube reliability" comments seem to ignore the world of tube guitar amps which have been the standard for most guitar players for generations.  Do Jadis and VTL users spill beer on their amps, drive them to gigs in bouncy vans, or utilize a pair of 1953 vintage amps at 1000 seat concert venues (Julian Lage). I'll bet Fender buys more tubes in a month than all the hifi companies combined use in a year…I've owned and abused tube guitar amps since the 60s and can absolutely attest to the reliability and toughness of these things, and to think otherwise is to simply ignore what has to be the largest group of tubers, other than potatoes and peanuts.