Is McIntosh a stepping stone into HI/FI?

When the straight wire/minimalist designs--spearheaded by the original Mark Levinson preamps and meterless amps--came into fashion, McIntosh with its old school face of knobs for bass, treble, mono, stereo reverse, and balance, and SS power amps with big blue meters and output transformers, quickly fell out of fashion, and for a long time took on an old school, "this is your dad's stereo" reputation. But I've gotta say, I've never heard a bad-sounding McIntosh and some of their amps are some of the best I've ever heard. I have had a pair of Mirage M5si floorstanding speakers I bought in late 1996. In the audition I found a Sunfire amp wanting so then tried a big-ass McIntosh. I never could come up with the scratch for an amp like that, but 15 years later, the way that that Mac pushed Holly Cole's "Temptation" album through those speakers haunts me still.

07-01-11: Tzh21y
Great stuff. I own one MC275 and I just keep putting record after record on, and before you know it half the day has gone. I have never listened to my records and music so much.

To quote Napoleon Dynamite, "Luck-eee!"

How long have you been spinning vinyl through this rig? I read the test report on the current reissue MC275 and I"m amazed at how competitive that amp still is, even by the measured numbers, such as a power bandwidth that doesn't hit -3dB until nearly 100 KHz. And it has the square wave (rise time) response to go with it. Clean, fast, *and* tubular midrange--what more could one want?

07-15-11: Es347
I've found that MAC electronics match up with any speaker you can throw at them. Other amps having higher resolution?...that's what everyone seems to say but the many A/B comparisons I have witnessed hasn't proven that.

I think Mac equipment in general is deceptively resolving because it is so uncommonly smooth. Real music doesn't have a harsh or electronic edge, or a rising treble to beat you over the head with detail. If you listen to a treble-hyped stereo all the time, you'll be shocked at how "rolled off" the treble sounds at a live symphony concert, even if you're in the first few rows. Macintosh's waveforms and tonal balance are more in keeping with live acoustic music.

If you have resolution plus smoothness, you have refinement.

07-05-11: Tzh21y
The mc275 is slower, but I love it. Heck it is a tube amp! I could probably say that it is slow, rounded, yes, midrange beauty, yess, colored, maybe a little, and I think I am going to put another record on right now. An audiophile friend said that I am listening to more music than anyone else he knows.

I don't know which generation MC275 you have, but the current v3 has good bandwidth and risetime even by today's standards. The Stereophile review and measurements indicate that its -3dB bandwidth point is 91Khz, and the rise times of its square wave responses correspond to that and are very precise and square. Given that, the treble rolloff you perceive may simply be its uncommon smoothness, and the reason you play so much music through it is because it conveys more of the sonic and emotional cues of live music including that transparent, seamless tube midrange combined with commendable speed, clarity, and frequency extension with no ringing, harshness, or overshoot.

It is a great amp for the money. That is very hard to argue.

It is a steal for the money, if you love music.

At about $4.5K new, indeed, what's not to like? If I had the coin I'd have one in a heartbeat.