McIntosh -- good for show, not for sound, says dealer

I started with Kenwood, Realistic, Yamaha. Onkyo, and Marantz ....with cheap Bose or Advent speakers.

Then I graduated to a Luxman 505 UxII and some Epos Elan speakers. The sound was not all that much superior.

I then decluttered my room and treated with GIK products.

Quite a vast change and likely the biggest improvement.

However I since have went tube gear with McIntosh C2500 and MC75 monoblocks---mated to Sonus Faber Oly 1s. I also changed my streaming products from a Node 2i to a sonore rendu, Small Green Machine Roon device and a Mytek DAC+.

Nearly everything has made an improvement. But the Luxman I still have as a backup. I will say I FAR prefer my McGear to the Luxman.

I checked out that guy’s "store". Yeah he states buyers need to convince him to sell to them. Yeah right---I did not see one thing in his place I’d want. I checked out his super room vid too. Well I’ll just say I don’t care for this Jay either that he says states his system is the best ever---much prefer the Jay that used to work with Adrian and Villup.

So far I seem to be the only thumbs down on his most recent you tubes.

LIkely wont be visiting his channel in the future,

Im not a huge fan of dealman or ask paul or darko either but these guys are saints compared to this dude, jay labs, the SR magic props Denby (whatever his nam eis--who cares) guy, and the audio circle guy (ASR-Amir?) that hates just about everything. Frankly, IMO, we need more Audiofiliac and Gene Della Sala types.

All ya gotta do is look at those toobs and transfoormers and ooo la la, you know it's gonna be just fine.

Having owned many pieces of McIntosh equipment, including a pair of the very first 1201 amps to roll out of Binghamton, it’s a certain sound.  It’s warm and laidback to me. Here’s the deal, it’s beautiful to look at and it sounds lush and warm, the equipment wasn’t made for just plain old you.  What sounds good to you might not sound good to someone else.  I prefer fast, forward, and bright equipment, that’s because my hearing is just that, mine   McIntosh didn’t design their equipment around me.  

 Hey.. It's one guy's opinion. I had a McIntosh amp and preamp for 25 years that sadly didn't survive the Harvey flood and I wish I still had them.

Hello!

Could not resist getting into this discussion. I was hired by MAC in 1968 to come and design tuners. MR77, MR78 and part of MR74 are mine. My current audio system is all MAC using all-tube circuitry. System finished in 1988, after I had left MAC in 1974 to do speakers.

(1) 2-box 8 tube preamp borrowing from Marantz 7 and MAC C22.

(2) 50WPC triode power amp with MAC output transformers

(3) Yes, a TUBE MR78!

(4) Usual turntable and CD player.

(5) Joseph Pearl loudspeakers

I do not judge audiophile hobby to deeply. Life is short and no time to indulge in uninformed opinions and trash talk. There is enough good stuff from others than MAC to satisfy any well-informed listener. Please check my article published in December 2021 issue of Audioxpress for more ideas regarding good sound.

My reference for sound are two seats for wife and myself at the Symphony. There is no argument for best sound, real live music, which cannot be duplicated by any audio system.