McIntosh MCD 201 CD/SACD player questions about viability of an older piece.

after my multi disc player stopped working a few years ago

My local dealer would not take any used disc players in trade, the drives and lasers can fail and have no replacements available. 

I would chat w Randy Vikan at Elite Audio Technician in Washington state. He is awesome. Only works on Mac and Primare gear. He will have good input on reliability and importantly parts availability. I trust him completely w all my mac gear.

Jim

I owned the MCD205 for a few years which was the 5 CD MusicBank version of the 201. It had great sound and I don’t feel the internal DAC would let you down.

However, if you search here and other forums the 201 did have some reliability issues with the transport/laser assembly. It didn’t seem widespread, just something to research and consider before you make the deal.

My thoughts are too loader or nothing..

Do what ya like.

Jim just an FIY: Elite Audio Technician is closed down. 

Randy and I have decided it is time to close the business and retire. In the 12 years we have been in business we have striven to offer our customers the best McIntosh and Primare service possible. By the number of loyal repeat customers it seems you believe we have. We want to thank all our customers who have allowed us to get to know them and allowed us to service their AV equipment.

Thank you all for a wonderful 12 years.
Randy and Mary Lou

Most of the time when you see regional failures or just random failures it has nothing to do with a bad product. It normally has to do with environmental issues. The lack of an AC cleaner and maintainer, poor maintenance practices and being WAY to rough handed. I see it all the time

Rough as a cob some of these people.. Strong hand are gentle hands, so I’ve been told.

Does the 2700 DAC/Preamp have some sort of McIntosh proprietary input for older McIntosh transports?  A IS2, or a FireWire, or some other reason to pair it with the older transport?  Or is having an all McIntosh system the primary consideration?  There are good transports from other companies that will cost you less and potentially be more serviceable should an issue develop.

There are good transports from other companies that will cost you less and potentially be more serviceable should an issue develop.

Disc players are on their way out. There will always be some products out there but high-end players are getting more sparse. I'm hoping my OPPO and Cambridge players take me home but I have a spare Cambridge if I need it. 

Get a Cambridge transport. Don't waste money on a 15 year old Mac!

!!

Thanks guys. 
 

As this was part of an offer for some speakers (tannoys monitor gold 15’s) sale I was doing. I would essentially get the CD player for $1500can$ so about the price of a new Cambridge transport. It boils down to reliability and obviously matching my Mac C2700 preamp (not that I care about that so much). The only thing that’s is useful being also a mcintosh is the trigger system for turning it on this old CD player doesn't have the dac specific link system. 
 

My original plan was to buy a new streamer with a hard drive storage system and upload my CD’s to that. This may be the best choice still. As a 15 year old CD player is old now. 
 

thanks for the input. Even those who made no sense- fuzztone