Why the hate for mcintosh amps?

@oldhvymec

You know femoore12 you can always return the gift.. No need to accept any of the gifts people offer.. Just sayin'

You are absolutely correct.

To me, the hate is unjustified (unless the price is concerned). Sometime ago I replaced my tube integrated in my main system with a Macintosh solid state amplifier the sound clarity was obvious vs the tube amp. Then I replaced the McIntosh with another SS power amp and a preamp with the total  cost of about the double. I didn't use the McIntosh for some years since then. Recently i have hooked it up in my second system. Is the SQ twice worse than that in my main system? Not really, in fact the differences are not that  huge. The base sounds good and natural, piano is also fine, instrument separation is really good, high frequencies are also ok. Perhaps it lacks a bit the body, still the soundstage is not really flat. The built quality is good and it has a lot of features. Do i like the blue illumination? No, but I have it off. The balance works perfectly well, doesn't get hot ever. For me,  the SQ is not luxurious but it is more than decent and stable. Now I am no longer sure if I have to sell it. 

My med. doctor had an MC2105 and a C29.

When I saw the C29 for the first time, i knew that some day I would go for this. What a look! A real gem.
And one day my local dealer displayed one in his showcase.
After 8 or 9 weeks of sneaking around it was still there and I dared asking for a reasonable price- and I got it!

It was my holy grail for two years or so when I bit by bit
realized it did not offer that kind of sound I had always been looking for.
The sound was integral, nothing excelled. Good mids, the bass strong but a little rounded, but a lack of decay, resolution and detail.

I suspect the developers intended to find a successor for their tube gear that would do no harm to the listener's ears, but so they created amps that would deliver a rounded sound lacking impact and deep dimension picture in the high and upper mid frequencies.

So finally I sold the C29 to a friend. A review in an audiophile magazine had the verdict "good" for the C29 (but a "very good" for the contemporary Audio Research preamp)…funny enough, 30 years later I got an AR tube pre that is still in my line-up and delivers all the rich sound that I want. It is carefully tweaked and gives me everything I missed with the C29.

McIntosh of today? I dislike the green lights as much as I loved the turquoise lights. I think the magical look has vanished with this change. No reason to get one...

Jan

I still think that serious listeners should go back to older gear from time to time- just to find out that sound has not bettered through the years, maybe utmost.

Jan

So dont tube preamps offer worthwhile sound influence along with a ss amp?