Why No McIntosh Recommendations?

stevecutler,
Thank you for your wise and even-handed comments. When the lights are out, and the music is playing, each amp will have its own sound, and given modern distortion figures are reasonable, they will all be acceptable although different, just like flavors of ice cream. However, over the years, a lot of nose-in-the-air audiophiles and pseudo engineers have enjoyed making McIntosh a target of their derision. 

They love to point to the "outdated " autoformers, the supposed pedestrian quality of their internal components etc., and then call them overpriced even though they cost a fraction of what the most elite high end brands cost. Then they try to shame owners by saying that they are only attracted by the blue meters and glitzy looks, which are in fact far less attractive (to me anyway) than many other more and less costly brands. There are certainly reasonable listeners who have given Mac a fair listen and found that their gear is simply not their taste sonically, but there are many others who bash them as a pastime and really aren't familiar with any of their gear.
Comparing them to Harley Davidson motorcycles and saying that they are outdated status symbols for doctors and lawyers are just stale and meaningless labels. 
You are apparently an electronics technician who spends your time repairing amplifiers, and you may not be familiar with the boutique snobbery surrounding certain brands of capacitors and resistors. In the audiophile world, if you're not using these parts, you can't be a member of the club. You look at it more rationally, as a tech who knows when something is built to do its job and does that job reliably.
Good for you Steve. You have my respect.
John     

@clearthink


Please don't use the old argument that "it must be financial envy why others don't choose to worship what you worship" line of dialogue. Many on this site can afford whatever they want to afford and they vote with their checkbooks. While I don't presently own any Mac gear, I might again in the future, who knows. I love the look, even though unlike many on Audiogon, my gear is tucked away out of sight so I guess I don't subscribe to building audio shrines. I buy for sound and right now, McIntosh sound doesn't align with my tastes but I'm only one person.

I also don't own any Bryston but its cool that McIntosh/Overture used some of their equipment. And yes, the Sonus Faber and Audio Research influence should really help McIntosh R&D going forward. I have high hopes. Listen, everybody has this beautiful freedom to like what they like and buy what they want to buy.

You see recommendation from users. McIntosh users don't have time to tell people how good the gears they own are. More importantly, McIntosh gears are expensive that keep 99% of people away.  I listen Cassette tapes, Cds and other digital sources from Nakamichi Dragon, Oppo UDP205, Mac MX160, Mac MC452 and a pair of Focal Electra 1038 Be. The quality of sound is warm, crystal clear and near flawless. There are better gears on the market, but I don't need them. If you want to know about McInotsh, go to a local dealer and experience it yourself. To know the quality of sound, you need to listen to it.

Jeez, McIntosh is fine equipment. So is Bryston, Simaudio, Pass Labs, T+A, CH Precision, Dartzeel, Nagra, Naim, ASR, Sugden, Luxman, Levinson, Burmester, Chord, etc, etc. on the solid state side of things.

If you love what you have and it happens to be McIntosh, that's cool. Many might argue that McIntosh doesn't even make the best amps within its own corporate family (Audio Research?). It doesn't really matter though does it? If you are happy then that's all that matters. But there seems to be a pervasive trend where when someone else objectively doesn't love what you love then it must be because they: can't hear, can't afford it, have poor taste, etc. That's a little narrow but many own what they own for a variety of reasons.

The dealers do a fine job of representing McIntosh. It sells and it does happen to fill a need of providing alot of decent watts for the money.

I do have one complaint about McIntosh equipment and I hope someone at McIntosh is monitoring this post.  Please get rid of the glass front panels and replace with Lexan (plastic).  The black plastic laminate in front panels de-laminate over time especially around the head phone jack and near the corners/edges and any repair is impossible and futile without costly replacement of the panel.  I know that lexan is a good alternative.  I bought a C24 pre with a glass panel that was destroyed in shipping. Since this is one of the few parts from Mac or Audio Classics that is N/A, I took the trouble and found a manufacturer in Hong Kong that made other lexan repro panels for Mac (not a licensee), sent him the broken pieces and they were able to make a perfect reproduction in lexan with all of the correct graphics and colors. It is so perfect it would defy anyone at Mac to tell the difference from their factory panel.