Don’t buy used McCormack DNA 1990s amps
This is a public service announcement. There are some yahoos on other sites selling 1990s McCormack DNA amps, sometimes at ridiculous prices. While they’re great amps, and I happily owned a DNA 0.5 RevA for 20 years, they’re all gonna fatally fail. Why? Because their input board is at the end of its useful life, and when it fails your amp is dead and not repairable by anyone — not even SMcAudio. It’s a boat anchor. The only option is to sell it for scraps or get an SMcAudio upgrade that’ll cost around $2000. Given my love of my amp I chose to do full upgrades given what else I could’ve gotten for the same same price and just got it back and will forward thoughts if anyone cares. But the purpose of this post is to warn off any prospective buyers of a circa 1990s DNA amp that it’ll fatally fail soon, so unless you get a great price and plan on doing the SMcAudio upgrades just avoid these amps on the used market. You’ve been warned.
@soix I was responding to you original post "Because their input board is at the end of its useful life, and when it fails your amp is dead and not repairable by anyone — not even SMcAudio." But I am always available to help anyone who needs repair, upgrade, modification or if someone needs something build for them.
Happy Listening. |
When did you turn the TLC over to SMc? I might be that lucky person. SMc did the full monty upgrade on a TLC-1 that I purchased from them some years ago. It is the black one pictured in the middle of the stack of upgraded equipment on their home page. Steve said my upgraded SMc TLC-1 Signature Edition sounds "very close to the VRE-1 preamp." and I am not surprised. |
To Steve McCormack's change of mind on upgrading power cords. I upgraded the power cord on the upgraded DNA 0.5 based on the advice of his colleague Pat. Pat had a serious focus on the importance of the electrical path. That's why I've tried to move all critical components to higher quality audio cabling: DC, AC, Ethernet. One of the services SMcAudio provides is "burning" in of power cables, which they did on several for me. And built a better cable to replace the one that came with the Node 2i. Mitch2, I sold my TLC back to SMc at the end of 2020. Could be it's my old one. I'm sure you're very pleased. Like I said, I still have some regrets giving it up, though I'm not sure if it would have added much to my system since I'm only using one source; digital. Fsonicsmith, I love the photo. When I was listening to equipment at Progressive, Scott was the person I worked with. He was great to work with; no pressure and knew his stuff. And I found all the other staff I interacted with there to be great! And I didn't start working in Dublin till 1991, so not much chance we met. I was sorry when I found out Progressive had shut down. They were one of the best Audio stores in the whole Midwest! |
Thanks @soix ! How am I supposed to sell my DNA-1 now? I was banking on some poor unsuspecting audiophile to overspend on my 25+ year old amp and that will never happen now. All joking aside though, it's still a really good amp and I'm caught between having SMC do the full upgrade or take that money and invest in a new amp. I sometimes listen to the DNA-1 but more often use Belles Aria monoblocks. They don't go as deep as the DNA-1 but they are a little better at the top end and in the midrange - at least to my ears in my room in my system. I also got to spend some time with Orchard Audio's Starkrimson Ultra GaNfet amp and that was a great combo of what I like about my old DNA-1 and the newer Belles. At some point soon, I'll make the decision to either go SMC upgrade or buy a new amp (either class A/AB or D). I'm looking forward to learning more about your experience with your upgrade and what you think. Thanks. |
