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


More unvarnished truth from YouTube.
"real audiophiles...know it doesn't sound that good"

https://youtu.be/sMUQqAagKm0?t=181

Real audiophiles -- be aware. You've been read the Riot Act. 

Discuss.

128x128hilde45

Mac stuff is really pretty.  So was the Sequerra Tuner and the Transcriptor TT.

Levinson stuff is also pretty, and it is hard to beat Bang and Olufsen for looks.

Of course if you want to reproduce recorded music accurately, there are pretty much unlimited other choices, but hey, if looks is your thing and not music, well, go for it!

Cheers!

Turning people against one another is one way of looking at what he says. I look at it like that's his opinion. Saying he's turning people against one another feeds into permanent disagreement and division. That's your opinion of what's happening, it doesn't make it true. 

@vuch 

Point taken. So, it is my *argument* (not "opinion") that he is name-bashing in the video. He is over-generalizing in the video. It is an old "David vs. Goliath" trope. You buy it. I don't. You're working with him, I'm not. 

I don't own any of the gear he bashes. I don't work with him. I have no dog in this fight, but I see what he's up to. It's pretty obvious.

Oh, and I'm not "canceling" him. I'm calling him out for *what he actually says.* The charge of cancellation smacks of desperation when when it's used to sub in for a counterargument.

Reproduced sound is always a subjective matter of the listener and I don’t think Mikey gets that. I believe Mikey is more of a Mac hater than an audiophile. Don’t really share his views which is fine but Mikey really lost his credibility when you said you can buy a Mac for a 40% discount. Please post where, because I’m a buyer! The truth is McIntosh holds their resale value more than another brand and actually you’d be hard pressed to find a Mac at a 40% discount used. So judging from the masses I know there’s always going to be someone trying to knock off the king of the hill off the top or whatever reason but your reasoning borders on lame without any evidence except your thoughts. BTW I don’t really care what a Mac looks like but I don’t need a candle with my tube glow!

I haven’t done a lot of serious listening McIntosh equipment. I did recently seriously audition the MA252 integrated. Worked great with a pair of Sonus Fabers. Not good at all with a pair of Harbechs. Okay with mine. My take, though, is that it was overpriced for the sound. But you get good, US service, and that's part of the price. 

 

A lot of this is about equipment matching. 

I have a pair of Mac 611 monoblocks driving B&W 802D's that sound wonderful.  They replaced eight parallel-series connected Harmon Kardon Citation II tube amps that output over 500 watts/channel at 0,1% THD into those same 'speakers.

Sound was excellent from the tube amps, too, but replacing $45 output tubes and 2.5 kW power consumption, not to mention lugging a 60-pound tube amp upstairs to my test bench at my age after every replacement necessitated the change.