@jjss49
fascinating to me what transpires on this thread, not sure if this is what @hilde45 intended with his op
I didn't know how people would react. Here is how I see things. As the article I posted weeks ago show (from a well research Japanese business journal article), the forces which cause hifi equipment to succeed or fail are based on a number of factors. They don't all need to be named, but the two relevant for this thread are (a) forum discussions and (b) reviewers (now including YouTube).
When I seen reviews on YouTube which make strong claims (to thousands of people --3.8k in just two days), I sometimes like to see what others with a stake in the hobby think about those claims. In the course of this, facts are sometimes corrected, bad reasoning is highlighted, and hidden motivations are ferreted out. Sometimes people just say they agree with the review for x, y, or z reasons.
Reviewers, dealers, makers are all in these forum discussions, too. They pay attention because they know that comments sometimes matter. Comments build or tear down products or even brands.
Seeing so many people with experience and knowledge come to defend McIntosh is an interesting result. For the hobbyist out there considering McIntosh and searching for comments, they can now find both this thread and the YouTube video in question. This thread adds to the conversation and perhaps helps someone make a decision.
If this was just about "opinion," no one would care, no one would post. The issue is not "freedom of opinion" (banal phrase) but the "truth or falsity of claims." Sometimes those claims are about taste -- but we argue about taste all the time. Clearly, there's something at stake, and something we use to stand up our claims.