There's a dealer in Chicago who says that people buy Macs for the blue meters but the performance is not that great. Taken together with all of the unenthusiastic comments about Macs in this forum, I m only conclude that it's all about personal perception. My first "audiophile" level integrated amp (having graduated from a Kenwood receiver circa 1972) was a Mac MA6200, a tidy compact unit that packed tons of features - 5 band equalizer, 2 phono inputs, 3 pairs of speakers, all 3 of which I drove simultaneously in 3 rooms, loudness comp, headphone jack and more, all at 75 watts. It sounded great in my Teal and Tannoy speakers. Next up was a MA6900 (200 watts), 5-band equalizer driving my Focal 1027's - sounded great. Presently I have a MA352 hybrid integrated (200 watts) driving the Focals. with upgraded cables, CD player and DAC, - it sounds fantastic. . There are many high quality amps, pre-amps and integrateds out there, manufactured by great companies - Mac is one of them, blue meters and all.