Mcintosh - Love Em' or Hate Em' ......Why?

I love mc and it came down to personal taste; mc402/c45. goal is 2x mc 275 and B&w802d

I fell in love with Mac gear back in 1978, with a C32 Pre, MR78 Tuner, and MC2205 amp. I've owned many Mac's over the years, with my current setup being the C48 Pre and MC7200 Amp. I couldn't be happier with this setup! Nothing is as gorgeous as the Mac gear turned on in a dark room. Reliability is another benefit. My only complaint is their cd players, which always seem to be behind the curve of other manufacturers' players. The two I've owned, the MCD7000 and the MVP-861, a universal player, have proved to be very un-reliable, to the point that I probably won't buy any more of their players. But all-in-all, Mac is a great company, and I hope they continue on for many more years.

What a great sound from the golden era. My father had the MC275 from 1961 to 2001. Never had a single problem with it. I love the MC240 even more, from 1959. They go for $3k if you can find one used. Tubey magic. Beach Boys mixed down on those.

I think vintage McIntosh is the best value around, expecially the old tuners (67 and 71) and integrated amps (1500 and 1700). Can't speak for the new ones.

Only a vintage Dynaco amp 416 or the Luxman 3045 rivals it, and I never seen these come up often.

The only new amps I have seen the rival the new MC275 are the Leben 300 from Japan.

Neither! They make some very good products and some poor cost/performance models. Their cult followers are much more dislikable then the MAC gear. When I wanted to demo an Eminent Technology LFT-8B the sales guy only wanted to talk about how great MAC gear was with ET. After critizing my Valve Audio Predator even thou he was not familiar with it I decided to cancel my demo. I thought about contacting Bruce about this but thought it was a waste of time. I do believe there is some form of hypnosis or brainwashing if you stare at those tacky blue meters for an extended time!

I bought a demo (recently superceded model) Mac CD/DVD player from Magnolia Audio. I was told it came with full manufacturer warranty. I sent in the warranty card immediately and received a letter back from McIntosh telling me they would not honor the warranty because the store had a limited time to sell discontinued models and then the warranty would be void. Any company worth anything would have given a reduced warranty period, not voided it completely. It felt like they were happy to wiggle out of the warranty rather than honor it, even for a reduced duration. Just bad customer service!