Do true audiophiles own Mcintosh gear

No,they do not.

Just to comment a bit further on Blindjim's excellent editorial, I find that in snobbery (and this applies to any field, not just audio) there is an inverse relationship between name recognition/availability and exclusivity. As a brand becomes more widely known it begins to lose it's cache among the cognoscenti

One of my favorite stories is many years ago I was buying a suit in a wholesale type tailor in the garment district of my city. A fellow was also there buying a tux. After he got it selected and measured for fitting, the tailor looked at him and asked what brand label he wanted in the jacket. They then proceeded to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of brand recognition. The problem was the most expensive brand was a name that not many people recognized so it would fail at impressing ordinary folk. So, the tailor recommended a slightly less exclusive but more widely known expensive brand. That way the fellow would impress more people with his fine taste in clothing.

McIntosh is excellent gear. It is well crafted, has a depth of support that is unequaled, and I've certainly heard superb sound from many McIntosh powered systems over the years.

The question is: are you listening to music, or are you impressing people? If the former and you like your Mc gear, the question is settled. If you are impressing people, then you need the audio equivalent of the tux discussion. First you decide what audience you're impressing and then you select the brand that best does that.

The question is: are you listening to music, or are you impressing people? If the former and you like your Mc gear, the question is settled. If you are impressing people, then you need the audio equivalent of the tux discussion. First you decide what audience you're impressing and then you select the brand that best does that.

One of the best descriptions I've seen in ages about this hobby. With a little tweaking, we could list other brands to put in the Mc catagory. Might be a useful exercise.

Granted, the Mc willl impress the great unwashed also(gheesh, even Blose will do that), however they are excellent quality pieces, and retain their value well.

While undoubtedly someone will come along and take offense to retained value as an indicator of something (anything), the fact that Mac sells VERY well used here vs. the flavor of the month stuff that can barely be given away, speaks volumes.

Vintage Mac gears were great.
They were the best looking amp back then as well.
Although they might not be the best sounding at that era but they're sure one of the reference amp in that era.
The Monos like MC30/MC60
The stereos like MC225/MC240/MC275
Many of the modern amps still don't sound as sweet as these vintage amps.
The vintage tube Tuners is still one of the best.
MR67/MR71 still sounds better than many of today's top tuner.
The preamp are decent as well. The C20/C22 were the best from that time.

So, it depends are who you are and what you listening to, the gears may vary as preference may vary.

I've taken a pretty extensive tour of tube amplification over the past 35 years, and am currently running three SET systems with tube pre-amplification. None if this gear is McIntosh, but not for lack of audiophile quality from that brand. That company did suffer a product crisis in the 1980s into the early 1990s, but you can't be too hard on them for that. During the same period, the aural horror of Krell was introduced to us, Audio Research sound got progressively colder and ascetic, and the CD was still finding its way to quality in the entire chain from digital recording to mastering to duplication to playback gear.

However, you'd be hard-pressed today to hear a better amp at any price than a McIntosh MC1201 monoblock pair, and its smaller brothers in the "quad differential" range aren't slouches. The MA6900 integrated is one of the more musical integrated amps of any topology. Their push-pull tube amps are among the best of that topology. And the preamp range gives you a good range of transistor and vacuum bottle options delivering essentially the same balanced, musical, penetratingly revealing sound. I don't find satisfaction in any of McIntosh's speakers, but for some other makers' speakers, there's no better amp than a Mac.

Phil