Who's the Cadillac of Hi-End Audio?

Here's a link to an article from the LA Times regarding Cadillac and hip hop. There's also plenty of interesting references to Cadillacs and rock history.

First qualification, I'm not a Caddy owner. Sorry all you Cadillac bashers and bashers of Mac, Krell and so on, but you have missed what Cadillac was and where its going. It was never the best car in the world. It was the standard for the massed produced best. Cadilac was one of the innovators. Oldsmobile usually introduced the innovation and then Cadillac took it one step further and publicized it. At the time that statement was coined cars like Bristol and Rolls were better built but not necessarily better performers. As a whole people that like Caddys really like them and continue to buy them. Mac has that same kind of loyalty. Acura, has almost no owner loyalty. Krell doesn't either. And don't even talk about some of the boutique brands, here today can't find service tomorrow. And I do love the boutique brands.

Mac may not be the best, but people who buy them tend to keep them and keep buying them.

I for the most part agree with Wadedwyer regarding German and Japanese cars. I don't agree on American cars. Every German car I have ever owned has had some sort of electrical problem before it was three years old (easily resolved). None except the Audi could deal with snow. The Japanese were competent as an old Cadillac and twice as boring. The Americans cars on the other hand performed their job, had very few pretenses, rattled and were cheap(relatively) to fix. As a result, while I love German cars they have their place as do all the others. If you need an appliance buy Japanese. If you need road finesse buy German. If you need a mix buy American.

I find the many comments I read here amusing and overstated. Whatever happened to just enjoying a car for what it offers. I drive a late model Crown Victoria that rides great, handles well, can accomodate my family and has a trunk the size of Rhode Island. I paid a very reasonable sum for it as a used car with low mileage. It's reliable and repairs are few and far between. Everyday riding home I am passed by Volvo's, Mercedes etc and know from talking with colleagues that own those types of cars they are more often that not in the shop getting repaired. I also own a 1988 Cadillac Deville inherited from my mom which has the best ride of ANY car I've ever owned or rode in which happens to include a Rolls Royce. So my advice to all you "foreign" car buffs is keep wasting your money on those types of cars and when the bills keep rolling in sell some of your audio equipment here on Audiogon so I can take advantage of it. As for the original question about Audio manufacturers the answer is "McIntosh" period.

Whatever Mac is, it continues to get rave reviews. Latest TAS loves the new stuff. Beyond reproach.

Funny story: my grandfather drove Cadillacs all his life. he would never buy a Lexus because it looked too much like a Chevy. Go figure.

Long and off the audio topic:
Ran across this post, and found my above comments about Cadillac more germane than when I wrote them. At that time, I had never shopped for a Cadillac.

After owing nothing but domestic automobiles, with the purchase of over 30 new G.M. vehicles, I finally went to a Manufacturer other than a domestic/G.M. one, and was absolutely amazed at how the rest of the world builds and sells automobiles.

From the mid-’70’s I had been purchasing G.M. vehicles with an employee discount, thinking that my deal was a good one, and up-front it was, but at the resale end, I was getting hosed.

Consequently, I did my homework on resale, and visited a Lexus Dealer.

After decades of G.M. Dealer treatment, my wife and I were in disbelief at how poor the buying experience, auto aesthetics, and build quality were, when compared to what we experienced at our local Lexus Dealer.

On our way home, I exclaimed that every G.M. General Manager and above, should be required to go through what we had the pleasure of experiencing, and perhaps they may have a clue why their buying base is eroding.

Yep, we compared a Cadillac to a Lexus. They were similar vehicles, and similarly optioned, the Cadillac was $6K more than the Lexus (there went my employee discount).

We actually drove the Cadillac three times over a couple week period, and the Lexus twice. We went to two Cadillac Dealers. The salesman at the first advised us that he was new to “this car selling business” (because of his age, we assumed perhaps a second career).

After we drove the Lexus, we went back to the same Cadillac Dealer and advised the salesman of how impressed we were with the Lexus and the sales experience. He stated that Lexus trains their sales personnel! Hello!!! we were shopping for a $40K+ Cadillac and we dealing with untrained sales personnel. On the other hand, our Lexus salesman was exceptionally knowledgeable, and wonderfully accommodating –head and shoulders better than we had EVER experienced. His Management were equally so.

At the second Cadillac Dealer, our salesman was a notch above the other Cadillac Dealer, but still not close to our young, but highly skilled Lexus salesman. However, upon entering the showroom, an unpleasant odor that permeated the building slapped us in the face – perhaps decades of stale cigarette smoke or ??

Moreover when my wife and I had occasion to use the restrooms, we were appalled by their maintenance -- our local 20 year old Movie Theater has more sanitary, inviting facilities (oh, the restroom visit was prompted by the wide selection of help yourself beverages the Lexus Dealer offered to all those who entered – both new customers and those in for service). Did either Cadillac Dealer do same –nope! In fact the only beverage I every received at a G.M. Dealer came out of the salesman’s own pocket.

What a great way for G.M to showcase their flagship car line! Poorly maintained, odorous facilities, staffed by untrained sales personnel. Yep, it isn’t your father’s Cadillac, but his cronies are making marketing decisions, manning the showrooms, and still primarily doing business as it has been done for decades – what a shame!

Granted, Cadillac’s have improved, but based on our recent experience, their vehicles are not on a par with Lexus, and based on what I’ve seen and experienced, they never will be! They just don’t have a clue – or the bean counters have too much of an influence on design and engineering; or their overhead is just simply greater than Lexus’, preventing them from putting the same level of engineering quality and support into their vehicles; or they simply don’t think they need to, or care to compete, on a head to head basis – I don’t know why, nor really care.

We did buy the Lexus, and have had a blast with it. In fact, a couple weeks after our purchase, in somewhat serious jest, I asked my wife if she would like to visit the Dealership (it’s about 30-miles from our home) it was such a pleasant experience. You can bet that thought never crossed either of our minds with our dozens of previous G.M new car purchases.

Time will tell whether we remain happy Lexus Owners; however, based on comments from friends and acquaintances since our purchase, it would appear that will be the case.

Oh, I almost forgot, since this has been so far off Audiogon’s main topics, I must mention that the audio in the Lexus is better than any G.M vehicle we’ve every owned. In fact, we have a year old G.M. vehicle with the upgraded Bose, and it isn’t as good as Lexus’ base system (not their Mark Levinson upgrade). In fact, every feature on the Lexus appears to be a notch above what we experienced on the Cadillac, or on our other year-old equally priced luxury G.M. product – go figure.