2. amps-preamps
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Why do no audio enthusiasts use McIntosh?

With the exception of some of there tube gear, not many really use this stuff(or admit to it anyway), I am mainly referring to there amps. They look pleasant, they look good on paper and have the price of high end gear, but I seldom hear anyone claiming to like or one day dreaming of owning McIntosh. I have never really listened to there stuff, no good word of mouth sort of scares me away from it, the only people who like it are those who sell it, an uncanny coincidence? I don’t know. Sorry it this has been covered many times in the past, I ran a search and could not find anything.
tireguy
courant
119 posts
 
" I must say it was rather off putting. Is it really impossible to expect VERY nice speakers for around five-thousand a pair? Wow!..."

B&W 805 Diamond-3 speakers list for $6K. I had 805D2s for a while. Very detailed, but the tweeters are also very fragile and expensive to replace. I sold the 805s very shortly after I started dating a woman who had a cat, and replaced them with a pair of "feline friendly" Pioneer SP-BS22-LRs. :-)
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Many audiophiles jump on mac as its way cool!!
judgmentday
22 posts
 
Every body’s amp is the best in the world. A Mark Levinson amp owner will claim that this amp is the best sounding amp in the world, same for an Audio Research amp owner, Bryston’s amp owner, Krell’s amp owner, Ayre’s Amp owner, CJ’s amp owner, McIntosh’s amp owner, Pass Labs’ amp owner, Classe, Rotel, PS Audio, etc. at the end of the day all do the same if they have good specs and good electronics.
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shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
@kosst_amojan


Adding autotransfomers to SS amps sounds “crazy” as George Hifi points out.

Mcintosh made a strategic choice there to craft the sound of their SS amps to be more tube like. Purists hate this but some may like the sound with the added convenience of SS.

Frankly a tube Mcintosh is up there with other great tube amps. Whether you like the sound probably has as much to do with component matching as it does to the individual tubes selected. Most folks would agree that the first thing to do is to replace the Mcintosh stock JJ or Chinese tubes. Perhaps this is a major drawback to what are relatively expensive amplifiers. Or perhaps Mcintosh know or expect that purists will replace tubes anyway and therefore they voice the amp with cheap tubes that are warm and not so transparent. Perhaps they voice their gear for a jazz trio or quartet - the typical casual well heeled audiophile test CD - you know the type of folks who think a really large collection is over 50 albums. Whatever Mcintosh does - it has worked for over 60 years....perhaps their biggest mistake was stopping tube amp production for a while.....


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