Why the hate for mcintosh amps?

I bought my first new amp in decades just before the pandemic started. I was considering a SS integrated Mac but in the end it came down to looks after considering everything else. I'm not a fan of their blue lights. I went with a Yamaha A-S3000 instead. However since hearing tube gear I sold the Yamaha and now have a PrimaLuna EVO 400 power amp. 

Like Mark Levinson, Mc stuff is very well made with some of the best parts available.  Mc was started a lot like Audio Research, with someone asking a friend to come up with a component for their personal system.

We found that Mc was nice looking, made very well, broke about the same as other "high-end" electronics, and had its fans.

Sound-wise, it was not in the same league as some of the later brands, but the again, speakers improved dramatically when Jim Winey and Magnepan came out.

We had some old Mc stuff--275 tube amps, etc., and some old Marantz stuff--7, 8, 9, etc.  It was OK, but compared to the newer tube designs and more revealing (non-box) speakers, these products were simply not as accurate as the newer designs.

SO, a lot of our Dr. and Attorney clients liked Mc, and Jimmy Ryder in his Miami stores (Hi Fi Associates) sold tons of it. We could not get the line--back then things were very tight in awarding lines to dealers "close" to each other.  That's OK.  We understood that people liked the brand and the various box speakers that they drove with it.  We just did not think it was equal to the newer products back then (1970's-1990's).

These days, I have no idea what they do or how well they do it, but I assume there are still many Mc fans out there.  Enjoy!

Cheers!

Get a Sugden class A and don't look back...its all you will ever need.

LOVE the ROLEX analogies, though it falls slightly short in that different watches dont tell the time differently, as opposed to audio components which sound different....both Rolex and Mac have had and continue to have HUGE fan base and continue to sell well to a certain subset of consumers....."different strokes for different folks"....

I can't speak for any new gear, but I can tell you my MX110Z sounds glorious!