McIntosh -- good for show, not for sound, says dealer

@vuch  I agree. Peace.

Like others reading this thread, I don’t post very often. But since I’m using an MC352 to drive Quad ESL63s, I’ll say that my rig sounds amazing to me (and others who hear it). The Mac, to my ears, doesn’t sound like anything. It’s like looking into a pool of clear water. The goal for my rig is to sound like nothing at all. This is the closest I’ve ever gotten. Will grant that maybe I don’t have the depth of experience with other brands (or budget) of others on this forum. 

Got a good deal on my Mac used, but still paid a premium for it. But that’s what branding is all about, right?  It looks good, but I think ALL audio gear looks cool. 
 

… and to the guy with JBL 4350s, Cool!  I listened to a pair of 4330s for a long time…

It took reading all the way down the first page of this thread before someone mentioned value (thanks henry53). There can be no doubt that McIntosh products are very well built, last a long time, and for most people, sound just fine. If you don't care about money, by all means buy McIntosh. But if you do care about money and value, McIntosh products are very expensive for what you get. Since I'm always concerned about value, McIntosh products are a non-starter for me, but that in no way means they're bad performing products.

So, umm, lemme guess, 11Stereo is not a McIntosh dealer, but is a dealer for other brands at similar price points to Mac gear. FWIW, I have been using a C220 preamp for over a decade. Yes, I like it’s looks, but I bought it because of its flexible functionality. I did swap out the tubes and got better performance and lowered the noise floor. To my ears, in the context of my system, it sounds fantastic, and has the features I need, like a balance control with great range, and a tape loop. The MM phono section sounds wonderful, and needle drop digital copies of my LPs sound awesome. Overpriced? Not to my ears, although I did by used. YMMV.

@hilde45, peace!

@curiousjim, you said:

"ocdmikey is the same clown who lost out on distributing of Denafrips products and went on YouTube blasting the company and their products. Really appeared to be sour grapes."

Mikey didn’t loose Denafrips. He choose to drop them. His video clearly explains what happened. Denafrips didn’t honor the distribution agreement they had with Mikey. Also, they wanted Mikey to drop all of the other lines he represents and only carry them.

In the video Mikey explained that the way the Chinese company operates, there wasn’t any benefit to an American distributing company, only to the Chinese company. The price an end user pays is over priced due to where it’s manufactured.

Mikey told his side of the story of what happened. He said people can continue to buy the brand if they want. That’s not sour grapes. That’s explaining his decision to drop the brand and move on. If the company didn’t honor it’s agreement and then put unrealistic demands on Mikey as a provision of continuing to represent the brand, who could blame him for dropping them?