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

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?

Anyone else getting the feeling that this is becoming a nascar argument of Ford vs Chevy? 
sit back and enjoy the music anyway you can. Even if you are in your Ford and passing a Chevy!

Everyone is entitled to like what they like. But it’s better for everybody to keep any hate suppressed. Except for my hate of the OP’s "discuss."

No good can come from it.

fascinating to me what transpires on this thread, not sure if this is what @hilde45 intended with his op

there are mcintosh bashers whose bashing is repetitive, argumentative, unnecessary... but the defensive defenders can be just as obnoxious

reality is, there are so many good choices for hifi gear, it is a wonderfully vibrant marketplace... good sound and good looks need not be mutually exclusive, some want both, some want good stuff, good brand recognition, are not 10-10ths hifi herds, others are... why do we care how other people choose to spend their money, pursue their happiness if it is not our own? some of us like this brand, the looks, so what, so what if we don’t?

i feel so much of this stems from our base instincts... jealousy, envy, frustration with our own circumstances, shallow need for external validation of our own personal choices... we should rise above all of this...

just enjoy the music, the fact that we all have the wherewithall to enjoy this hobby, participate in this forum, this discussion, and we should wish each other good luck in finding one's own version of happiness within it...