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

Ive owned a decent amount of Mcintosh gear. The newest stuff is the best Mac gear Ive heard and owned - the C2700 paired with the MC462 was a nice combination. But for close to 17k for the pair "nice" just doesn't cut it. They are reliable, hold their resale and probably the prettiest gear on the market - hands down. But do they sound the best? My completely subjective response is... nope. Luxman, Hegel, LM and Pass Labs (to name a few) sound worlds better. Worlds. 

True McIntosh has more than a cult following .True the resale value is fantastic.True the build quality is pretty much there.I doubt for a lot there's no arguing that......but as far as being in the top tier of stereo makers worldwide they are not in the conversation.As a matter of fact they are not in the conversation of US makers either..Having said that I don't think we really  need another Mac post gettng lovers and haters butting heads again.

Of course you wouldn’t consider McIntosh laoman, you can’t even spell it.

You may want to take note that a bunch of Americans on this thread are spelling it wrong. I say this because you didn’t seem to have an issue with it until laoman posted.

Man initially posts his opinion without being rude or condescending and some of you jump all over him. Way to go Team America!

@roxy54

Thanks so much! I appreciate your reading my comments and thinking they are important.

In my former shop we sold Mc for a while. Jimmy Ryder (yes, Ryder Trucks--the son) had a shop in Miami and he was THEIR guy for many years (Hi-Fi Associates) so we did not get to keep the line since we were north of him about an hour (Boca Raton). In those days, manufacturers gave you a "territory" and even Mc was "fair trade." (You can look that up if you don’t know what it means.)

Anyway, I had a bunch of their newer gear and a bunch of their older gear (trade-ins on Audio Research). We listened to it all. The scope thing was cool until it broke. The tuner was OK--not the best, but OK. The older tube amps were less than transparent (to be kind) when it came to reproducing Lincoln Mayorga Direct-to-Disc albums. I don’t remember the pre-amps, but with SP3-A1’s all the rage at the time, I would guess they were not as accurate as the Audio Research ones were.

Reviews at the time from J. Gordon Holt and Henry Pearson et. al. were all pretty much the same--nice looking, well-built, not very accurate.

Do what you want, believe what you want. I heard what I heard, and that is that.

Sorry if you are not happy when presented with facts like many today. Life’s tough, right?

MAC has been bashed as not being true high end since the days of the Audio Critic’s Peter Aczel and they seem to have weathered the storm.