Your dealer is crazy. While Mac has indeed changed hands the owners did not seem to screw with the company and indeed during the D&M to Fine Sounds transition a fair amount of money went into the company as evinced by the amount of new product developed. In the latest transition, it is owned partly by Charlie Randall who is an operations guys initially who has been there 20+ years and is generally known as a protector of the Mac heritage and value proposition. He has been CEO for a number of years. The other investors seem to be very focused on putting money into the company and developing it furhter. I would have no resistance to buying a new Mac piece from the quality perspective. I might have some on the price side and from the pov of design (e.g. the new MA5200) but if you like some of their stuff and are fine with the price I would not hesitate. You can also read alot about their stuff at the McIntosh Forum on AudioKarma.org.....lots of info there. Finally, there are other brands that are probably as good as McIntosh but Parasound would not be one that would come to mind. I like buying American, like the Mc house sound (and the blue lights), find their stuff damn near bulletproof and that it retains value better than most other brands. Its conservative in development but to me the sound it puts out sounds like music. Just my $.02
