I've said for years that McIntosh is what certain people bought after they found out that Bose was consumer junk. The Mcintosh of the last century simply is no more and quite frankly the silly blue meters and green lights are just a tired and overused gimmick. Bose would do good to get rid of that eyesore and bring them the rest of the way into the consumer-grade audio market. From a quality perspective, they've been there for a while anyway.
I have to reluctantly agree. The sound quality hasn’t qualified as high end for quite some time. These days the likes of Rotel/NAD/Cambridge products perform better to my ears, not to mention various “Chi Fi” brands.