Don’t buy used McCormack DNA 1990s amps


This is a public service announcement.  There are some yahoos on other sites selling 1990s McCormack DNA amps, sometimes at ridiculous prices.  While they’re great amps, and I happily owned a DNA 0.5 RevA for 20 years, they’re all gonna fatally fail.  Why?  Because their input board is at the end of its useful life, and when it fails your amp is dead and not repairable by anyone — not even SMcAudio.  It’s a boat anchor.  The only option is to sell it for scraps or get an SMcAudio upgrade that’ll cost around $2000.  Given my love of my amp I chose to do full upgrades given what else I could’ve gotten for the same same price and just got it back and will forward thoughts if anyone cares.  But the purpose of this post is to warn off any prospective buyers of a circa 1990s DNA amp that it’ll fatally fail soon, so unless you get a great price and plan on doing the SMcAudio upgrades just avoid these amps on the used market.  You’ve been warned. 

soix

Look, i don’t have any motivation to denigrate or anything of the sort. Your insinuation that sharing my honest experience is "disgusting " is ridiculous. So if a customer has a truthful experience that doesn’t align with your particular company’s narrative you resort to baseless and false attacks? Please, get over yourself. The world isn’t limited to experiences that always align with your preconceived notions. And at the end of the day, my point is to always ask for transparency, detailed information and check with market data.  Every consumer should be advocates for such behavior . 

As far as you claiming I’m misrepresenting the salesperson, I already explained it was an authorized agent I primarily dealt with. However I do believe the $10.5k asking price for the refurbished amp without balanced inputs was set by the company, allegedly that encompassed a commission, which I found odd since I never paid a commission on any of my equipment before.

Again, at the end of the day, it wasn’t a good experience for me personally. And I would just advise to do your homework and proceed with appropriate due diligence especially when buying anything custom. Apparently, these amps and associated refurbishment work depreciate quick and don't have a large resale market, so be prepared my fellow consumers.

My question is this. How did you come in contact with this "sales person"? Did you call sMC audio or did they reach out to you? Is this a third party "sales person" who has nothing to do with sMC? I really doubt that you spoke with Patrick or Steve. Please give more information for such a damning post.

 

@fishagedone

The problem here is that you basically dropped a turd in the room and then insinuated the stink is somehow related to a company that many of us have had nothing but excellent interactions with over many years. It only gets worse when you attribute your dissatisfaction to an unnamed "authorized agent", "somebody who apparently works with them", "authorized sales distribution channel" (whatever the heck that is), or a "a sales guy working with SMC audio" (which is total BS).

The fact is you are not a customer as you have not purchased anything from SMc Audio or even interacted with the two principals. Your impressions are based on interactions with an unnamed proxy and the substance of your dissatisfaction seems to be the price of an amplifier that you believe to be too high because it has been refurbished and doesn’t have balanced inputs. You clearly do not understand SMc Audio’s business model or products. To imply their pricing is not "fair" and that their products don't "stack up against market competition" (i.e., a couple of visible name brands you are familiar with), is absurd. Did you even listen to the amplifier?  I own a pair of their 650 wpc monoblocks because I like the way they sound in direct comparison to amplifiers I owned at and well above their price point. BTW, some of those "decades old chassis" are copper-plated steel, which you will not get from many (any?) other manufacturers. Sometimes, when you find yourself in a hole it is best to quit digging.

Here’s the problem — SMcAudio is only Steve and Patrick so whatever salesperson you spoke to does not work for SMcAudio as you imply.