2. amps-preamps
  3. 181722-96

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
fishagedone
45 posts
 

I can't speak for SMC.  I can only relay my own personal experience as accurately as possible. 

mitch2
4,084 posts
 

@fishagedone

"If it’s so great, go buy it Mitch and post pictures of the amazing chassis and value."

I did just that. Beat out a pair of Lamm M1.2 Reference monoblocks and a pair of Clayton M300 Class A monoblocks in my system, all of which I owned at the same time. Pictures of my amps are on the home page of SMc Audio’s website, the black monoblocks.

To your other question, I don’t generally care what people like or don’t like but when I read about good people being maligned for silly reasons that seem to make no sense then, yes, I may challange that. You don’t want to pay the price, you don’t feel comfortable with refurbished equipment, you want balanced inputs, and you saw a similar amp advertised for less money so, sure, the SMc amp wasn’t for you, I get that. I also understand the frustration of dealing with a pushy sales person. However, what I don’t understand is why that should reflect so negatively on SMc Audio. You didn’t buy anything or lose any money so, in the absence of actual damages, your level of negativity seems disproportionate, IMO of course.

fishagedone
45 posts
 

Mitch,

Fair enough. There’s more to this story that I really don’t think it’s worth anyone’s time to get into. Look if I’m the only bad experience out of 1000 transactions then I’m happy for our community. I hope that to be the case. And I hope my feedback can only go to improving and strengthening the audiophile market and experiences for everyone. I believe we should all speak out and give everyone a chance to express themselves as long as it’s based on factual information.

soix OP
9,779 posts
 

So Patrick referred you to an agent?  Why the hell would he do that???  Nothing about this seems right. 

mitch2
4,084 posts
 

Agree, fair enough.  I am sorry your experience wasn’t great.

If you ever have the opportunity, I suggest trying to hear one of their newer amplifier creations. Unfortunately, they don’t have a dealer network and don’t typically display at shows so, listening opportunities are mostly limited to whether you know somebody who owns their products.  Therefore, buying from them can require a bit of a leap of faith.

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