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
mitch2
4,077 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.

ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
3,208 posts
 

You should be more forthcoming about who this “agent” is. If you really want to warn the audiophile community, as you say you do, then that is the person of concern.  Not SMc audio.

fishagedone
45 posts
 

Patrick didn’t refer me to the agent. The agent introduced me to Patrick and I spoke with Patrick about it.

Ozzy, you are mistaken. Smc audio ratified and approved the price and agency relationship with this person, so they do bear some responsibility for this experience frankly. If they want to come make a statement about it, they are welcome. I’ve already shared more than enough information that adequately apprises future buyers about this situation. If you’re not satisfied, that’s your problem. I don’t believe I need to dox people because you think I should.

fishagedone
45 posts
 

Mitch, agree with your points. And thank you for the civil discussion.  

soix OP
9,735 posts
 

Patrick didn’t refer me to the agent. The agent introduced me to Patrick and I spoke with Patrick about it.
 

Your story is now contradicting itself   This is what you wrote before  

Let me put it this way, when I asked Pat about how much it would cost to upgrade to balanced inputs and an external power supply, he stated that he could not discuss pricing with me and I had to go through this agent.

You can’t even keep your story straight.  Stop blaming SMcAudio for some agent who quoted you an unfair price.

 

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