Amazing how in such a long, meandering, and largely irrelevant discussion that ranges over Mustangs and Rolexes, you make only the barest mention of sound quality.
Really, McIntosh is on the list to audition but like any other brand, they have to earn their place in my system given price and performance. I have a single piece that has made it into my systems, and that's a bedroom system, a D150 digital preamp because all I needed was remote controllable digital and the price was right as my dealer was closing them out. Sadly, it has its quirks (software issues) that McIntosh never addressed, so quite often when switching between coax digital in and USB I need to power cycle it, but not that big a hassle. Other than that, I owned an MR-78 tuner for about a week but found it rolled off high frequencies pretty severely and returned it for another tuner. I've never demoed a McIntosh amp or preamp, but haven't heard one that sounds as good as others I was considering.
The amplifiers are perhaps the best sounding and most reliable of the products they make. The only Mac product that I would consider to be worth the hype are the stereo power amps. - Bill
Honestly imho Mac is one of the brands that is "worth the money". SQ Build quality Value, initial and long term.
I need to break down your reply just so I can gather all that it has to offer. "Seriously, I would not know, having never heard any McIntosh gear." You have entered a thread targeting a specific maker...a maker you state you have zero experience with (I gotta be honest, if you are even remotely in the audio game you have likely heard some type of McIntosh gear....somewhere, somehow....but you state you have never heard McIntosh gear) but you are still here, feeling the need to offer your own self expressed opinion on a subject you have no experience with.........Odd, but you gotta be you. Thankfully you told us right from the beginning your opinion has no merit so we can give your comments their proper place within this discussion. "But when a brand is revered for its name alone, I become suspicious." Here you make a leap, and form your position, based on nothing more than a self imposed prejudice mindset. You have no experience with McIntosh. You have never even heard McIntosh, but based on their reputation you have become suspicious.....OooohKaayyyyy. Thanks for letting us know the foundation of your assessment system so we can give your opinion its proper place within this discussion. "Perhaps you should have written that "they think they still build great equipment"?" You started your whole forray into this thread by correcting the wording of a post to fit your own self generated outlook about gear you don't own, have no experience with, and don't trust based only on their great reputation........That is THE definition of some very poor character traits.....but again, you gotta be you. My goodness @drmoss, you have certainly revealed quite a lot about yourself while providing nothing useful to the subject at hand.....except for giving a grand example of a thread crap. I'm a forgiving guy who understands sometimes we just screw up, are having a bad day, or maybe the comment we thought was based in humor did not come off in such a humorous manner for some reason.....but MAN, sometimes it is really hard to remain optimistic when so many things point in another direction..... I'll be honest. There is a portion of me thinking the very basis of this thread could be nothing more than a self serving troll post. But just in case it is not (remember that forgiving part I mentioned) I did reply in a polite, useful manner based on my direct experience with the subject at hand.....otherwise I would have posted no reply. You may want to try the same...If for no other reason than to better serve the threads subject and point.
While this may be true (my experience has been very good) the used market is where I think the "best" values in McIntosh gear reside. Because of this you can get some very good gear, made in the era of solid build quality, and save some money in the process.
I would say that used gear is where a lot of value can be found for most brands. However, I don’t buy used gear.
I own a MAC7200 and it’s brought me the most joy from any $7500 purchase I have ever made. There’s simply no comparison at that price point vs what else is available nowadays. I auditioned Luxman, Hegel, Parasound, even some old 1970s vintage receivers that’d been serviced and brought back into spec and wasn’t even close. So effortless, so smooth, so powerful. McIntosh makes some of the best gear out there and the build quality is second to none. Yes. It’s worth it.
Anybody have any opinions about McIntosh's processors? I have an old Rotel processor that is nearly 20 years old and has served me well. But it's so old, HDMI wasn't around. I've been eyeballing the MX123 but it seems like it can be kind of buggy. I love my C2300 preamp and MC452 power amp so I would love to be able to add a quality pre-pro.
Answer to the thread question if you like the looks and can afford them yes as far as the looks go if they are old or new. As for the sound quality old or new not to me but maybe to you.
