Mcintosh - Love Em' or Hate Em' ......Why?

I have always loved Mac amps but unable to afford them. Additionally they did not seem practical in a sort-of budget hometheater context. In light of this I am using Parasound amps to power McIntosh THX speakers which I fell in love with the day I heard them. Took a while to save up for them...but again, I had to have them. To me nothing else compared (at that price range).IMO

I love McIntosh!! They have really cool blue meters things that are great to look at!!

Arthur, i've found that i prefer the sound of SS amps that use minimal to no output inductance. While this can make the amp somewhat unstable into some loads ( easily compensated for ), i think that it sounds so much more "liquid". Having ALL of the signal fed through a HUGE inductor can't help matters. The fact that most speakers are not one specific impedance across the band also compounds problems somewhat. While the "Autoformer" may keep power constant from tap to tap, it can't compensate for the various current draws that occur within each tap at various impedances. Td ( Time Delay ) of a circuit like that can't be very good either.

My opinion is that large transformers should be at the beginning of the power supply chain and no where else. That includes tube amps also, as the Atma Sphere OTL ( Output Transformer-Less ) are the best that i've heard ( so far ). Sean
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Sean, so knowledgable and informative as always, thanks.

I still have a pair of MC-60's that have been modified with upgraded parts and were good enough for my ears that I ran them for 10 years straight without nary a thought of any change. Ignorance is bliss, right?

I still love them because they always represented to me what reproduced music could sound like. This is a dated statement, from the late 60's early 70's to be exact. I feel MAC represents solid engineering with a history of technical support that has never been equaled and should be be a model for the rest of the industry. Their workshops are legendary. There is more to reproduced audio than just SOTA sound. I know for certain that my MC-60 are no longer Class A Recommended Components (Stereophile 1964 along with the Marantz 9's) but they are a classic product that are still musically satisfying and will probably survive my grandkids.

I personally love what this company represents, value, good engineering and customer support. They still understand the value of customer loyalty. If most of the rest of American Industry could say the same. Maybe I'm just too old-fashioned but these things are very important to me. Thumbs Up to MAC!

I have owned McIntosh gear since 1984. My current system consists of 2 MC7150 amps, C42 pre-amp, MVP831 dvd, MCD7008 cd changer, MR78 tuner modified, MQ101 equalizer to go with my ML2C speakers modified with Mac tweeter towers, + Sonus Faber Grand Piano's. I'm addicted to Mac. The sound, look, quality, engineering, and the company itself. Audiophiles go one way or the other with their opinions of Mac gear. That's perfectly fine with me. The products and company work for me. Their durablity is also is remarkable, which to me is very important. I've heard to many horror stories about guy's spending a good deal on a component only to have it being fixed a short time later. My problems with their products since 1984 have been minimal.