An Audio Amateur's question about McIntosh Audio

@amitb - in high end audio, we are chasing better sound within our budgets. There are many brands/models both past and present.  Each Brand and model have different sonic signatures, evidenced by demoing in person. As such, we each have unique sonic preferences within our budgets.

Many/most of us are familiar with the Mac sound, but there are many other brand/models we subjectively favor more.

To really understand, you must listen for yourself to hear differences, mere words are inadequate.

@stereo5 wrote "@ghdprentice i could say the same about your beloved ARC."

You could, but it wouldn't be true.  

For my money, if I didn't own BAT, I'd have ARC amps and preamp,

Thanks everyone! I did learn a fair bit.

-amit

Just bought a mc 2600 from audio classics new in box as it is several years old still going strong. Mcintosh  or macintosh or tomato or tooomato does not matter.they offer several times a year to trade up 75% of msrp on new stuff and that's customer support.they have alot of service centers over the usa although I've never needed it.i have 70% mac the rest audio research,boulder,soulution ect. I enjoy the Mac stuff as well as any other . .005% distortion on the mac 1.25 and 200 amps at 1.25 kw with 4 kw transients is worth it to me. I have the 12000 pre and cd both tube or solid state in one  box just change output on xlr. They say it has a house sound or it rolls off slightly in the highs. I have alot of beryllium tweeters so it doesn't matter.even on speakers without be tweets it's fantastic. I bought it open box or used and  it's value is same or more that I paid if I sold it today. So they do keep value. Read the reviews on the 12000 pre amp as it stated one of the best measured. They run cool on solid state not hot.thier design is quite good as bascom king reviewed the 2600 back in the day.besides they were used at Woodstock and I was only there in my mind with the mud slides . Just go listen at a dealer .enjoy life and the science and mcintosh.😃

I think your opinion on MacIntosh depends at least partly how "audiophile" you want to be...I own a pair of classic MC2100 amps and (for me) they are a big part of my 'end game' vintage system. I can understand, however, that someone who spends big time and money looking for "audiophile nirvana" with things like multi-thousand dollar speaker cables, cable risers, rewiring their home to provide a dedicated clean power source just for their audio system, etc. is most likely not going to consider MacIntosh an end game / true audiophile level manufacturer.

And, truth be told (or at least my opinion be told)... there's also a little bit of snobbery that colors some people's motives. MacIntosh is one of the more commonly known higher end brands - if you don't own any Mac equipment yourself, you probably know someone who does... or at the very least you have some familiarity with the brand (similar to how anybody into cars at all at least knows that Ferrari is a higher end car company, even if they themselves don't own one). And a key facet of the audiophile nomenclature is the exclusivity of owning that more obscure (and expensive) piece of equipment that others may have heard about - but likely do not own; and may never have actually even seen (or heard) in person before. "Bragging rights and exclusivity", if you will...