An Audio Amateur's question about McIntosh Audio

I think McIntosh gear is well built, handsome, and not remotely overpriced given its quality and longevity.

But I’ve also auditioned it many times (tube, solid state, preamps, amps and digital) wanting to give it a fair shake. It’s not my cup of tea.  I have always found something in the category that I preferred sonically.  Indeed, I would say that it has the strongest sonic signature of any brand I’ve auditioned so I’m not surprised that it is also a polarizing brand. 

Is it a high quality brand to be admired? Yes.

Does it offer the resolution and neutral sonic signature I desire? No. 

And does it matter what I or others think of it -  if you like the gear? Not in the least.

But I also think it counterproductive if we all insist that others should like what we like. 

McIntosh amps are good but they don't measure great, even compared to amps that cost MUCH less. You're paying for the look and the name, that's it. 

I've owned 2 Mac amps. A MC402 & MC452. Both are very well built and the 452 was my favorite out of both mainly due it has better detail retrieval.  However,  not enough in my opinion.  I was using Olympica 3 at the time and felt the volume had to be increased quite a bit to get the midrange to open up. I don't know but there was something I could never completely warm up to with these amps. They just lacked subtle details.  Its like i kept waiting and waiting to hear.  Maybe they didn't match that well with that particular Olympica series 🤔.  Afterwards I bought a ARC Ref75SE and the magic appeared. No contest. Just my 2 cents.

When someone can afford the amp/preamp of his dreams, how long could he be satisfied with it ?  Being an audiophile is like being plageg with a desease and the nirvana you think you have reach is very ephemeral. This applies to any brands including McIntosh who's longetivity and resale value is hard to beat.

@squared80 

"McIntosh amps are good but they don't measure great, even compared to amps that cost MUCH less."

McIntosh components are spec'd very conservatively by the manufacturer and when they receive an appropriate independent test bench review they more than exceed their rated specifications and very consistently. Though others will argue that specs don't tell the whole story, less scrupulous manufacturers routinely publish erroneous specs as a marketing ploy.