MCINTOSH: How good are they?

aaharvel · May 2005

Their amps and preamps are beautiful. They have a cool blend of oldschool and modern day aesthetics. I've only seen their stuff in Stereophile before and have always wondered how good the company is-

maybe one day i'll be able to afford one, or even find somewhere that actually sells them. hA!
I LOVE those blue meters!

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/

Toxis · May 2005

Damn good.

gregure · May 2005

Damn good is right. They look great, sound great, and are built like tanks. At at those prices, they'd better be damn good. You'll have to drop over $3k just for a 250 wpc 2-channel amp, and they go up from there.
Rest assured, though, you shell out for that kind of amp, it will last you 20+ years easy.
All the amps are built and assembled at their East Coast factory, too.

heiney9 · May 2005

Among the best audio stuff built, especially the 70's versions. They will certainly last a lifetime or two. Great to pass on to your kids. They sound excellent as well. I was never too fond of the aestetics, but they have grown on me. Certainly an excellent choice if you have the extra bucks sitting around.

H9

P.S. I'm speaking of the older stuff no the newer stuff which I don't think is built as well or sounds quite as good.

aaharvel · May 2005

hmm... now all i gotta do is try and find those extra bucks LoL.
i guess until i win the lottery i'll have to settle for my plain jane H/K and Adcoms.

Again, I can't get over the blue meters. Beautiful. They look like old 70's solid state gear, only better.

I wonder if anyone on these forums have ever owned a MCINTOSH or heard it's sound with Polk Speakers? (something tells me Polk speakers do not belong with equipment of this calibur, though)

LuSh · May 2005

Many Consider Mac to be the Bose of High end, If considering MAC I'd look towards SimAudio, Classe, Pass Labs, older Mark Levinson stuff. Many consider these amps to be of better value.

F1nut · May 2005

I've heard the same said about McIntosh.

MSALLA · May 2005

I don't know about the new models, but the older ones from 80's and back were all hand built and about the best you could buy at the time.

RuSsMaN · May 2005

The vintage Mac stuff is great, and some of it VERY sought after.

The current production gear does nothing for me.

Cheers,
Russ

jfb4548 · May 2005

I have a few early 80's pieces. Still going strong today! If I remember right Macintosh is the original company behind the CD player but had to 'invite' Phillips to prefect it and bring it to market.

They are beautiful things and you have to be in good shape to move um around!

Oh and they sound pretty good on my old Polks SDA

mantis · May 2005

McIntosh is some of the very best sounding gear you can buy at any price. Mated correctly with the proper wire and speakes, you can reach a level of sonic perfection.

One day I would like to own McIntosh.

Dan

Lsi9 · May 2005

Ive heard a vintage 2 channel 55 watt Mac sound better than alot of todays 'affordable' amps

Phil Dawson · May 2005

I am lucky to own 3 solid-state mac amps. I use a 2100 (2X105) bridged to mono for the sub in my main system. I also have a pair of 250s (2X50) bridged to mono running each side of my #3 system which is 2ch. These amps have a wonderful amount of power and sound great although they are not as prominent in the higher frequencies as many other amps. The pair running my #3 system still sound good though. The mac driving my sub never seems to run out of power. Mac always was proud of producing amps that produced a bunch more power than their rating across the entire 20-20k frequency range. I think they look cool with the big grills and the black and chrome. You can see some of the biggest caps used by anyone. I had to replace the caps on my 2100 and the new ones came in black instead of the original silver and had MacIntosh printed in gold on the side. Cool look (they ought to look cool for what they cost.) There are probably better amps for the money out there but the old Macs are still good pieces of gear. I almost forgot that I had mods done (replacing a bunch of caps and taking the gain switches out of the circuit) that improve the high frequency response and sound.
The older solid state Macs have a lot of balls in the low frequencies. The tube amps sound great in the higher frequencies. This would make a great bi-amp situation. $$$$$
Phil

5.1 Music rig:
SRS SDA front
2.3tls rear
2 cs400i center
Shure 12" sub
2 PSE mono blocks and 1 stereo amp front
2 PSE stereo amps rear
1 PSE stereo amp center
Mac 2100 bridged to mono sub
B&K ref 10 upgraded to ref 50 pre/pro
Harmon Kardon Citation tuner
Pioneer tuner for AM
Pioneer DA-45 universal player
Sony X7esD CD player
Technics 1200 TT
PSE pre amp for the analog stuff

MCINTOSH: How good are they?

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