McIntosh CD Players, worth their asking price?

Hmm,......i owned several CD/SACD players in the past. Also some McIntosh players. I had a MCD201, a MCD301 and now i use a MCT450.

All of them were expensive, but they were also good sounding. Judge by yourself!
 
I would say yes they are. I never realized how great CDs can sound until I got an MVP871, which of course is a DVD/CDP. I now have a MCD500 and really don't see myself needing to upgrade considering how few CDs I listen to vs vinyl. That isn't to say other CDPs don't sound great of course, it's just my experience with the Mc CD lineup.
 
Would an owner of an MCD500 please say something profound to make me just pull the trigger? I know I'm going to end up buying it, its just a matter of when. Ugh!
 
Probably against my better judgement I just purchased a 9/10 MCD500 on Ebay that appears to be in perfect condition. Should arrive next week and I can pull the EMO for my all MAC setup! Have a bunch of SACDs on order for some serious listening that should hopefully further separate it from the Emo. I would say this should hold me over for quite some time...should.
 
Sometimes you can find Mac MVP players for a farthing as the progression with dvd technology has made them obsolete. But as CD, SACD and DVD_A players they are fantastic. I use the balanced output of my 861 for playing CD and SACD and the sound is so smooth and non-fatiguing. It puts my Pioneer Elite and Marantz players to shame. Some Pioneers sound like they have a blanket over the sound but allowing the extreme highs to pass thru. Other models the blanket is more uniform. The Marantz CD recorder player is just edgy compared to the MAC. The Mac player has more depth and a smoother spread. The Marantz and Pioneers sound like you are listening to left, center, and right where the Mac has a smooth Spread all the way from extreme Left to Right. The Mac also has very good front to back presentation. Some of Miles recordings and Buddy Rich you'll think they are sitting in your lap, where some of Chandos recordings sound as if the microphones were placed out in the entry and not in the concert hall. The Mac really reveals Deutch Grammaphone short comings, overly using accent mics and mics with resonant high-ends. Capitols re-engineered recordings of Frank Sinatra are revealed to be much inferior to those of the Reprise label. Its like the difference between a Grace F9E cartridge and a Shure V-15 or Stanton 881s. The smooth ness and freedom from fatigue with the Grace when playing LP is similar to enjoyment you get from the MVP861. We sold Yamaha, Dennon, Marantz, B&0, Pioneer,Sony, and Mcintosh players over the years. I'll choose a Mac every time, even though the early models weren't superb, they were still listenable. I wouldn't let a Yamaha through the door. The dependability of any thing Yamaha makes with mechanical parts was very poor in our experience and B&O wasn't much better. .

That all said I would love to have a MCD 500, some day. Its reputation extends far & wide as to making less than perfect CD's sound as best as they can be. If you'll look the pre-owned price is accelerating upwards, too.

I proudly own an MVP871 and I agree with all the praise you gave the 861. I was able to procure a pre-owned 871 from AC for $1200.00 in B1 condition.
 
You all realize Mac uses others transports and control systems. Its the audio chain that separates the Macs from the others. Saying you don't need a Mac player maybe true, to some extent. But thats like saying a MM cartridge is all you'll ever need when there are all those superb Moving coils out there. Now I realize we are all on a budget. And you and I have to decide where are our weakest link our systems shall be. Is it the CD player, turntable, tone arm cartridge, pre- amp amp or speakers. I lived with compromised amps for over 20 years, but the standard was high enough my ears and I survived. I've since gone back to Mac amps. Changing from MCD 7005, while great at the time, doesn't come close to a MVP 861 for playing CD's Sacd and DVD-A. If I couldn't or wouldn't afford a MCD 500, finding a 861 for a fraction of the cost is such a deal . My 891 is no slouch, but on certain dubs I've made from analog sources, when played on the 861 using the balanced outputs easily surpasses the 891 digital or un balanced output when compared to the original analog source. Of course when using the balanced outputs of the 891 it becomes a real contest. But for the money I would save I'd choose pre-owned 861. And I'll say this now 861's sort of have a history of loosing their DVD PIC-UP LASER. But you'll still be able to listen to CD'S if that happens.
 
What if it gets here (supposed to arrive Wednesday 4/19) and I can't hear any difference in sound quality? I've read a lot of :blah: about how wonderful it sounds but what If I end up hearing :dunno:. Hopefully the SACD titles will make it more obvious but I am expecting a difference in redbook from all of the :blah: about it. Does McIntosh make hearing aids in this case? The suspense is killing me!
 
I use a Toshiba DVD player from 2005 it's built like a tank and I run a external DAC and it works great for my needs.
 
What has this to do with McIntosh? Can't use and external DAC with SACD's so your post is moot.

Back OT, my friend has this exact player the Mac 500 and he swears by his.

As you peruse AK you should notice that less than .001% of the threads stay on topic for more than 5 replies. So what does it hurt if someone deviates from the topic a bit? I'd rather see that than churlishness about content any day. I'd rather read something by someone who doesn't post much. Even if it isn't precisely on topic than something that's on point and negative. This forum has been running non toxic for a while now. I'd like to see it stay that way. Thanks

Mike
 
A god advice here; I allways used to loan the units I was thinkin to buy and then bring it to a trusted high-end friend to see how it performed compared to his equipment. This procedyre saved me for a lot of mistakes. Made up some good hifi-friends this way too, even hifi-pushers liked this kind of serious feedback on their stuff.
 
Its here! Doing some A/B Comparisons with the Emo.

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That's a mighty fine looking cd player that looks right at home with the rest of your Mac gear:thumbsup: Is that a piece of glass mounted in it's top cover?
 
That's a mighty fine looking cd player that looks right at home with the rest of your Mac gear:thumbsup: Is that a piece of glass mounted in it's top cover?
Thanks, it sure does look great and go well with the rest. Not sure if its a piece of glass or not but its the layout schematic on top. I didn't realize the auction had no remote, but luckily with the C15 pre its just a matter of connecting them with the 3.5mm and now I have both the CDP and amp trigger controlled with one remote.
 
Player sounding great, I have pulled the EMO ERC-1 permanently because without having the same disk to play immediately after hearing a small sample of music for a direct comparison, doing it from memory of the sound is damn near impossible and I ended up driving myself crazy going back and forth on the same song...to say the sound difference is subtle would be an understatement. Kudos to Emotiva I suppose...but from what I think I can tell is the MAC is a bit "warmer" and "three dimensional" and the Emotiva sound is a bit flatter and has less depth. Its hard to put it into words but I feel the difference is most obvious when listening to vocals and whatever it is, I like the sound of the McIntosh better. I am at the point where I don't want to try to compare the two anymore as it is interfering with my enjoyment of listening to the new player, which does sound phenomenal. I only have one concern - I have one SACD (Monk/Straight, No Chaser) and noticed that for about 1 second the music would stop and then continue on again, found this to be pretty disturbing for what I just invested in. However, I played all my regular CDs for hours on end without the issue. Today listening to the same SACD I got the second pause again and noticed that it is happening on the same song towards the end (haven't listened enough to pinpoint the exact spot). This is allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief that this is a problem on the disk and not with the player. I have Brothers In Arms and Diana Krall arrive today on SACD so fingers crossed.
 
So been listening to the MCD500 and have a few more SACDs and the experience has been great, for the most part. I thought the pausing issue on SACD was limited perhaps to the only one I had at the time, and now I have a few more disks and have experienced the pause on these as well. It might happen two or three seconds on an hour of playtime. So what gives? It plays perfectly and then ill have a pause of silence for a second, maybe two pauses within a few seconds, then on it goes without any issues from there. This is beginning to make me wonder if I should return the unit while I am within the 30 day period, I'd hate to have to go this route but for the price paid I expect it to function flawlessly on new SACD material. Its worth mentioning that this does not occur on regular CDs.

What to do? Is it the CDs or the player? The chicken or the egg?

Found a thread regarding SACD skipping...I am on the fence as to whether there really is anything wrong with the MCD500. Listened to a 14 track over hour SACD and yet again had one track skip a second. Am I being overly critical here? http://www.sa-cd.net/showthread/32557/32557

Back to listening to CDs which comprise 99% of my collection and sound phenomenal too, yet to experience the skip on any of these. Does this make any sense? Isn't it the same laser?
 
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I don't think you're being over critical. I'd also expect it to work perfectly. Maybe hit ron-c up here and ask his advice. Could be something simple.
 
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