McIntosh CD Players, worth their asking price?

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. . .

FYI, my MCD500 has never done that and I have several SACDs. Something is not right.
 
FYI, my MCD500 has never done that and I have several SACDs. Something is not right.
Thanks. I have started the request for a return process, this is unfortunate and unacceptable. Hopefully it wont be too big of a pain shipping it back and getting a refund. I guess there is something to be said about local brick and mortar dealers, I should have just gotten a new MCD550 under warranty in the first place now I have to deal with the consequences of saving some money. No more used CD players for me.
 
My 500 hasn't skipped, that I know of. I'm listening to 'Let it Bleed - Stones', SACD, right now, because you've made me wonder about skipping. It sounds fine. No skips so far. That's a shame about your 500. Hey, I'm sure you've looked the machine over pretty good but is there a hair or something goofy on the tray or somewhere that might be interfering with operations?
 
My 500 hasn't skipped, that I know of. I'm listening to 'Let it Bleed - Stones', SACD, right now, because you've made me wonder about skipping. It sounds fine. No skips so far. That's a shame about your 500. Hey, I'm sure you've looked the machine over pretty good but is there a hair or something goofy on the tray or somewhere that might be interfering with operations?
Whatever it is, I just want to get my money back and start over...it could be anything from a dirty laser to a faulty one, not going to pay to have it looked at when it was supposed to be in perfect operating condition in the first place. Going to get my next CDP at an authorized dealer so I can just do an easy run back if there are any issues and not deal with the packing.
 
Spoke to the music room and while they would do the refund, they also offered to repair the unit, keep it until its determined to be working flawlessly, and send it back to me. I figure what the heck, let give it a try, as long as the work done will be documented and provided with the unit back to me. I really do want to keep this player so I am going to give this a shot, will report back on what was done and how things worked out.
 
Unit has been shipped out, along with one of the SACDs experiencing the 'cutout'. Hoping they need to replace the laser or some other part, I told them keep it as long as necessary to play for an extended time with many SACDs to ensure this doesn't happen again. I said if they can't fix it to give me a refund, hoping this all works out. The music room said they will 'make this right' no matter what so the experience has been a positive one, albeit a pain in the ass to ship this thing back, but to their credit they said buyer pays return shipping and instead when i asked for a shipping label they covered it for $50 so im glad im giving them the opportunity to fix it.

I suppose if this doesn't work out and I get my money back I will consider this a lesson learned, put the emotiva back in service and listen to more vinyl.
 
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Today I received my pre-owned McIntosh MCT450 CD transport from Audio Classics. They rated the condition as B1 in their condition rating system, the B is for cosmetics(very minor flaws) and the 1 is mechanical&electronic(meets or exceeds factory specs). I could not find any cosmetic flaws, it was spotlessly clean(not even any dust), and it looks & smells brand new. So far it is performing flawlessly.
 
Today I received my pre-owned McIntosh MCT450 CD transport from Audio Classics. They rated the condition as B1 in their condition rating system, the B is for cosmetics(very minor flaws) and the 1 is mechanical&electronic(meets or exceeds factory specs). I could not find any cosmetic flaws, it was spotlessly clean(not even any dust), and it looks & smells brand new. So far it is performing flawlessly.
Nice! When do you trade in the C2500 towards the C2600 so you can make use of the proprietary digital connection between units?
 
Nice! When do you trade in the C2500 towards the C2600 so you can make use of the proprietary digital connection between units?

First let me say the MCT450 is an upgrade from an Emotiva ERC3. I used the C2500 DAC with both the MCT450 and ERC3. For some reason playing the same CDs on both units the MCT450 sounds smoother and nicer, maybe the error correction on the MCT450 is better & sends a more accurate bit stream to the C2500's DAC or the MCT450 is more compatible with the clocking in the C2500's DAC than the ERC3. Since the only plus I can see from using the proprietary digital connection is SACDs and I do not have any SACDs I am going to be keeping the C2500. Also back to the original subject of this thread, since my past CD player experience has been with medium level Sonys and the Emotiva ERC3 - the MCT450 is my first high end CD player and it is better than my past CD players, but I can not tell you if it is worth list price. I really like the MCT450.
 
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So the MCD500 has finally made its way back to Colorado and of course they get back to me saying they can't replicate the problem. They are going to listen to it all day tomorrow and get back to me. I told them if they can't replicate it, I want a refund and we'll call it even. No way am I accepting it back and risking the same issue happening again, either they replace something on the unit or I get my money back and move on. Nothing is easy...so we'll see.
 
So the MCD500 has finally made its way back to Colorado and of course they get back to me saying they can't replicate the problem. They are going to listen to it all day tomorrow and get back to me. I told them if they can't replicate it, I want a refund and we'll call it even. No way am I accepting it back and risking the same issue happening again, either they replace something on the unit or I get my money back and move on. Nothing is easy...so we'll see.
That is plausible though ...
 
Yeah I don't think they are lying, but if it for some reason will not malfunction over there they must not be listening closely enough, since it did it nearly everytime on every disk i used, albeit this took hours of critical listening to spot the pauses when they happened. My position stands that if they cant replicate it, they can keep it and give me the refund because I am not risking it here again with no work done on the machine. If they can replicate it and do a fix, that's a different story and id be happy to take it back. This is headache as it is, looking to make sure it doesn't get worse.
 
MCD500 underwent a cleaning and they have been running it for days and claim no issues of dropout on SACDs. I gave them the green light to send it back, hopefully this is the end of the issues and the laser was just a bit dirty. I told him if it happens again and goes back its going to be for a refund within 30 days and they were agreeable to that. Looking forward to putting it back in service but being cautious at the same time, fingers crossed.
 
Audio Classics is practically in your back yard and you purchased something from Colorado and over EBay no less?? I sure hope you saved a bundle of money over that deal.
 
Well its back and I am happy to report 2 SACDs and 2 hours into listening SACDs which previously dropped out a few times, no longer do. On to listening to a new SACD that arrived while the MCD500 was in the HiFi hospital. Apparently this was all due to the lens being dirty as a cleaning was all that was done. Explains why I have seen other used units advertised as having undergone a cleaning by McIntosh. Being cautiously optimistic I can just listen to the music from now on. Still listening in a religious position...

While I still love vinyl there is something to be said about perfectly crystal clear sound.
 
I compared a MCD 201 to a Rega Apollo and the difference was quite large. I found the Rega Apollo to be extremely harsh and nearly impossible to listen to but with the 201 the sound was very smooth and laid back. A real treat to spend some time with.
 
So after hours upon hours of critical listening the unit did drop out a couple times. Again, I don't have alot of SACDs and I have practically memorized Monk/Staight No Chaser after hearing it over and over and over to the point I don't think I ever want to listen to it again. More to the point, on this specific (single layer, 76 minute long ass SACD) in three runs it experienced a small series of dropouts during an approximate 2 second period (the worst I've heard yet), then it played the disk flawlessly, then the 3rd time it dropped out for a millisecond once on the whole disk with no other faults. This disk is hit or miss, I'm honestly sick of evaluating it anymore. I now have dire straights brothers in arms hybrid SACD in which has played flawlessly a few times in the past, giving it another go. I am not having fun here! The real bitch of it is 99% of my collection and my future collecting is going to be redbook anyway, all which play perfectly all of the time, everytime. I'm starting to think I am just driving myself nuts over an arguably obsolete format. I do want to keep this player so ill be continuing my SACD "torture test" for a bit more and have to make the decision of what I want to do.

Even though they said they took it apart and cleaned it...I also dug up a Philips laser lens cleaner disk from my basement and was considering giving it a spin (its a CD with couple brushes on the underside of it). Im a bit reluctant since it was supposedly already cleaned.
 
Im either going to keep it, send it back, or throw it in the pond behind my house in a rage and let the fish make an expensive reef of it.
 
Its played Dire Straits Brothers In Arms and Diana Krall Love Scenes SACDs perfectly tonight, hit is getting to be a pain in my ass.
 
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