How old were you when you got your first McIntosh?

My Dad took me into a Mac dealership in my teens. I vowed to have that equipment one day. I was in my early forties when I first purchased an MR7083 tuner. I haven't looked back.
 
I was 50. I was having drinks in a bar in Silicon Valley and struck up a conversation with a local couple. She said she was eager to sell her MX113 / MC2105 pair. I scrounged up some cash and picked them up later that week. Frankly I was disappointed and flipped them after about six months.

Then I inherited an MR71, a pre-amp and and a MC250 when my father-in-law passed. He hated music anyway but they were built into a console that came with his house. Had deWick workover the amp to little effect. Sold the pre/mail amps but kept and loved the MR71 - at least until the divorce when the ex-wife laid claim on it. Boohoo.

Then I found a clean MA6200 in a shop in Seoul. Lugged it my new home in Abu Dhabi where, after a minor repair, I'm listening to it as I type (Cowboy Junkies over Spendors.) Just won a matching MR77 at auction and it's going to Mike Williams for a refurbishment and de-emphasis adjustment before coming to me.

That's my story - if you don't like it, I have others.
 
It took 53 years before I got my first McIntosh system, a MR7083 tuner, MC2150 amp and C36 preamp bought off of CL. Drove 2 hours to pick them up from a guy who bought them from an estate sale of a professor who had passed away recently. Price was a steal and I just couldn't let them go. I'm currently pairing them with a pair of HT-1 speakers, mainly because The Wife won't let me put anything larger in the den.

I also have a MC2500 sitting in the garage which I purchased last year, too lazy to move it anywhere. Also have a Mac 1900 and a MR71 which both need restoration and a pair of ML-1C speakers and MQ102 equalizer which I've restored.
 
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It was almost 3 years ago to the month, and I was 40 years old. I was really only just getting into quality, vintage audio gear at that time, and didn't know anything about McIntosh. I started shopping and stumbled upon a pretty fantastic deal on a C26 and a pair of MC 2105 amps. Looking back, I feel pretty spoiled by that early find. This is the gear on which my now 9 and 13 year old kids are being raised, listening to our vinyl collection, which I've had since I was a kid. I picked up my mom's collection and grew the collection, and continued the tradition from there. Good family times, for sure!!!
 
It took 53 years before I got my first McIntosh system, a MR7083 tuner, MC2150 amp and C36 preamp bought off of CL. Drove 2 hours to pick them up from a guy who bought them from an estate sale of a professor who had passed away recently. Price was a steal and I just couldn't let them go. I'm currently pairing them with a pair of HT-1 speakers, mainly because The Wife won't let me put anything larger in the den.

I also have a MC2500 sitting in the garage which I purchased last year, too lazy to move it anywhere. Also have a Mac 1900 and a MR71 which both need restoration and a pair of ML-1C speakers and MQ102 equalizer which I've restored.
You move that MC2500 yet?
 
I just had my 70th birthday, my hearing is really going downhill but I am still a sucker and look for McIntosh bargains when I find them. It's getting harder now. My wife thinks I'm nuts and wants me to sell some. Being a retired EE I try to restore them, usually recapping (except aligning tuners) but have on several occasions made blunders that Terry D. had to correct. This obsession started with my first Mac MR73 in 1970 and hasn't stopped since. That tuner cost me $550 new on a gross salary of about $11K during my first job. While in college during the 68-69 time frame, I kept writing to Mac for literature on different units and they sent me owner's manuals and service manuals for about ten different, then current, amp and tuner models which I still have and use. I was born and lived in Chicago most of my early life and spent more time and money at Allied Radio than I can count although the tuner was purchased at Del Padre in MA.

Now hold it a minute John.. though you were a young guy my age (59). First job as EE was in 1981 for $21.5k, but my first Mc was the C26 purchased from Del Padre in 76 or 77 for $200 at the age of 18 or 19. How is it possible that you were in Springfield, in the Del Padre showroom? (coords: 42.112968°, -72.577484°) If so, you probably bought the tuner from Bob Cizek, aka Hi-Fi-Ci, who was previously Audio Division Manager at Soundco Electronics in Springfield.

Thinking of it more, Soundco moved from Dwight Street to Roosevelt Ave in early 1970, and closed for good in the mid 70's (still searching for that date) so Bob wasn't at Del Padre yet in 1973. Today the Del Padre building is a medical clinic, and so is the Soundco store on Roosevelt Ave. Worse, the Signal Electronics (Signal Center) building in Springfield has been torn down (coords: 42.107144°, -72.589022°) not to mention the Dwight St store.

How sad it all is. :(

Obituary
Robert W. Cizek Jr. 1924 - 2005 WEST SPRINGFIELD - Robert W. Cizek Jr., 80 of Morton Street died Wednesday in the Soldier's Home in Holyoke. Robert was born in West Springfield and has lived here most of his life. He was a salesman for the former SoundCo and retired from DelPadre...

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/robert-cizek-obituary?pid=1000000003558584
 
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You move that MC2500 yet?
Nope, LOL! Still sitting in the garage. Yes I know it's a shame, but I warm her up every so often with the ML-1C pair sitting next to them. One day I'll get to it...
 
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Now hold it a minute John.. though you were a young guy my age (59). First job as EE was in 1981 for $21.5k, but my first Mc was the C26 purchased from Del Padre in 76 or 77 for $200 at the age of 18 or 19. How is it possible that you were in Springfield, in the Del Padre showroom? coords: 42.112968°, -72.577484° If so, you probably bought the tuner from Bob Cizek, aka Hi-Fi-Ci, who was previously Audio Division Manager at Soundco Electronics.

Thinking of it more, Soundco moved from Dwight Street to Roosevelt Ave in early 1970, and closed for good in.... the mid 70's (still searching for that date) so Bob wasn't at Del Padre yet in 1973. Today the Del Padre building is a medical clinic, and so is the Soundco store on Roosevelt Ave. Worse, the Signal Electronics (Signal Center) building in Springfield has been torn down, coords: 42.107144°, -72.589022° not to mention the Dwight St store.

How sad it all is. :(

Obituary
Robert W. Cizek Jr. 1924 - 2005 WEST SPRINGFIELD - Robert W. Cizek Jr., 80 of Morton Street died Wednesday in the Soldier's Home in Holyoke. Robert was born in West Springfield and has lived here most of his life. He was a salesman for the former SoundCo and retired from DelPadre...

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/robert-cizek-obituary?pid=1000000003558584
I graduated from the U of Il in 1969 with a BS in EE and went to work for Raytheon in New London, CT (part of the Submarine Signal Div. In Portsmouth, RI). I visited David Dean Smith in New Haven across the street from Yale several times then and was going to buy the MR73 from him. It was a brand new model and he didn't have it in stock so I called Del Padre in Springfield and he had one. Made a long round trip on a weekday evening to get it. There was a Marantz dealer across the street from D.D. Smith and I was really tempted to buy a Model 20 but I didn't like the numbers on the dial scale! If I recall, Tanglewood is somewhere near Springfield. I went to one rock concert there. I loved Long Island Sound near the CT-RI border. I lived on Niantic Bay. Stayed at Raytheon for one year before going back to grad school at Champaign. Did my MS thesis in acoustics. By the way, the MR73 was the last NEW Mac I ever bought. The next one was in 1998 (my C34V) and they have all be used and refurbished.
 
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I graduated from the U of Il in 1969 with a BS in EE and went to work for Raytheon in New London, CT. I visited David Dean Smith in New Haven across the street from Yale several times then and was going to buy the MR73 from him. It was a brand new model and he didn't have it in stock so I called Del Padre in Springfield and he had one. Made a long round trip on a weekday evening to get it. There was a Marantz dealer across the street from D.D. Smith and I was really tempted to buy a Model 20 but I didn't like the numbers on the dial scale! If I recall, Tanglewood is somewhere near Springfield. I went to one rock concert there. I loved Long Island Sound near the CT-RI border. I lived on Niantic Bay. Stayed at Raytheon for one year before going back to grad school at Champaign. Did my MS thesis in acoustics.

Yeah man, great story. Haven't heard that one before, not in full.

Tanglewood is in Lenox , Mass (coords: 42.349243°, -73.309988°) in the Berkshire Mountains.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/3370091.jpg

and famous for it's open-air lawn: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/12465173.jpg

https://www.google.com/search?q=Tanglewood+music+pavilion&tbm=isch


That means we both bough Mc from the same store in New England.


Were you familiar with E-Z Teletronics in South Chicago? It was at 2821-23 W. 59th St.

I bought most of my Mc gear there in the late 80's. How's that for an interesting story?


-Greg
 
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I was 20 (in 1980) when I got my MC75's , in trade for repairing a dirt bike.

I traded my dirt bike (1975 Honda CR125M) for a HS sweetheart. The deal on the bike wasn't so good, but the girlfriend was fantastic!

As Ted Nugent would say.. "find me a new love... better than cocaine."


So outrageous!

Are we going OT here perhaps?


-Greg
 
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I myself am 19 and my first McIntosh is the MA 6200 I picked up for free from a console I took away for a guy. Still waiting to get the money to have it serviced back to spec.
I wish I could have gotten my start into vintage HiFi that way, at such a young age! A proper restoration job for your integrated and you'll be sufficiently spoiled and a McIntosh lover for life.
 
Yeah man, great story. Haven't heard that one before, not in full.

Tanglewood is in Lenox , Mass (coords: 42.349243°, -73.309988°) in the Berkshire Mountains.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/3370091.jpg

and famous for it's open-air lawn: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/12465173.jpg

https://www.google.com/search?q=Tanglewood+music+pavilion&tbm=isch


That means we both bough Mc from the same store in New England.


Were you familiar with E-Z Teletronics in South Chicago? It was at 2821-23 W. 59th St.

I bought most of my Mc gear there in the late 80's. How's that for an interesting story?


-Greg
My grandparents and aunt lived near Kedzie and 55th and I went to visit them for 30 years but never visited E-Z Teletronix. I actually have never heard of them. I was a north sider and spent my time and money at either Allied or Musicraft at 48 E. Oak St. I bought my Dual 1019, my wonderful JBL SA-600 amplifier and Technics ST-9030 tuner from Musicraft in 1967, 68 and 80 respectively. I took my Scott 299T amplifier all the way down to Musicraft at 95th and Pulaski in Oaklawn in 1967 for a Mcintosh Clinic. Found out my first piece of "real" hi-fi equipment put out 16wpc instead of the hyped 65 watt IHF rating. Had a bowl shaped distortion curve with more than 2% at each end. Of course my amp cost $100 and I could only dream of owning one of the 30-40 Mac tube amps lined up on the floor waiting to be tested. Of course I never would have bought one anyway because tubes were like Model T cars to a young engineer. I now admire Dave O'Brian for all the hours he put in during his career.

My main listening in the late 60's in Chicago was WSDM, 97.9, a wonderful Jazz station owned by Chess Records. It was the station "with the girls and all that jazz." Of course WFMT at 98.7 was big but I was not into classical at all. Later, after college, for rock it was exclusively WXRT, 93.1. It was a small independent station when it started. Big now and still on the air. In my car it was always WLS (all I had was AM).
 
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I went to visit [grandparents] for 30 years but never visited E-Z Teletronix. I actually have never heard of them. I was a north sider and spent my time and money at either Allied or Musicraft at 48 E. Oak St.

Later, after college, for rock it was exclusively WXRT, 93.1. It was a small independent station when it started. Big now and still on the air. In my car it was always WLS (all I had was AM).

I lived in Arlington Heights near NW Highway and Arlington Park Racetrack (horse racing) so that would be a north-sider, wouldn't it?

Astounding you never heard of E-Z Teletronics and for 30 years? Hank Engle was the proprietor there, it was a one-man show, he was the `E´ in E-Z and would wheel and deal in used Mc gear. It was like a candy store in there. I bought and traded several Mc amps from him including the 2205 sitting here, a couple tuners, and a MCD7005 & 7007 new from him.

WCKG classic rock was big with the U of I buds at Northrop where I worked. Have a photo of the CKG bumper sticker (and Cubs) on my file cabinet, but attachment uploads are failing. AK is using (inserting) a lot of weird 3rd party SCRIPTS that are unrecognizable and disallowed (vb-api, skimresources, googlesyndication, etc.) Notice to AK admin, you start with these scripts and I'm going to back out. So it looks like no more attached photos until this get sorted.
Anyway, so you bought Mc gear in my home town, and I bought Mc gear in your home town. :beerchug:


-Greg
 
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I lived in Arlington Heights near NW Highway and Arlington Park Racetrack (horse racing) so that would be a north-sider, wouldn't it?

Astounding you never heard of E-Z Teletronics and for 30 years? Hank Engle was the proprietor there, it was a one-man show, he was the `E´ in E-Z and would wheel and deal in used Mc gear. It was like a candy store in there. I bought and traded several Mc amps from him including the 2205 sitting here, a couple tuners, and a MCD7005 & 7007 new from him.

WCKG classic rock was big with the U of I buds at Northrop where I worked. Have a photo of the CKG bumper sticker (and Cubs) on my file cabinet, but attachment uploads are failing. AK is using (inserting) a lot of weird 3rd party SCRIPTS that are unrecognizable and disallowed (vb-api, skimresources, googlesyndication, etc.) Notice to AK admin, you start with these scripts and I'm going to back out. So it looks like no more attached photos until this get sorted.
Anyway, so you bought Mc gear in my home town, and I bought Mc gear in your home town. :beerchug:


-Greg
I thought I mentioned to you earlier that I worked at Shure Bros. in Evanston and Jensen near O'Hare in the 70's as well as the fact that I owned a home in Palatine from 78 to 85 in the Winston Park section NW of the corner of Palatine Rd. and 53. If I'd have kept it, it would have been like buying a Bitcoin for $200. Your company was right over the railroad tracks from NW Hwy and pretty close to Weber BBQ. For awhile Musicraft had a big store on Dundee Rd north of me. I did not wheel and deal much nor become a groupie at any audio dealer. Back then I kept my equipment for years and got one generation (that's about 10 yrs), an Apt-Holman preamp and Soundcraftsman power amp, through insider audio company deals while at Jensen. I ended my professional career in audio in 1980. I had to leave Chicago for a new job in 86 and never moved back. End of story.
 
I watched an interesting interview online with Charlie Randall and he stated that McIntosh systems are typically purchased by people after their children have grown up and left the house.

That leads me wonder how old most folks are when they get their first McIntosh.

I'll start first since I'm a Mc newbie.

I got my first Mc a 2 weeks ago and I'm 26.

40.
Last year.
I have a 3 and 5 year old and a couple "off limits" listening rooms.
 
I traded my dirt bike (1975 Honda CR125M) for a HS sweetheart. The deal on the bike wasn't so good, but the girlfriend was fantastic!

As Ted Nugent would say.. "she's my pain killer... better than cocaine."


So outrageous!

Are we going OT here perhaps?


-Greg
Good Deal!
 
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