Most Amazing McIntosh Achievement 1980s

[Victor]

Hi All

We did the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s now its time for the 1980s.

What is McIntoshes most amazing achievement of the 1980s

Same as last time it could be a piece of equipment, a new circuit design, a division, an upgrade at the lab building... any achievement is fair game.

Thank you all for all the great responces in my 1950s, 1960s and 1970s threads. I love any chance I get to learn more about McIntosh, and I have learned a lot from all of your great posts.

Victor

 

[ron-c]

Surviving as a company....

Ron-C

 

[ninohernes]

C33 preamp.

 

[ron-c]

McIntosh was going under until the MCD7000 came out. This model succeeded and brought the sales up of the rest of the line. No MCD7000, no McIntosh today.

Ron-C

 

[elling]

Ron-C makes an arguement for the MCD7000 that is hard to argue with. If the MCD7000 helped keep McIntosh from going under (and indirectly led to the later production of my C2200) I vote for the MCD7000.

Also, I believe the MC7270 was an exceptional product. I owned one for ten years, before making a really bad decision to sell it (perhaps we should have a thread titled "really dumb decisions to sell McIntosh equipment").

 

[Number 9]

My view of history I guess is fuzzy, because I think McIntosh was still very much desirable in the early '80s, as witnessed by the Mac stack I copied over from Berner's home page, which includes the MR80, C33, MPI4 and MC2255. I remember going into hifi stores and oogling at the stuff. So I would vote for these as the best of the '80s. The classic McIntosh system. But ... I would agree with RonC.

.... I would say by 1984-85 the defenition of what constituted high-end hifi was exactly the opposite of where McIntosh was at. The high-end positioned themselves to be the antithesis of McIntosh, and the media followed along. There was the minimalism movement of preamps (next to no controls) as exemplified by Linn, Naim, ML, ARC, CJ and Krell. Solid-state amps had to be Class A and huge to qualify as being high-end (Classe, Krell) or tubes (CJ, ARC), blue meters were for roller-discos, and tuners were considered passe (not real hifi sources for the serious listener). Speakers had to be ESLs or time-aligned. Thankfully, things have changed. Dare I say it, McIntosh was somewhat out of step with the audio intelligencia of Stereofool and The Absurd Sound thinking espoused at the time, had lost its cachet, and became labelled as "uncool".

 

[macman007]

I agree with Ron C. The Mcd 7000 was the big thing for Mcintosh in the 80's. I still have mine and I have (hopefully) the right Phillips transport to repair the weak link and make it whole again. The thing I like about the 7000 is its warmer than most cd players and it sure seems to be a more solid unit (material wise if not electronically) than the current generation Mac units and mostly all of the competetion. I love the heavier transport drawer and the more solid feel overall.



Artie

 

[styler]

1980s

when was the first Clarion, I mean McIntosh, car stereo made?

 

[Victor]

Hi All, Great Responces

Ninohernes, I have not heard the C33. What do you like about it?

Elling, I now agree the MC7270 is a great amp. I think many people (including me in the past) are turned off by the words "Digital Dynamic" on this amp. Its funny now that I know it was all marketing and not some digital circuit.

Number 9, Great rack. I have been drooling over Berners rack ever since I found his web site.

Styler, I'm not sure but I think Clarion bought McIntosh in 1990. I'm so thankfull Clarion left the lab for the most part intack. I think they even let some money flow into the factory for upgrades.

Victor

 

[Victor]

Ron

I knew McIntosh had some hard times in the 1970s but I had no idea that if the MCD7000 failed the company would have failed.

Here is a story for you. In 1986 I was 20 years old, still living with Mom and Dad, and I had some extra money so I made my first major stereo purchase. I went out shopping for a CD player and ended up buying a Denon DCD-1500 for $800 (numbers may not be exact, it was long ago). While I was shopping I went to a stereo shop that had McIntosh equipment, including used equipment, in a roped off room. There must have been 15-20 different pieces in there. At this point McIntosh equipment was like a legend to me, something I heard about but never heard myself. I asked the salesman if I could go in the McIntosh room, at first he said no then he said "ok but we can't turn anything on". There were no prices on anything and the salesman would not tell me the prices either, he said "if you have to ask its too much". At this point I assumed everything in there was $3000-$5000. Big supprise with this service I never bought anything at that stereo shop.

If that salesman would have pushed me a little I probably would have bought the MCD7000 which would only have been a couple hundred more than the Denon I bought. I may have even bought a MA6200 or MAC4100 or some used McIntosh. At that crossroad the stereo shop I was at lost a customer forever, McIntosh lost a customer for 17 years and I lost 17 years of McIntosh enjoyment. I ended up buying a NAD preamp and a used Kenwood amp. It would have been nearly impossible to sell me tube electronics in 1986 but I can't help but think for $2000 I could have walked out with a MCD7000, C20 and MC225.

But on the other hand if that salesman had sold me McIntosh equipment I might have lived with my parents for several more years to pay for it. I moved out that summer and had the time of my life.

Victor

 

[ninohernes]

Ninohernes, I have not heard the C33. What do you like about it?

I like its flexibility, silent switching and of course excellent sound. I recently had a chance to hear a C32 and a C28, and the C33 seems to be the most transparent sounding. Actually, I think the C33 is the most transparent solid state preamp I have ever heard. It is really an amazing piece. I love the fact that it has a small built in amplifier with powergaurd. I use that amp (which can be driven by the preamp, or an external source) for my surround channels. I also like the fact that there are two seperate source selectors. One for listening and one for recording. This keeps the two outputs isolated, and it allows you to listen to a different source than you are recording. The 5 band EQ and variable loudness adjustments are very nice too, great for fixing less than perfect records. You can also send the EQ to the record line. I also like that it has two front pannel 1/4" headphone jacks, and tape 3 input and outputs are on the front panel.

 

[Little Nellie]

Ron, what is so special about the MCD7000 at the time that would make that much impact? How does it compare to some of the player at that time? Just wondering. Is this something all McNuts need to have one on display?

cheers..

Silas

 

[Victor]

Ninohernes,

Great info, thank you. I have never heard a C33 but have given serious consideration to buying one and using it in my bedroom as an integrated amp. I was wondering how good the built in monitor amp was. If you are happy with it for your surround channel, I would think I would be happy with it in my bedroom. I think the monitor amp is 20 watts, more than enough for my bedroom. Now if only I could find one at a good price.

Victor

 

[Little Nellie]

about the C33... I have a C24, C26, C28 and C33. I can't tell them apart, soundwise, when I leave all the control at center. Which I guess that is what it should be. If I want to add a little here and there, just can't beat the C33.

cheers

Silas

 

[ninohernes]

Ninohernes,

Great info, thank you. I have never heard a C33 but have given serious consideration to buying one and using it in my bedroom as an integrated amp. I was wondering how good the built in monitor amp was. If you are happy with it for your surround channel, I would think I would be happy with it in my bedroom. I think the monitor amp is 20 watts, more than enough for my bedroom. Now if only I could find one at a good price.

Victor

There are controls on the top of the preamp to adjust the gain of the amplifier. There is also a switch to select its input, wether it be the listen line, the record line or an external input. If you are using it as an integrated amp, make sure the switch is set to "listen". Also make sure the gains are all the way up. Then you can use the main volume control to control the volume. I had a peek inside my C33, and there is a pretty big output transformer, so that is a good sign!

I think that you will like this preamp too much to use it as an integrated in a second system. It is really a wonderful piece of equipment! Looks pretty too! :yes:

 

[ron-c]

In the early 80s the company was at a crossroads and was developing the turntable to go with the cartridge and head amp. CD was thought to sound poor compared to vinyl. Gordon Gow who ran the company then listened to the Revox bassed on the Phillips CD transport / chip set and decided this was the way to go..
Gordon took a second on his house to buy a truck load of Phillips players and Ted Saito came up with the design to remake them as the MCD7000. The 7000 sold well and pulled the amps and preamps along with it. This was a big roll of the dice for Gordon Gow and it paid off. Without the 7000 it could have been game over.

Ron-C

 

[Number 9]

Interesting that the MCD 7000, 7005 and 7007 all were based on the Philips mechanisms. Philips DACs too. I owned a Mission CDP around the time that the 7000 came out, and IIRC, that was also had Philips internals. The three hot CDPs at the time were Meridian, Mission and Revox.

 

[usblues101]

I'm on my second C30....both winners and equal to the 32's,33's,34's and the rest of the 80's pre's I have had.....keep on keepin on Mr Mac......listening to the 75 basement tapes....Dylan and the Band.......oh yeah..

 

[twiiii]

I will have to agree with Ron that the 7000 might have saved Mcintosh. We didn't sell that many, but we sure had a run on MCD 7005. Our first order was only 6 but by the time they arrived they were gone with in one weekend. I got the first one. We kept reordering but only got 2 or 3 at a time. We had sold 18 MC 2205's and a couple of MC 2125 for disco in Mexico. They all ended up being MC2255's as there were only half dozen or the rep and Mcintosh could scrape up. Most of our Mac sales during that period were commercial, using 2200, 2120, 2150 and 2250 amps with a few 2500's thrown in. XR series speakers never sold like the ML series. I liked the XR-7 but it couldn't grab a room like a pair of ML-4's. I owned a Revox player when the 7000 was introduced, and thought I would wait. Then Revox and Mcintosh introduced their new upgraded players. I bought the Mac, though there were some things about the control layout I preferred of the Revox. But I kept the 7005 for 23 or 4 years only having to replace a drawer belt. Then came the 861, so much better at everything, and now the 891 has joined the ranks. I wonder if the 901 will be Macs last player. I understand Oppo is getting out of the market. I still think Mac should have placed a MC phono input in the 30 series pre-amps. 40series, too.

 

[MACKIE1975]

Interesting that the MCD 7000, 7005 and 7007 all were based on the Philips mechanisms. Philips DACs too. I owned a Mission CDP around the time that the 7000 came out, and IIRC, that was also had Philips internals. The three hot CDPs at the time were Meridian, Mission and Revox.

Philips and Sony co-develop the CD hardware. McIntosh only designs the circuit around it