Most Amazing McIntosh Achievement 1980s

[damacman]

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

Wow. Just wow. Reflect on this today . . . I had no idea.

 

[sKiZo]

They still sell them - at a paltry $1800 ...

 

[c_dk]

I believe the general industry consensus was that the CDs perfect sound forever " saved" the audio industry in general.

I remember a conversation I had with Ken Kessler while we drank lunch in the lobby of the McCormick Inn after we auditioned the new Apogee Stage speakers together.

Something about all the English Quad dealers being finally able to order themselves a new BMW because of Quads new matching CD player.

He had a number of interesting observations about the state of both the American and British audio industries.

His observation about "Maggie" was the best.

Lastly, just remember some of today's most collectable units are the ones that were poor or marginal sellers back in the day......that's why they are rare and collectible.

McIntosh made some mistakes in the 80s and I am quite sure the opinions sported by sales people in NYC and SF would be quite different than those of actual dealers in flyover country. What else is new.