what is the rarest Mcintosh piece

For me, the rarest piece that I will ever own is anything that is brand new. I don't care how old and rare a piece is, there is always a slight chance that I can find one in someones attic and get it for next to nothing, but there is no way I could afford one of those brand new amps or preamps.:D
 
Wow. What a great thread. Thanks OP and all whom contributed. I rarely read every single post on a thread this long, but I did on this one.

I was McTastic. :)
 
Hello !

Sorry guys ! but I know one of the rarest .....MR79 ! I saw one a long time ago at the factory and it was not allowed to take picture ...Of course !

Another one is the MR81 : I saw one at the home of the president of the factory in mint condition . Another one was at Audioclassics but I don't know if they still have it ....

What do you think about that ? :thmbsp:

When I was up there last summer, I did not get to see the MR 79. :( Next time I will make sure to ask.

That MR 81 looks like the glass is cracked around the tuning knob. What a shame. Good luck in finding a replacement for that. :sigh:

I wonder if that tuner in the Phoenix CL listing could be an MR 79. The old man did retire to Scottsdale.

(Wonder if the "Scotts" in "Scottsdale" played any part in his choice of towns) :D
 
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It's a $6000 set, I don't have the time or the capital to buy the package! It would make more sense for me to buy an MPI-4. Speaking of rare packages, one of the McIntosh founders retired in Tucson and somebody was selling that set on Audiogon. Last year, too late to re-find the listings. I think the MI-2, MI-3 and MPI-4 are pretty rare.

Hmmm... Mr. Mc retired to Paradise Valley/Scottsdale, not Tucson, and died in 1990. He had two systems - MR-78/C-28/MC-2300/ML4Ms in his upstairs office, and MR-78/MPI-4/C-32/2xMC-2255 feeding parallel XR-7/ML4Ms in the living room, with a Thorens 125 on each system (with really crappy old Ortofon cartridges), one of which I now own (and use with a much better cart :) ). There were a few odds and ends around the house, like a 50W-2 that ended up at Jerry's Audio in Phoenix, and a 15W-1 that I wound up with. At one time he had another 2300 that he'd loaned to someone who never returned it. He never had an MR-79 prototype. One odd duck he had was a very very old Magnavox CD player with a McIntosh logo from a tie clip glued to the front of it; he told me it was an early prototype of the MCD-7000. You can take that with a grain of salt, I guess; he was fond of the occasional tall tale. :)

Gordon Gow never had a chance to retire; he passed away in 1989, still running the company. And Maurice Painchaud never left the Binghamton area; he died in Vestal, NY in 2010. The fourth founder, Sid Corderman, is still alive and kicking, living in Scottsdale not too far from where Mr. Mc built his house.
 
One odd duck he had was a very very old Magnavox CD player with a McIntosh logo from a tie clip glued to the front of it; he told me it was an early prototype of the MCD-7000. You can take that with a grain of salt, I guess; he was fond of the occasional tall tale. :)

That's funny.

I read he used to order the "dreaded" veal cutlet at the restaurant he went to.

Sounds like he was quite a character.
 
Had an all glass front MR71 in for repair - real one of a kind.
 

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A friend of mine has Mr. Mc's MR55. 1st one ever made, w/ serial number of 1K0000. McIntosh confirmed it was made for his personal system. From what I remember, it was in his estate sale in AZ.
 
Got it in for an overhaul in January 2007, he had pulled the knobs for shipping so I don't know what type they were. Still have a copy of the invoice on file, will check to see if I have his eMail address in my archives.
 
Terry, you should post more pics of your workshop in another thread. I know everyone here would geek out over it.
 
Wow talk about back from the dead, This is a great thread, I love seeing the rare and unique pieces, so as an update from my original post, I did get a McIntosh mcp-1 moving coil preamp. cool piece!
 
You'd really enjoy seeing A/C's collection of "one offs".

Maybe get Ryan to post some pics...
 
A friend of mine has Mr. Mc's MR55. 1st one ever made, w/ serial number of 1K0000. McIntosh confirmed it was made for his personal system. From what I remember, it was in his estate sale in AZ.

Does he still have it? And did he get anything else?

I found the listing, seller claims it was from Frank Gow, seller was in Tucson:

Frank Gow was Gordon's son.
 
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Had an all glass front MR71 in for repair - real one of a kind.

Nice.. it draws just 70 watts from the AC line even with the tube compliment.

Specs are interesting: 2.5uV sensitivity, +/-0.5 dB Freq resp, >0.5% distortion, S/N (hum) 70dB.


Here are some quotes from the MR71 literature..
"the electron-ray tube can be switched to indicate multipath distortion.."

"The multipath indicator permits the orientation of the antenna for the lowest possible multipath distortion."


Here's a screen cap of an MR71 flyer..

MR71_256.png


See above in RED underscore. Sometimes I post here.. "don't make me slap you." :dammit: LOL only joking!
sometimes you have to make your point strong and clear!



-Gregory
 
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so in addition to the mc100 solid state monoblock amps, I recently ran across its little brother , mc50 monoblock solid state amplifier. I know Mr. Dewick has a love for their stereo brothers ( mc250, mc2100) I wonder how these compared to their stereo counterparts? I wonder what kind of production numbers these guys had?

IIRC, the MC50 wasn't in production for long. I have one that was converted to PA use in a County ballpark and re-converted back to home use with a few extra holes. I dunno what I'm going to do with one, I'd like to hear a pair before I decide to let it go or refurb it if I could find another presentable imperfect example.
Can anyone tell me how it (they) compare to something like, say, an Adcom GFA-535 (NOT the Mk-II) or an Iverson Eagle 2?
 
IIRC, the MC50 wasn't in production for long. I have one that was converted to PA use in a County ballpark and re-converted back to home use with a few extra holes. I dunno what I'm going to do with one, I'd like to hear a pair before I decide to let it go or refurb it if I could find another presentable imperfect example.
Can anyone tell me how it (they) compare to something like, say, an Adcom GFA-535 (NOT the Mk-II) or an Iverson Eagle 2?

It was available for 9 years......not very popular.

I assume most went into lab use or commercial use.

If you listen to a mc250 or Mc2505 you are 99.9 % there, I would restore it just because.

Would make a good sub or center channel amp for a true LCR system with identical speakers and a Mc2505 across the front.
 
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