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A/B mcintosh gear

L

ltleo

Active Member
Banned
So tell the truth, how did you end up with mcintosh gear? Did you really do a side by side with other gear and really thought mcintosh was better?:scratch2:

or was it because we get cought up in the hype of what other people say?

Or is it because mcintosh really looks the part like no other?

I would just like to see how many of us really did the A/b with other gear and what gear you compaired it to?:yes:

I will start, I grew up with mcintosh from my father, so I always thought and wanted mcintosh because If dad had them, then they must be the best. :thmbsp:

So I did not A/b them when I first purchased. I also love the way they look, (so does wife, she really hates the other gear) Also most people know the name of Mcintosh so it had that WOW face to all my friends. :banana:

Time has gone forth and I started to A/B mcintosh, and yes I have found a few items (accupahse,sim audio, conrad J- in that order) that I would for sound wise take over my mcintosh gear in a heart beat.:tears:

But since Mcintosh is still in my top four for sound, but number one in looks, and it to much of a pain trying to explain to the wife on why I am changing all my gear yet again:no:. I stay quite happy with my mcintosh.

So there you have, it, I came clean. My name is Lenny, and I purchased a amp because of the wow factor.:D
 
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Itleo.......My very first sound system was a 20 watts per channel Trio receiver (Kenwood, before Trio Corporation started using that name), with Pioneer speakers. A good friend had a pair of McIntosh MC30 mono amps, Altec A7 Voice of the Theater speakers, a Dynaco PAS3x tube preamp, and a Dual 1019 turntable with a Shure V15 Type II cartridge. That system rocked the house, and I loved going over there to hear it. Unfortunately, when I would come home, and try to make my little Trio receiver and Pioneer speakers do what the Mac and Altecs did, it wasn't happening. My little system sounded like crap.

What was very cool for me, I bought the whole system from my friend when he decided to move back to Seattle, and didn't want to have to move the system. It was my lucky day, and my first McIntosh. That was 1968. Since then, I have always had a McIntosh system of one degree or another. I have also owned many other manufactures equipment, and enjoyed all of it, but my love for McIntosh has remained with me through all these years.
 
jdandy,

thats a great story. this is what I am looking for. I still have my fathers mcintosh units, I too love mcintosh because for me it brings back many great times. Thanks for sharing!
 
Itleo,

Keep in mind, just because you a/b'd some stuff and think its sounds "better" than your Mc stuff... could you live with it for a long time.

One of the main reasons we love our Mc gear so much, is that we can listen to it for long periods of time and never tire of the non fatiguing sound.

Your Mc will serve you well for a long time to come.
 
Another reason is that there is such a tremendous, venerable company standing behind it. I bought my vintage Mc gear completely sight unseen, except from pictures. It was mostly for nostalgic reasons, and I am very happy with all of it.
 
two dot,

I do agree with you. I would say out of the three I listed accuphase and conrad, would be the two that I could live with forever, with the accuphase winning out.

speaker choice is very important also, you can have the best gear but go wrong with speakers and its all done, For me that would be B&W, I hear them and they just give me head ache after the first half hour. way to much focus on the highs.

Mcintosh is great gear, I love it, but with mcintosh alot of it end up being because people either grew up with it or were told to get it, kinda like B&w.
 
beans,

now that is so true, best support around! very warm people, and they last, not to mention you can always get your money back out of them. they tend to be a nice investment
 
I think some of us are kinda getting off of the orig topic, of how you came to get your first mcintosh? Did you do a side by side test and did it beat out other gear or was it because you heard people say it was the best or someone you knew had one and you like it then. Also but in the end at the time when you purchased it, did you do a A?B test againts other gear?
 
I started right out of high school with a Kenwood Rec., KLH 17s, and a Dual 1212 TT. Three or four years later I sold the Kenwood and got (used) a four channel Marantz Rec. A few months later, a Mcintosh dealer opened up in Wilmington, N.C. and having heard Mcintosh at the dealer in Charlotte where I got my Kenwood, I couldn't resist and got the MC 250 and the C 26 that I have to this day. I didn't do a side by side A/B comparision, but I knew what I was looking for in the way of sound. It just took a while to be able to afford it.:music:
 
In my younger days I did a lot of A/B comparisons. It was easy then because I couldn't afford Mc gear. However, I've always preferred Mc and if I could've I would've bought Mc. So when it came time for me to actual buy my system I'd long since stopped A/B'ing and just bought the Mc. I no longer A/B anything I just decide where in the Mc hierarchy I want to purchase.
 
There have been only a handfull of companies that I would purchase products from based on their reputation only: McIntosh and (the old) HP.

I sold and repaired audio gear in college back in the 70s so knew the Mac name and visited competitors who carried it. It wasn't until I worked on my first MC-275 that I came to appreciate the build quality, the circiuit topologies and the resulting sonic qualities. From then on, I trusted Mac to 'do the right thing' as they competed with more and more competition through the 80s and 90s. I still rebuild the old-school gear while I enjoy the newer gear too.

Having been in engineering school, I came to know the old HP - not the mass marketer it is today - as an engineer's engineering company. HP test gear was built like Mac gear and if HP's engineers decided that some measurement technique or circuit was good enough for their gear, it was good enough for me, too. For instance, HP was one of the first to use Reverse Polish Notation in their engineering calculators. It took a while to learn how to use it but I've never gone back to the way TI and others used since.

So, short answer to the question posted: No. I don't A/B gear much anymore. I trust the brand name, keep up with the circuit topologies in play, and use my own ears to tell me what's good enough for me.

Cheers,

David
 
ltleo said:
I think some of us are kinda getting off of the orig topic, of how you came to get your first mcintosh? Did you do a side by side test and did it beat out other gear or was it because you heard people say it was the best or someone you knew had one and you like it then. Also but in the end at the time when you purchased it, did you do a A?B test againts other gear?
Click to expand...

In other words, which is better, one… or two…:D
 
In my search for musical excellence I've owned and listened to many components from many different companies. I knew of McIntosh but did not really care for the look. 3 years ago I was running an all Krell system with Vienna Beethoven speakers. Something was missing and I thought new speakers were what I needed.

I called my dealer who is also a good friend. He swears by McIntosh, but I did not share his enthusiasm. I had bought all my Krell equipment from him so he knew my situation. He then convinced me to audition the McIntosh MC402 in my home with my speakers.

WOW!! I was blown away. Speakers were NOT the problem. The music was so good it brought tears to my eyes. Two days later I returned the loaner and purchased my first McIntosh.

Over the next six months I made a lot of people on Ebay very happy selling my Krell equipment at clearance prices, along with anything else I could spare, in order to get more Mac.

Today I love the look and all things McIntosh. I've gone Mac and will never go back. :thmbsp:
 
There is plenty of gear out there that can sound more exciting. Got to be careful with those auditions that bring in too many variables. The only true A/B is in your own system and even then for a longer period of time than it takes to listen to one CD. :D Not saying that McIntosh is "be all, end all" gear but it's sonic signature is easy enough to live with for a very long time.

I actually got interested in McIntosh when I happened to stumble across an MC402 driving Totem Winds at my local dealer. Further research led to auditioning the 501s and 1201s. I knew the 501s were the amps I've been searching for the last 20 years. This is coming off a BAT VK250/31SE system and ARC right before that. Krell, ML, CJ, Cary and many of the "usual suspects" were also guests in my own system over the years. :D

I guess I can say I've tasted some gear out there, listened to even more. McIntosh flaws are mostly by slight omission, that is something that is very easy to live with as compared to the extraverted or too introverted sounding gear.

Now, there are a pair of monoblocks that I have auditioned recently that could possibly de-throne the 501s in my own system but wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea.... :smoke:
 
I just recently bought my first Mac. Purchased on reputation only never had actually listened to any before. Swapped in the used c35 and right away could hear a big difference from the Yamaha C80 I was running. Now I just want an amp an amp or two with those meters!!
 
A/B Mac

Bought my first Mac about 6 years ago when I decided to build a system from the ground up around the newly released Wilson Sophias. Took about one year of listening to CJ, Classe, Simaudio, and others. Then went back to dealer where I bought the Wilsons and listened to Naim, Spectral, Mark Levinson and BAT tubed gear with the Sophias. I liked the Naim and to a lesser extent the BAT tubed integrated. Then I spotted a dusty Mac 2102 on the floor and asked if the salesman could hook it up. He hooked it up with a 2200 pre and I was floored. It was a truly eureka moment for me. They were phasing out Mac at the time----so I got a good deal.

I bought both pieces but sold the pre last year to trade up to a C1000. I am in the midst of considering the 2301 monos, but before I do, I will hear ARC amp and Ref 3 pre at home in my system (which now has Watt Puppy 7s), the Ayre monos and new pre and various combos of Ayre and Mac at a dealer with fast speakers like the Wilsons. After that, and a few more listens to Rogue, VTL and VAC at yet another dealer--all of which impress me,especially the VAC, I'll make the call.
The short of it is that I conducted fairly rigorous A/B tests before selecting Mac and I'll do the same again before I agree to recommit.
Postscript is that when I listened to the Mac gear 6 years ago and decided to buy it, I asked the salesman (who was a great guy) what he thought of the Mac gear compared to the others I heard there and his honest reply was that the Mac gear sounded a little smeared compared to Spectral and Naim, but he could live with it. Three years later I ran into him away from the shop and he recalled all of the details of our listening tests. He told me how, after a time, he not only bought the Van Morrison cd that I used as one of my test cds, but he bought a pair of 275s as monoblocks and said he was happier with his system than he had ever been in his life.

And to all a good night.
 
gpgr4blu said:
Bought my first Mac about 6 years ago when I decided to build a system from the ground up around the newly released Wilson Sophias. Took about one year of listening to CJ, Classe, Simaudio, and others. Then went back to dealer where I bought the Wilsons and listened to Naim, Spectral, Mark Levinson and BAT tubed gear with the Sophias. I liked the Naim and to a lesser extent the BAT tubed integrated. Then I spotted a dusty Mac 2102 on the floor and asked if the salesman could hook it up. He hooked it up with a 2200 pre and I was floored. It was a truly eureka moment for me. They were phasing out Mac at the time----so I got a good deal.

I bought both pieces but sold the pre last year to trade up to a C1000. I am in the midst of considering the 2301 monos, but before I do, I will hear ARC amp and Ref 3 pre at home in my system (which now has Watt Puppy 7s), the Ayre monos and new pre and various combos of Ayre and Mac at a dealer with fast speakers like the Wilsons. After that, and a few more listens to Rogue, VTL and VAC at yet another dealer--all of which impress me,especially the VAC, I'll make the call.
The short of it is that I conducted fairly rigorous A/B tests before selecting Mac and I'll do the same again before I agree to recommit.
Postscript is that when I listened to the Mac gear 6 years ago and decided to buy it, I asked the salesman (who was a great guy) what he thought of the Mac gear compared to the others I heard there and his honest reply was that the Mac gear sounded a little smeared compared to Spectral and Naim, but he could live with it. Three years later I ran into him away from the shop and he recalled all of the details of our listening tests. He told me how, after a time, he not only bought the Van Morrison cd that I used as one of my test cds, but he bought a pair of 275s as monoblocks and said he was happier with his system than he had ever been in his life.

And to all a good night.
Click to expand...

Aren't the WP7 93dB efficient? You've got to hear those with the Lamm ML2.1 18 watters. :yes:
 
At fourteen years of age I hung around the stereo store all the time, I compared everything in that store to McIntosh. Seeing the mac clinics with my own eyes sealed the deal, I had the fever at a very early age and knew that someday I was going to get it!

When I bought my first Mcintosh amp and pre it was hardly the brand to buy at the time, (1991) It did not matter to me cause it was a long time coming and I got what I wanted. Yes there are other fine brands out there but I do not feel the need to be constantly worried about being left in the sonic dust because I own some very fine products designed for the long haul my mac's.:music:

Robert
 
The short answer is no, I did not A/B other brands. A C220/MC252 was my first Mcintosh and high end purchase. And it was bought on the spot after hearing and seeing it. Absolutely no regrets either.
 
Let me just say I gave plenty of other manufactures a chance to win my ears over but in the end I bought a Mcintosh tube amp because of the deal I got. Well, now I'm hooked.

Have I tried other products, Yes. Nothing has yet to take the Mac out of the loop.
 
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