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RE: My one McIntosh Experience: Rich warm bloated flabby and veiled




McIntosh is successful at what they do and that always means someone is going to attack them for something. They cater to a fashion conscious audiophile - they cater to Tube fans, OTL fans, and Solid State fans - they read the market and when SS is popular they sell SS, when tubes came back into popularity they brought back their tubes - it's not about the sound - it's about catering to their market.

And there's nothing wrong with this - plenty of audio companies sell a "style" product - and if you hit upon the right style you get a following - and it becomes a me too product (ahem Apple).

McIntosh isn't bad - the worst you could say about most of it is that it doesn't sound as good as their list price (and current McIntosh is not owned by the people who started it up). When founders leave or die the gear isn't the same anymore. As one McIntosh dealer I know noted - they're a "soulless" company.

But I looked through their line-up and I like the looks of the turntables - even with the meter telling you the speed of the platter. Why not? Yeah it's dopey but it looks kinda neat and so long as it sounds somewhere in the ballpark of the $9,000 list price and it's reliable then why not?

Every time I audition McIntosh I think of the TV show "Home Improvement" and Tim The Toolman Taylor saying "More Power" as he tries to get the Meter pushed to the max. As he blows the windows out of his house. More Poooooower!!!

It's a manly looking amp for many a manly men and it's got the pedal to the metal and the tachometer pushed to the max and the big sexy mood lighting lights for an evening with three ladies of the night and the name brand prestige and you're in the me too club.

Yeah and maybe it doesn't sound "The Best" but who the hell agrees on what the best is anyway? B&W IMO is the speaker equivalent of McIntosh - soulless - not run by the founders - more about the looks the prestige and the me too. I like the Batman looking B&W's. Sound was pretty good - now it's called Vivid - whatever - same kinda thing with a different name.

McIntosh always struck me as an amplifier maker targeting the rock and roll crowd anyway - and a little brute force and rawness and thwack isn't horrible for that music.






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