BRUTALLY Honest about McIntosh: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

You’re paying for the over the top packaging and fit and finish of the chassis and other materials and components that go into the Mc…

Secondo me È EX proprietario di elettroniche MC considero il prodotto una mistificazione rispetto al valore effettivo ed il contenuto tecnico.. Inoltre il listino italiano è il doppio rispetto agli USA. VALE LA METÀ DI QUELLO CHE COMPRI.

Im lucky to own a MC462 with a C53. They are the perfect match for my B&W 803D3 in addition to a pair of DB1 subs. The ensemble sounds spectacular at any listening level. I'm amused at the "issue" of weight given that Mac amps happily compete with amps that weigh 4 times as much😂. Expensive, of course, but given the performance, and again, the competition fairly reasonably priced. And yes Im a blue meter fan❤

Great observations. McIntosh amps are great but their speakers are disappointing.

honest, thnk you

To call McIntosh overpriced junk is just silly. There are many brands to choose from.

I love McIntosh gear but, it's usually out of my price range for the functionality I need. Having said that it's hard to find amps (tubes in the mix) that play as nicely with the speakers I love which are the large Tannoy legacy Ardens and Sonus Faber. I am punching above my financial weight however, one can trade up and buy used. Do they repair these in Binghamton? Because I live closer to Binghamton than Toronto or as close.

What’s the fuss about Macs? I never thought they were all that great to begin with (primarily amps, not talking about preamps nor speakers since I do not have enough time with those components).
The amps sounded unclear like they had a certain “sound” to them, similar to tube amps. They did pair well with horn tweeter speakers or metal domes, as they seem to mitigate sibilants in a lot of digital recordings but I’ve always wanted accurate sound first and foremost.

Oh wow! an honest audio dealer. What a breath of fresh air. This is the way to do it! full transparency might loose you some customer right away, but you'll gain a lot of customers in the long run.

never bought a av receiver ,they do sound bad in stereo and one can find them for 100€ no matter what they cost, because of the surround evolution but i have stereo or matrix 4 in my tv sound and it´s great with four speakers and 74 loudness on ,it makes one jump when a car crashes or shoots are fired

The good I got these huge arms from lifting McIntosh amplifiers.

Hard to believe that $40,000 story. Still new in the box and take $8,000. Cars don't even depreciate like that.

First and Last time I bought McIntosh was in 2022. Brand new 4 channel amp from a dealer (not this dealer because they wouldn’t give a discount- I’ve spent close a $1M on my system - I never pay retail 😂).
Anyway, amp had a defective channel. Went back to Binghamton. Worksheet said boards were “replaced” and the unit was cleaned. Not only was it not cleaned (fingerprints on meters) but many screws were loose! Like sticking out more than 2cm! Worst part was they just swapped the channels, so the defective channel was still there, just moved around. What a JOKE!
No companies are perfect; but when they don’t fix the issue the 2nd time, I’m OUT. Maybe the vintage stuff is great but the McIntosh of today is a joke.

Another thing with McIntosh outside the usa is dealing with distributors. When working at a hifi store in germany we had a customer complaining about a sizzling noise. We had it shipped in for repair twice and both times we were told that the noise is within spec and there isnt anything they can do. They even changed all the tubes but the customer still complained. So we set it up with a pair of b&w speakers and compared it to the same amp we had in the store and there really was a noise present on the customer amp which wasnt there on ours but you had to get close to hear it. When we tested the amps with horn speakers however (avantgarde trio) it was more than obvious even from meters away. Nonetheless the distributor refused to do anything about it...not cool regarding it was a 20.000€ amp.

I live in upstate NY and went on their factory tour. If anybody comes through NY I highly recommend making an appointment to go on their tour. It was an amazing experience seeing their factory floor and everything being hand made. And the listening rooms are awesome. Just make sure to make an appointment first.

If you like your music rolled off and slow McIntosh is for you.

The XR100 speakers are an excellent sounding speaker for the price.

Great post ~

HOLD ON .. wait til i get some pop corn and a soda ..I don't want to miss a word!

I don't actually know anything about Macintosh products but being a production company they did pioneer the live sound world.
That's what was powering the wall of sound rig

As a kid in high school in the mid 80's, for lunch we used to go to the Audio Shop? in Ottawa corner of Bank and Alta vista. The sales guy used to treat us to demo's with McIntosh stuff. I remember being blown away with these huge speakers, I think 24 tweeters tall was one of the cabinets. Still a dream to get ahold of this stuff, but I'm working on it!

Uhg..........................., since the mid-eighties when I first sat down and listened critically to McIntosh gear was at an event with local audio dealers gathered at a specialist dealer to listen to the first NYAL Moscode Amplifiers that arrived in the city. Large, six foot tall Electrostats, the brand escapes me were used and McIntosh amps were hooked up when I arrived for the audition. The sound I thought was very good, actually great I thought until they were switched them out for the Moscodes. It took like five seconds in the audition when the stylus touched the Lp and the faces in the room, everyone looked at each other because even before the music started, you could hear the change, all of a sudden you could hear the recording venue, the air in the space that was missing from the Macs. Went back to the Macs just to make sure we heard what we heard. The Macs were on for hours before the listening session started and the NYAL's, maybe five minutes. And that to me is always the crux with McIntosh gear. When I walk into a room with Mac playing, it's fine, nice music, but switch them out and put almost any other brand in its place, and right away I hear, at least to my ears their deficiencies. A lack of snap, sparkle, or whatever you want to call it. But I have to say that if you're looking for reliability, lonnng-term resale value, and a pleasant sound, they can't be beat.

The huge problem where I am in the USA (not mentioned in the video), is the dealers will not allow you to take the McIntosh amps home to try in your home enviroment. I was told, buy it and if your not happy just resale it. To make matters worse, some models can only be purchased in store, not online, at least at the time I was looking. Needless to say, I purchased a different brand. Their is a form of arrogance surrounding this brand.

Loving this series also liking the channel with you solo on it!

IMHO the best thing about Mcintosh is their management. This company has seen so many transitions in the industry from vinyl, to CD, from analog to digital, to streamers, to DAC's to home theater. My compliments to their management for not only surviving changes in the industry but dominating. Truly amazing AMERICAN company.

Interesting series. -- I had since the late 80s and very much like Macintosh, as computers. But I am not a fan of the look the audio Macintosh: ostentatious and dated. I can appreciate that they are made in the US, even support it (PassLabs, Dan Clark, Woo, VPI, SoundSmith). But that bile green glow of audio-Macintosh is nauseating, reminds me unpleasantly of DOS computer operating systems in the old PC days. I prefer understated products also in other areas (e.g., Tesla MS, bought in 2013). Don't know whether I would like the sound of Macintosh, just can't get past the look.

Thank you for your review. I bought a used 2120 and C504 in 1980 which were probably made when The Good The Bad and The Ugly came out...
Still own them and are still sounding fine after some maintenance. I can't find another piece of electronic in my home that worked for so long. The 2120 at 75 lbs or so is definitely harder to move than it was 40 years ago though but it could be me.

Brys
Bryston as a very good resell value, they sound amazing, and there built like a tank..amazing support.

Even the new McIntosh, the print on the chassis does come off and shifted.

One more ugly - their remotes. Could they get any cheaper. I know, most run it in a home automation system but I still like the remote. Again compared to NAD who has this beautifully machined steel remote - the McIntosh remote is a cheap piece of plastic.

At these price points … nothing should be cheap. The MX123 remote wouldn’t be allowed on a $300
Sony.

Nice to meet you at Audiofest. My view is their biggest “ugly” is the lack of technology innovation. They are slow.

The MX180 is way behind on the tech stack and the MX123 is also behind (although a bit less so). I mean my goodness … Tidal Connect being a good example.

Incredible sound, but really lacking on the tech innovation stack. That was my one disappointment moving from NAD whose tech is impressive thanks to BluOS.

I don't like the tone of mcintosh stuff I like other hi end

Thanks for the video. After years of various electronics , I settled on McIntosh much for the reasons you cited.
Looking forward to your next Brutally Honest.

I was really excited to hear your honest take on such a long time juggernaut. I have wanted to hear some of the newer big tube amps in my reference system but the size and weight have kept the experiment at bay. I have one McIntosh item I bought for a fun background type system and I love it! BTW heard the new ML1 speaker yesterday. I don't care for the aesthetic but I was really impressed with the tor tapping, enjoyable sound!

Thank you for your video! By the way, when you made an unboxing video of McIntosh MHA200, you said that you might will make a review of it. Will you do it?

I visited their factory in Binghamton a few years ago. I was down away from the hand made nature of their products (didn't see speaker production). I also recall something to the effect of you could send in any product of theirs no matter the age or condition for a refurb at a modest cost. Do these recollections align with your sense of reality?

The perpetuated myth that you can have any McIntosh repaired no matter how old is simply not true. Getting any of these pieces is such a pain, especially if you need to send it out and don’t have the original box for your 100-pound amp. I’ve run into issues with trying to find weird capacitor values and had to customize volume pots myself because there were none to be had anymore. The control ribbons are nearly impossible to find, the front panel glass as well. I called up McIntosh about getting parts for a late 70’s amp and they couldn’t help me, adding “It’s a boat anchor now”.

Your videos are truly amazing, just recently stumbled across your channel. Please keep that high quality content coming.

Adrian, just so you know, the sound is quite hollow, mid-bassy like the mike is in the wrong place. too close to boundaries or not close enough to the speaking person.. ...you.

Why does a haze cover the entire screen sometimes? Definitely when the text come on, but other times always, like some sort of overlay is clouding the picture….

Why no lav mic for theses videos?

Wonderful video. Honest comments. Many thanks. You failed to consider audio research brand that outperforms McIntosh in several domains (transparency, tone, rythme, etc.). Paired with Wilson audio or Magnepan speakers , audio research products (reference series) currently provide an amazing sound. They have been working together for a very long time (several decades).

Agreed. Adrian speaks from the heart and that’s why I like watching his videos!

I bought McIntosh's first integrated amp, the MA230, back in the '60s. It was a misconception--a tube preamp/solid state amp combination, like what they do now, would have been better--but it was a huge jump in quality for me back then, and the McIntosh clinics kept it running nicely throughout its useful life.

Of course who could forget the Grateful Dead's infamous Wall of Sound.

586 JBL speakers and 54 Electro-Voice tweeters, powered by 48 600-watt McIntosh MC-2300 amplifiers generating a total of 28,800 watts of continuous power. Of course it sounded super clean and was a awesome engineering fear during that time. Unfortunately the whole setup weighed too much, took to many trucks to haul it and it became to expensive to continue use.

The Mc2300 still remained a favorite of Jerry Garcia as he would run his guitar to a Fender amp strictly as a preamp out to the Mc2300 as he loved the clean sound it produces.

Nice video i agree with you , i use a MA9000 and i choose this model between 5 or 6 amplifiers in this price level and higher but not one of them it has so many connections and so enjoy for every day listening for many hours , so i matched with MBL speakers and i m very happy, thank you for your video.

To my taste, the contrast between the beauty of the Sonus faber speaker left on screen and the ugliness of the McIntosh gear on the right couldn't be greater

A fair assessment.

Nice piece, and a good watch, thank you!
Whilst I'd like to try out some Amplification, I imagine I might want something that resolves a little more from the descriptions I've heard from trusted reviewers. I also don't actually need UV meters on every box in the system and find its ugly - sorry.
I am however, drawn to the other elements of their design, so maybe I'd get on with a good integrated...