Quote:
Originally Posted by W9TR
xconcepts and SuperDave - bummer that you are having trouble with your units. I feel your pain. Not good.
I've had my MX 151 for awhile, it is an amazing sounding pre/pro - top shelf and super flexible. I love it.
The MX 150/151 is not a rebadged Denon AVP. A look at the back panels of each unit will confirm this, as will a look inside.
For example the room correction systems are totally different.
The two businesses were owned by Bain Capital a few year back, but operated independently.
There were some shared components with Denon, but the design teams were independent. The same thing is happening with Audio Research and McIntosh today, as they are both owned by Fine Sounds.
Now on to what these are so problematic to repair. I'm not defending McIntosh, far from it. Just providing some info.
Unlike McIntosh amplifiers, a lot of the MX 150/151 circuitry is designed by other companies.
For example the DD/DTS decoders are designed and sourced from Momentum Data Systems.
The HDMI switcher is from another third party - not sure who did that one.
The web server and IP interface is by yet another company.
Lyngdorf did all the room correction design.
You get the picture. McIntosh is not alone in all this - most pre/pro companies do not have all the resources in house to design one of these beasts from scratch. It's a momentous task- these pre/PRO's have all kinds of specialty electronics in them - NIC's, web servers, HDMI switchers and processors, multichannel high performance a/d and d/a converters, ultra high performance analog - the list is very large.
So when something goes Tango Uniform McIntosh has to do a board level replacement, which can be very expensive and time consuming.
I've got a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order out on my MX 151 - it will be a tough decision made easier with the passing of time.
Knocking on wood.......
Tom
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Tom,
Thanks for all of the information. I knew some pieces were outsourced and it makes sense why repairs would take longer but 6, 8, 12 months is hilarious for a flagship product. I cringe to think of the people with an MX160 in for repair! By the time they get it back after thousands on repair costs, they'll have introduced an MX161 and you'll have spent more on a repair than the actual unit is now worth. At least that has been my experience. All complaints aside, when the MX150 was working, I loved it. At the time mine smoked, I did not have a pre and was using the MX150s pure stereo for 2 ch listening. It wasn't ideal as the unit digitizes everything coming in but I still enjoyed the sound. I never updated firmware for the MX150 as many said pure stereo went away as well as causing aux input issues and the MX160 has no pure stereo option, so i'd be forced to add a pre with the cost of the 160
. I decided to get the Bryston with no room correction or Atmos and add a Nagra pre for 2 ch. Are you going to replace the MX151? What else have you looked at? Just curious.
Dave