Honestly I think it's fine. In fact I wish they would release some more even lower cost amps. I don't see how having cheaper products could possibly hurt them as long as the quality stays the same. If anything having cheaper stuff would allow for younger people to buy new McIntosh and todays young poor people are tomorrows older rich ones.
As we all know once you get McIntosh you tend to stick with it forever so if they can bring in young people they will have customers forever.
I think there is plenty of room for more entry level stuff. For example DACs and Headphone amplifiers are extremely popular with younger audiophiles these days and companies like Schiit, JDS labs, Topping, SMSL, Monoprice, Drop etc are pretty much taking this entire market. None of the more mainstream companies are really even trying to compete.
I think it would be awesome if McIntosh release a full line of entry level gear maybe something like this:
Basic Solid State Preamp/DAC/Headphone Amp: One balanced in, one unbalanced in, one balanced out, one unbalanced out, MC/MM Phono, DAC1/DAC2(optional), High powered headphone amp. ~$1000 - ~$2000. If they made something like this with specs comparable to a Benchmark DAC3, Massdrop THX AAA, or RME Adi-2 Pro I bet it would sell really well.
Then for people who want to add on speakers they can also have a basic Solid State Autoformer Amp: 50w per channel, balanced/unbalanced in also ~$1000 - $2000 They could make it with the same styling as the MC250 and call it the MC250 MK2.
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