Anyone Ever Get a McIntosh Lemon?

[DesW]

I bought this Pig in the late 70s--would'nt pull the skin of a Rice Pudding let alone drive any

speaker I tried it with--the meters would bottom relentlessly and then the thing would shut down.

Lost a packet on resale too-duhhh!

Never touched a McIntosh product since I trust they have got it together since that

"lemon"--

Des

[Charles]

Originally Posted by DesW

I bought this Pig in the late 70s--would'nt pull the skin of a Rice Pudding let alone drive any

speaker I tried it with--the meters would bottom relentlessly and then the thing would shut down.

Lost a packet on resale too-duhhh!

Total P.O.S--never touched a McIntosh product since I trust they have got it together since that

"lemon"--or I call something starting with T!

Des

Your comment is inappropriate.

[DesW]

Originally Posted by Charles

Your comment is inappropriate.

Maybe Charles-point taken, but to lose almost £1K (1977!)on resale after one

has worked 3 jobs to save to purchase what one is led to believe is a pinnacle in

Amplifier design at that time--

Cuts to the quick

I shall edit my Post

Des

[Charles]

Originally Posted by DesW

Maybe Charles-point taken, but to lose almost £1K (1977!)on resale after one

has worked 3 jobs to save to purchase what one is led to believe is a pinnacle in

Amplifier design at that time--

Cuts to the quick

I shall edit my Post

Des

Thank you. I am truly sorry you had that terrible experience. The 2300 is the most iconic of all Mac amps. It had a very long run time and found its way in to numerous professional recording studios, etc. I think you have to differentiate between a "bad experience with a piece of equipment" and a lemon. To me a lemon is a new piece that does not meet published specs and starts out unreliable and remains as such. 2112 really did not have a lemon. He had a "new" demo that was under warranty. You really have to be careful with used high end equipment. I would rather have a one owner piece of equipment than a demo, providing you know the owner. I got my Thor's Hammer as a demo. I watched it for a year in the dealers high end room. I know for a fact that it was never hooked up. It never had an amp and had no Watch Controller. It set encased in a wall mute. When I showed interest in a new Thor the dealer said "let me make you the deal of a lifetime". I said "OK". The rest is history. I got mine for 12,000.00. 1KW's experience (see thread below) with his 501's is another example of tremendous success with used Mac. It has worked out beautifully. But we all get burned and the natural tendency is to blame the poor dealer or manufacturer rather than ourselves when things don't work out. Most dealers or manufacturers will remedy very quickly a true lemon, in my humble opinion.

[damacman]

Yeah, that's just crazy talk. Who knows what may have been the circumstances of why the MC2300 didn't work out for DesW. One could only speculate. As Charles says, they were widely used in professional (Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, etc.), industrial (used to run shake tables, cutting lathes, PA systems in factories), and military applications (modulating sonar, etc).

I've owned about two dozen of them over the years, still have two. I'm listening to the pair as I type. One thing they are not short on is power . . . a friend once told me, The MC2300 is the dirty harry of all power amplifiers. He was most certainly right.

[med_designer]

Yes - with two separate products within the last year

MC152 - Everything worked but the left front meter was not operational out of the box

D1100 - Most of the blacklight on the glass was not illuminated or significant diminished

In both cases the units were replaced by the dealer and McIntosh. Ultimately I bought a C70 as well.

While inconvenient, I felt I was treated well but I did question why this could have happened. One possibility that was suggested was McIntosh could be in a state of flux with long time employees considering retirement and the difficulty in locating new qualified employees wishing to make a career at the company. With expansion of the product line and into different markets some products have ocassionally slipped through the QA process before shipment.

At the end of the day I still trust McIntosh more than any other equipment I have owned.

[45shooter]

Wanting to dip my toe in mid price hifi this is worrysome.

What about all the problems that folks encounter that we don't hear about on message boards.....

Maybe McIntosh shud pay their employees more so they CAN make a career out of it. just sayin' and YMMV

[FreddieFerric]

My MA8000 has been rock solid. I did have to replace the digital audio board after the warranty expired, but that was strictly due to a lightening strike that got to the usb input through my dedicated digital server. Certainly not MC's fault.

[Msegal]

I had an MX136 that repeatedly bricked on me. I finally got it fixed and returned it to the dealer.

I thought I would never get another Mcintosh pre/pro but I just purchased a MX122 with a MC8207.

I am very happy with them both so far.

Mike S.

[PMCH]

Mike, strange how we all have different experiences with gear. I have owned my MX136 for over 10 years and never had any problems. I don’t have any issues with my MX121 or my previous MX120. I did use a MC7106 which worked fine but didn’t sound near as good as my MC8207 to me. My issue was with two new MC205’s that both buzzed.