In the beginning there was McIntosh

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
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1,635
Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
In the beginning there was McIntosh..................

Way back in the late 1970's when I was a young man growing up in a working class neighborhood I ventured into a HI-FI shop located in another and more affluent part of the city. My friends, all factory rats had warned me to stay clear of that place, they said that place was overpriced and expensive and laughed at the thought. They knew someone who had walked in there once, not themselves of course, but they knew the score. These friends all got their stereo equipment at the home appliance chain stores which advertised heavily, and so should I because that's where the "good deals" were.

Well, being the curious cat, I pulled up in my mostly bondo 1966 Mustang and walked into the forbidden Hi-Fi store (my parents would have killed me had they known). It was dark, full of small rooms with men talking to other men in faint whispers at the other end of the store while leering in doorways. This made me sort of nervous but I walked straight in towards the back, which happened to be the shelf for the used equipment.

There on the shelf was this odd heavy looking black glass faced object. A sales person suddenly emerged from the dark and asked a question as I was peering into the object's face to determine the shiny black material which I was too afraid to touch. I think he said; can I help you? I turned to him and asked; what is this? That's a McInosh tuner he said. No, no I mean this shiny black material used on the face. It's glass he said. Glass? But it's not clear, how can it be glass? I started to smiled when the spark of learning something new sparked under my thick skull and long hair, I've seen black acrylic, could this be similar?

The sales man went on to say it is a tuner.

You mean it's a receiver of some sort? I said with a raised eye brow and thinking I was smart.

Well you can see where this was going folks, I think the salesman quickly made for the door as a crack of light followed by a silhouette of a man appeared at the entry.

Hence my first exposure to a McIntosh ended without a sound made.

Somehow I have an early childhood memory of a HH Scott tuner with back lighted dials, but I have no idea where it comes from.

What was your first exposure to a McIntosh product?
 

es347

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Midwest fly over state..
Well I am all MAC from source to amplifiers: MCD500, MC500 preamp and MC501 monoblocks. My first exposure to MAC was when I worked for RCA Consumer Electronics the summer of 1969 between jr. and sr. years at Purdue. I worked in the area where they designed and built the console stereos...remember those dinosaurs anyone? Our dept. was CCOS (Computer Controlled Operating Systems) and we designed the test stands to test each tuner after assembly. Signals were injected at various points, measurements taken and action whether pass or fail. I designed the logic circuits for the test stand but I digress. In the center of the office space was a large, soundproof room which contained all the RCA console models and a reference system. The reference system was a Thorens TT with a V15 cartridge (best of the best back then), Klipschorns and a McIntosh integrated tube amplifier...don't have a clue as to the model. Now I'm certain that if I heard that same system today, it wouldn't sound nearly as good as my memory tells me it did but it definitely moved some air. Obviously I couldn't afford McIntosh back then but did manage to build Dynaco pre and power amps paired up with new AR2ax's...followed by Hafler/Snell Type A improved...followed by McCormack/Martin Logan. Then nearly 3 years ago I drank the MAC kool aid and the rest is history. MAC equipment has a huge almost cult-like following and the aesthetic plays a very important role in that. Blue meters aside (which I keep turned off), MAC sonics are right up there near the top.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Blue meters aside (which I keep turned off), MAC sonics are right up there near the top

curious as to why you do this Gavin? Do you think those displays can add some noise to the system? When I had my ARC Ref3 I always kept the display off because I found that very thing
 

es347

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
1,577
35
970
Midwest fly over state..
I find them distracting. My preamp has them and the monoblocks have them also and they are much larger. I like the look of the more subtle lighted McIntosh logos on all the gear rather than those big ole blue meters dancing around.
 

Another Johnson

VIP/Donor
Jan 13, 2022
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Music City, USA aka Nashville
I know this is a fourteen year old thread.

My first exposure to McIntosh was at an old HiFi nuts house in 1967. My friend and I were lusting after stereo RTR tape machines, but they were beyond our meager budgets. This father of another friend was hooked up and invited us to hear his system.

He had McIntosh electronics. A C 22 and an MC 275. Wow!

Our lowly Realistic and Lafayette gear was never the same after that.
 

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