A few years back I set up a tour of McIntosh for our Connecticut Audio Society. During that process I found out that Mac doesn't have or maintain a "museum" of its older, historic products. Steve Rowell of Audio Classics, about ten minutes from Mac, offered to host our group and couldn't be nicer, providing us with lunch and a tour of his business including viewing most every product Mac ever made.
The plant tour was memorable; especially the enthusiastic employees. Rather than just assemble sub-assemblies from outside sources, they do most all the work "in house" including all of their PC board assembly; chassis / cabinet / faceplate fabrication - even their own transformer winding.
At every step of the way an employee would encourage us to "come over here" and explain what he or she was doing. I couldn't have been more impressed by how proud each person was of the part they played in the process. Long live this Great, Historic, American Audio Company.
A few attendees took photos and Mike Barney assembled them on his website here:
http://sites.google.com/site/mpbarneytuners/home
Charles
Forgot - An added highlight to the tour was that Richard Modafferi was there as one of the guide's. Richard used to work for Mac and still consults with them from time to time. His specialty is/was FM tuner and speaker design (remember the MR78 and Infinite Slope Crossover). Richard invited some of us (who could stay - it was a long ride to/from CT) to his nearby home where we listened to his prototype RIMO (MR78) tuner and speakers. QUITE a day!
The plant tour was memorable; especially the enthusiastic employees. Rather than just assemble sub-assemblies from outside sources, they do most all the work "in house" including all of their PC board assembly; chassis / cabinet / faceplate fabrication - even their own transformer winding.
At every step of the way an employee would encourage us to "come over here" and explain what he or she was doing. I couldn't have been more impressed by how proud each person was of the part they played in the process. Long live this Great, Historic, American Audio Company.
A few attendees took photos and Mike Barney assembled them on his website here:
http://sites.google.com/site/mpbarneytuners/home
Charles
Forgot - An added highlight to the tour was that Richard Modafferi was there as one of the guide's. Richard used to work for Mac and still consults with them from time to time. His specialty is/was FM tuner and speaker design (remember the MR78 and Infinite Slope Crossover). Richard invited some of us (who could stay - it was a long ride to/from CT) to his nearby home where we listened to his prototype RIMO (MR78) tuner and speakers. QUITE a day!
