McIntosh, after winning lotto would it be worth it ?

[donc]

Boredom and curiosity recently got to me so I thought I would check products and pricing on McIntosh , WOW ! I had no idea their equipment is SO expensive ! I'm sure their equipment is nice but how much snake oil is in the mix ?
Where does price exceed return ?
donc

[cooper]

To me, purchasing McIntosh based simply on price/performance ratio doesn't make sense. Kind of like Harley Davidson: Big, Heavy, American, can be rebuilt forever, people who actually know how to fix them, parts available, etc. but better performance available for fewer dollars. And the cool factor. Big Blue Meters = Harley chrome and v-twin rumble. All that said, if I won the power ball, I would at least get a pair of those huge mono-blocks :-)

[dcibel]

I'd probably splurge on a pair of these if I won the lottery:

http://www.merrillaudio.net/veritas.html

[ani_101]

Based on nc1200 retailing for 12k?

[Pete Schumacher]

Yawn . . . not what they once used to be.

There is so much out there that not only performs better, but also looks better on top of it.

For example, this one makes me drool just a bit. Coda Technologies AMPLIFIER 15.0

http://www.coda-continuum.com/product/index.php

[Wolf]

Never heard of Coda before, neat! The guts photo is of the Coda 40 though, according to the website.

100# monsters,
Wolf

[Pallas]

Where does price exceed return ? donc

When you run the card. That said, you're not buying audio parts. You're buying something cool to put in your room. Decor can get expensive. And a Mac has better resale value than many decorative objects. I kinda want their desktop/headphone amp. If it had bass management and RoomPerfect...man that would look cool in my office. Maybe even 5k cool.

[DearSX]

What amps would be a better value than a Mcintosh (performance/dollar only) ?

[Pallas]

Define "performance."

[DE Focht]

Boredom and curiosity recently got to me so I thought I would check products and pricing on McIntosh , WOW ! I had no idea their equipment is SO expensive ! I'm sure their equipment is nice but how much snake oil is in the mix ?
Where does price exceed return ?
donc

First of all you should be beaten severely for using McIntosh and snake oil in the same sentence. You have 2 choices when you win the lottery....buy by the label and a larger price tag...still or you can hire an advisor/ or get an education so you can better understand what you are buying.

If Honda sold 250 Accords, how much more expensive would they be? High End audio is fractured and broken into very small companies, so most components are hand built or built by less than 20 people.

If you like the blue meters (and many people do) then that may be all it takes to make the purchase worth it. Pallas' take was very astute.

If you don't have active speakers, you can use your new found wealth to try many amplifiers in your system and marvel at the differences they make.

There are many top amplifiers in the world, I still like YBA, Gryphon and High powered Brystons, that is if you're going to settle for a passive loudspeaker.

[Face]

Not many other manufacturers support their products from 40+ years ago. Most of their amps are built like tanks and can drive low impedances with ease due to having autoformers.

[jml]

This topic has been debated in many forms in many forums. I'm sure that my position has been more eloquently state by others in the past, but I'll throw my two cents in...

Ultimately, it's worth the money if you value the sum of its parts at the price you choose to pay. Where I think you see a lot of differences is how people value the sum of the parts. An amplifier (and any audio component for that matter) is not a commodity, like a barrel of crude oil, that serves a utilitarian purpose (making sound come out of speakers). If it were, the marketplace would have found the cheapest way to make a device that produces sound from speakers, and we would all have basically the same one. The value comes from all of the following (and probably many more):

1. Will it power my speakers well? – different impedance loads, different efficiencies, different tonal characteristics all impact the answer to this question. For example: I previously had a Bryston B60R (wonderful product), but if you pushed it hard on a pair of 85dB speaker, it would clip.
2. Does it have the features that you want? Inputs, outputs, integrated phono boards, DACs etc… all come at a price.
3. How reliable is it and can I get it fixed?
4. Does it have the aesthetic you want? People value aesthetic very differently, it’s never right or wrong though.
5. Do I have an emotional attachment? Again, people have varying degrees of emotional attachment to a product, a brand, etc… For example: why has the price of the Lamborghini Diablo skyrocketed in recent years when it's universally lambasted as a nightmare to drive? A large part of that is that there are a lot of kids who grew up with a Diablo poster on their wall, and now they want to buy that dream. (some of it might also be rich guys simply betting on the continued appreciation of an asset with declining supply, but that's another story)

My personal perspective is that you should satisfy items 1-3 above, and then capture as much of 4 and 5 as your budget will allow. For example, the aforementioned Bryston comes with a remote machined from a single piece of aluminum. I purchased my unit used, but I believe it's a $400 option. It doesn't perform any better than a $2 dime-store universal remote, but there is perceived value in the aesthetic and the feel of the remote, and perceived value is real value.

For those who buy McIntosh (or any other high end product), you may look at the product and say that the cost is not justified based on a deficiency in any one of these categories, but if you're going to spend a large sum of money on a discretionary item for a hobby, you're probably balancing a wide variety of factors and the perceived value of each.

In short, It's the best darn amplifier money can buy if you think it's worth it and it makes you happy.

Cheers!

Joe

[philthien]

One thing that makes me wonder a bit about the McIntosh mystique is their speaker line. Looking at their line of speakers over the years I see not only some pretty crazy (by today's standards) configurations, but very run-of-the-mill driver quality.

The same is true of Japanese stuff. Look at Pioneer or Sansui or Marantz speakers and with a few notable exceptions, you see the same sort of compromises.

So I often wonder if the same sorts of decisions are built into the electronics but simply less obvious (because they're inside a pretty box with blue meters).

[Paul K.]

I have a Wenger Swiss Army type watch. It keeps very good time and looks attractive to me. I've replaced the band twice and will continue doing so until, and only if the watch dies. Many, many people drool over and simply must have a Rolex (or something similar), but I doubt a Rolex would keep time more accurately than my Wenger that cost far, far less. I could afford a Rolex but I don't give a diddly about jewelry or a status symbol. Many high-end audio products are appealing to some people because of their status or assumed better performance due to their higher price. I have no doubt that a McIntosh product will perform quite well, but is it worth it? That's a question each person has to answer for themselves (and it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks).
Paul

[dcibel]

Based on nc1200 retailing for 12k?

You betcha, and when I win the lottery I'll be happy to put it head to head with any of the space heaters mentioned in this thread