McIntosh was - and in my opinion still is - the HI-FI brand. In our mind there was no doubt about it. The market, however - that is - the "Gurus", would not accept it. And that was rather strange as its reputation was impeccably built up during the tube-era. McIntosh had been a forerunner both in electronics design as well as a developer and manufacturer of its own high-tech components. Such as transformers, the most crucial part of the tube amplifier. McIntosh also invented the unity-coupling. With their extremely well-made "trannies" and the Half-Cathode Follower circuit they took care of the well-known problems that most tube-amps had both in the lower and higher part of the frequency range.

The McIntosh products were so "complete" in design and workmanship as to wonder why they didn't cost more - and they weren't cheap! At that time all and everything was of course done in-house at the factory in Binghamton, NY. Since 1990 McIntosh went out of American hands, in that the Japanese Clarion company took over. This has led to surprisingly small changes other than that production of car stereo products was immediately initiated. McIntosh must must have been one of the last great U.S. manufacturers to lay down their arms for the sons of the rising sun.

The tube era was over when we started out with "mac". I mean to faintly remember that they still could offer some units from built-up old stocks, most probably the MC275 which had to be a slow mover at that time, with the solid-state era in full swing and the new "urge for tubes" not having set in yet. The MC275 was in a class by itself. Today they sell for several thousand dollars at the used market - if you are able to find one! It was even reissued at one time - I think they produced something like 4000 units. Most of them were sold before they were made.

What we mostly sold was, of course, power amplifiers. I wonder were all the preamps came from - same thing with Marantz. It is always like that. The 2100 and 2105 were the most popular. They were very conservatively rated at 2x100 watts - the 2105 with the large blue, sexy McIntosh meters - the 2100 in the classic design with the characteristic slanted shape of the actual case - and the black cage! It was while experimenting with the "macs" that we experienced one of our major eye-openers - the visual design of a unit influence a lot on your listening experience. However, a "Guru" could never admit this. Also, they mixed up and associated the "autoformers" with problems connected with the standard transformers which were used in all tube amplifier constructions. The fact that McIntosh put a heavy emphasis on safety and protection of speakers and electronics, was not appreciated. In their opinion that detracted from the sound quality!

The uphill race we experienced in the process of representing this excellent brand revealed a lot of how the high-end market - and opinions in the same - was governed by some central persons who had established very firm positions for themselves. Not unexpectedly, we found that their attitude towards various brands wasn't always guided by a totally objective judgement. As they liked to be seen. Of course, some distributors saw the light and used other tactics than us. And was rewarded for it!

This I say to you all: Be happy, go out and buy yourself a McIntosh - preferably several. And I don't mean a computer!

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