McIntosh275

I was on another forum this morning audiokarma.org and someone sold his mc275 and purchased a couple of Bob's m125's...used.
Interesting I thought.
IMHO I had heard the McIntosh275 on more than one occasion and also after I purchased MY m125's and I can say I felt very comfortable knowing I made a sound decision with Bob's m125's.
Mentioning this to one or two people I fell like I said blasphemy after the looks and remarks I encounter. It seems it's all or at least in part about money and a branded name. The more expensive the better.
Not the case IMO.
Tubes forever!
Bob Latino's Tubes!

I get the same response from some Porsche owners. I have a 2012 Cayman R and more than a few of the 911 crowd act as if they are seeing a turd in the punch bowl. Its value and performance that counts for me, not price and brand cachet.

Bluemeanies, I agree with you...and this is from someone who, in his repair shop days, worked on many MC275s. Good amplifiers, yes. Meet specs, yes. Reliable, yes. But their main claim is brand identification. Many amplifiers at far less cost sound as good or better and while the differences are not large, they do exist and the MC275 does not come out at the top of the pile.

GP49 wrote:Bluemeanies, I agree with you...and this is from someone who, in his repair shop days, worked on many MC275s.  Good amplifiers, yes.  Meet specs, yes.  Reliable, yes.  But their main claim is brand identification.  Many amplifiers at far less cost sound as good or better and while the differences are not large, they do exist and the MC275 does not come out at the top of the pile.

The same probably can be said of Marantz, though I've not heard their most recent offerings. The Mac amps and preamps (admittedly solid-state) I've owned over the years always sounded quite flat and dull to me -- even their ML-1C speakers. I think for Latino amps there should be a $10,000 blue meter option. Payin' attention here, Holger?

It delights me to no end that our VTA Lat-ynacos are so good. I had no such aspirations when I bought mine. I was happy to have done enough research to be confident this was the version to get among a field of some very good modern dyna-derived amps.

I notice from other forums that Roy and Bob appear widely known and respected for their products. I guess toppling a living legend like the Mac 275 just requires devine intervention, or some clever marketing stunt, and the gold plated opportunity to deliver it. If I could dream it up, I'd offer my thoughts.

deepee99 wrote:

GP49 wrote:Bluemeanies, I agree with you...and this is from someone who, in his repair shop days, worked on many MC275s.  Good amplifiers, yes.  Meet specs, yes.  Reliable, yes.  But their main claim is brand identification.  Many amplifiers at far less cost sound as good or better and while the differences are not large, they do exist and the MC275 does not come out at the top of the pile.

The same probably can be said of Marantz, though I've not heard their most recent offerings. The Mac amps and preamps (admittedly solid-state) I've owned over the years always sounded quite flat and dull to me -- even their ML-1C speakers. I think for Latino amps there should be a $10,000 blue meter option. Payin' attention here, Holger?

you give me $10K and I will turn your BB's blue.......

MontanaWay wrote:

deepee99 wrote:

GP49 wrote:Bluemeanies, I agree with you...and this is from someone who, in his repair shop days, worked on many MC275s.  Good amplifiers, yes.  Meet specs, yes.  Reliable, yes.  But their main claim is brand identification.  Many amplifiers at far less cost sound as good or better and while the differences are not large, they do exist and the MC275 does not come out at the top of the pile.

The same probably can be said of Marantz, though I've not heard their most recent offerings. The Mac amps and preamps (admittedly solid-state) I've owned over the years always sounded quite flat and dull to me -- even their ML-1C speakers. I think for Latino amps there should be a $10,000 blue meter option. Payin' attention here, Holger?

you give me $10K and I will turn your BB's blue.......

Da cheque is in da mail!

I had to share this true story which happened about a week ago. I passed this along to audiobill in a short e-mail. I just copied it and posted it here.
McIntosh owners take no offense but this made my day.


My NOT REGULAR postal guy and I engaged in a conversation about 2channel stereo and TIDAL. since he said he noticed I subscribed to Sound and Vision.
Note....I have seen this guy maybe twice and that includes today.
He told me he had the McIntosh 275 and Legacy speakers.
I invited him in to take a look at the m125's.
Honestly, he was not that impressed especially seeing only two output tubes which I personally thought was not important but he did point that out.
He asked me if he could have a short demonstration.
Our government at work...right.
So I played Bruce....Forman
The guy was here for an hour!!!
I really wanted him out of the house. Hahaha
In the end he told me he paid $6500.00 for the 275 but said sonically he could not hear the cost difference when listening to the m125's...which by the way he never heard of Dynaco or tubes4hifi.
I thought I was going to have to offer the guy lunch! Get the f....out lol!
In all seriousness this guy was genuine and said he was not that impressed with the esthetics of the m125's but the performance was as good as the Mac 275's.
WOW!!!...that made my day!

Well, I have both the ST-120 and the MC-275.  Pricewise, the Dynaco is my favourite, by all means. Also, I was not really impressed with the sound of the 275 (Mk V) with its original "McIntosh" tubes (drivers are Chinese and KT88 are Russian made). But after some tube rolling (Sylvania NOS drivers) and Gold Lion Genalex KT88, I am quite happy with the sound. 
It may sound as good as the ST120 now, but the price difference cannot be ignored. Overhere I can get 2.5 ST-120's for the same money.......

Blue', That's a good story. The guy was obviously pretty biased in favour of his McIntosh going in, but open to letting your VTA amp impress him with its performance.

I'm sure if I hadn't been steered toward Dynaco by a friend, and quickly learned about these great kits, I would have bought a McIntosh. I was the only tube amp I could have named at the time. So I can pretty much calculate my savings!

bluemeanies said "not impressed with the esthetics"
well he could always have someone make him a version like this . . .
 
   OR LIKE THIS . . .

Those look spectacular, Roy! Who built those?

top photo by John Jones, posted about 3 years ago
bottom photo by Mark Cochran, also about 3 years ago

Steampunk stylin'

Bill, if you like steampunk amps, check out this page. . .
http://www.damngeeky.com/tag/steampunk-amplifier

Holger (MontanaWay) makes some beautiful amps and pre-amps on the VTA tubes 4 hi-fi models as well.

here's my favorite, his version of my SP14 preamp, and then below that, the system with the MK3 monoblocks

Wow.

tubes4hifi wrote:bluemeanies said "not impressed with the esthetics"
well he could always have someone make him a version like this . . .
 
   OR LIKE THIS . . .

SPECTACULAR INDEED!
Beautiful.

Roy - Love that Copper & Steam!!!

Where are the smokestacks?