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wrote in news:1102640786.210930.276630
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

Roger Russell's site is nice...but he 's hardly impartial. And I
would say that more of the extant chrome chassis tube era Macs in
excellent to mint condition are in Japan than here today-ones coming on
to the US market tend to be cosmetically bad, modified, or detectably
reworked, replated, et al. Especially the 275 which is the John Holmes
model.

I don't mean to disrespect Roger, but, he was the speaker guy and the
speakers Mac has built did and do not have the reputation that the
electronics do.

And the electronics-look inside a modern Mac product and then inside a
Tek oscilloscope from the 50s up through the end of the
in-house-made-CRT models. True, most other High End audio fails this
test as well, but for this much money, that's my expectation.

In all my years I have never seen any piece of audio gear approach the
construction techniques of a 500 series oscilloscope. As a matter of fact
I haven't seen anything built like a 500 Tek scope other than another Tek
scope. Silver bonded ceramic bars for soldering the components? Do you
have any idea what that would cost today? That technology is nearly
outlawed by the EPA due to the new restrictions on the use of lead. I
personally believe that your expectations are unreasonable for a
production piece of equipment. Even the 3% silver content solder
dictated would cost a small fortune. Could one build a preamp under those
same guidelines? Certainly, but if you had to buy all new parts, a simple
two channel preamp would likely cost close to $30,000.

Roger's work is well founded in science and he did design the C26 preamp
and a few other items that are not speakers. He was granted a patent when
a patent actually meant something unlike the circus that the patent office
is today.

The only reason that McIntosh speakers did not gain popularity was that
they were expensive and Mc refused to publish specifications for a variety
of reasons. I suggest you find a pair of XR290 or XRT30 speakers and give
them a listen. It might change your mind about McIntosh speakers.

As far as Roger being impartial, I know Roger and his qualities are
honesty, impartiality, and truthfulness. He is quite particular about
everything in life not just audio. He is an excellent engineer and
scientist. His quest for audio excellence has been his goal his entire
life and he certainly has made a postive impact. Be assured that Roger
does not view things through rose colored glasses nor does he try to shade
the truth. All of his opinions are based on provable, documented fact.

While one can look at Ebay and find all manner of reworked, modified and
other defects, but there are some quite nice museum grade pieces to be had
but you have to know where to look.

I laud your search for excellence, as that has been my quest as well. I
have worked on a variety of gear from cheap car radios to $100,000 signal
generators to multi-million dollar television transmitters. McIntosh is
built better than 99% of anything out there. Put another way, what would
it gain you if you had silver bonded ceramic strips in your audio gear?
Nothing save for eye candy. As far as parts quality is concerned, I have
changed more .01 and .1 caps in Tektronix 500 series scopes than I have in
all other manufacturers equipment put together. Even the Tek 661 had it
share of problems with aging parts. When was the last time you were able
to purchase a front panel for a piece of equipment that was over 20 years
old? No other manufacturer that I know of that supports "legacy"
equipment to the extent that McIntosh does.

BTW, the new MC275 has a stainless steel chassis and gold plated ceramic
tube sockets. Would you not say that is good enough? The McIntosh
MDA1000 utilizes eight 24 bit DACs. Even the front panel illumination on
McIntosh equipment is measured and adjusted precisely for proper color and
intensity. Where does one draw the line? When is 'good enough' good
enough?

If you would like a preamp or amp built to your specifications using
silver bonded ceramic strips, gold plated ceramic sockets, Augat machined
pin gold sockets, stainless steel chassis machined from a solid block of
aerospace grade stainless, B+ delay relays and the like, let me know. I
could start building your amp or preamp next week. I will need a deposit
of $20,000 with the balance due upon delivery. Delivery will be in 180
days. You will have the audio equivalent of a Rolex with a lifetime
warranty just like a Rolex.

r

--
Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.