Steven Sullivan wrote in message ...
Buster Mudd wrote:

Circa 1979 my roommate, an EE @ MIT, happened into a half dozen old
used McIntosh tube monoblock amps (I think the model was MC30...little
chrome 30 watt jobbers) that needed some TLC. After retubing & biasing
these amps, we brought them into the recording studio for extensive
listening & testing.

The results of both were elucidating:

- These amps measured between 8 & 10% 2nd harmonic distortion!

- And everyone who heard them loved the sound! So much so that my
roommate was able to sell off 4 of the amps for an order of magnitude
more money than he'd bought all 6 for.

No one ever accused these amps of being "broken". Everyone who bought
them considered them an "improvement" over whatever they previously
owned (my roommate kept 2 of the amps to replace his Dynaco 70, & we
both certainly agreed it was a major "improvement").

Was it "high fidelity"? Who cares?

Then again, the very fact that they were spiffy
little chrome McIntosh tube amps may have affected their judgement.
Looks and brand have such effects. It would have been interesting
to see which amp people would prefer in level-matched trials,
without knowing which one they were listening to. In that case
the sound would have been the deciding factor.

While I have no doubt the McIntosh brand added quite a bit of cache to
the eventual sell price, you will note I never used the word "spiffy".
In fact, these amps had apparently spent the previous year in the
trunk of a Buick, and looked it. No one who participated in the
listening evaluations mistook them for anything other than the pile of
tubes in desperate need of a refurb job that they were.