Mcintoshaudio.com experience

Hi

I was in the market for McIntosh system. I tried these guys out.
The experience was very stressful. I don't know what your guys experience is but I heard good things. It was my first Mac system i was building.

I bought a glass face from them worked very well, told me how to install it. They were nice so I thought make big purchase.
I bought something on layaway that was over a grand. I had a small McIntosh system, i called them during seeing if they would accept any trade in. They declined. I Originally told them i would pay lay away early. They gave till December, I said it would be paid off early September or asap. I was selling gear. I did call ask questions in good faith, about spec's how it work with my speakers etc.. Few times.

I heard a tube amp MC240 i liked it better then mc2125. Considering they didn't accept any trade ins, I Traded locally for one.
I called them up just asked if the transistor preamp C30 i got on lay away would sound good with it. MC240

That when things started to get negative even though he was acting nice about it. Told me because I was calling as much as I did 3-4 times, he thought the transaction would become sour... Huh... I was just kinda of bewildered and shocked he was telling me this. He recommended I cancel the transaction it would save us both time.
All i wanted to know was if a c30 would work with a mc240. I honestly don't know how I pushed his wrong buttons.

He said he could give me cashier check I didn't even ask for a refund.
He mentioned c30 would not work well at all with mc240. I didn't know what to say to all of this. I didn't want to cancel the transaction. I mentioned mx110 which he had 3-4 listed for sale, I didn't know what else to say, i really didn't want to cancel or waste his time, thought of something else to buy. He told me he was backed up not taking orders. He told me I could find one on my own, he told me what to look for, kinda nice.... Even though my heart was still on C30, he really pushed for the refund.
I didn't know what to say after that told me i would think about the refund that he recommended.

I was going to pay off the c30 this week. I'm not going to push someone, next day I told him I would accept his recommended refund.
I felt bad about the whole thing. I told him a resource for custom multi caps.
He quickly took the info, thanked me.

Monday, He e-mailed me a reply to e-mail i sent to him asking for picture of a mx110, older e-mail i send. He said he could in a week. From last weeks conversation he said he wouldn't sell me one because he was backed up. I thanked him in the e-mail, told him he didn't have to and just asked if he sent the refund out. Just curious, keep a look out in the mail.

He replied short temped message to partly in bold.

That my experience. I'm not saying anything negativity, honestly I consider most of my selling trading equipment personal make a lot of friends doing it.
I guess I felt more hurt after this then anything. Esp hearing all the good things about this place.

I did end up mc240 and mx110. Which I am going to recap soon. Just too bad. Honestly i would have just bought a c30 from him if he said yes it would work well with the mc240.

I guess I am looking if i crossed the line? Crappy situation.

Local shops here everyone is nice. I have have all local audio shops owners personal cells. One of them mac reseller. never had an issue.

Shame you had a bad experience. Sometimes the smallest, most insignificant things can set people off. Glad you ended up getting the MX110 elsewhere and thanks for sharing your story.

I am not familiar with or had any dealing with Mcintosh Audio. I guess he is used to dealing with customers who know what they want and his only function is to handle the VISA transaction. His prices seem really high too. A lot of people here just love AC. Did you try them?

Never heard of this outfit.

I have no idea what set him off. :sigh:

I tried audio-classics, their prices are little high. I did order a input adjustment knob for mx110 and they had ordered it very quickly and price was good! When I call them with questions there always nice, and just strait to the point.

I feel like a lot of smaller online sellers, get offended by questions, like your disrespecting their items, or wasting their personal time.

I'm happy with my new stuff. Waiting for the MX110 in the mail. Ordered some caps for the mc240. Here a pic of mc240

Eh, not sure why he got so defensive maybe he had insider knowledge about that pre and was concerned it might not mate well with your amp and didn't want to ruin his reputation... but to immediately suggest a refund is a bit strange. Chalk it up and move on.

I just ordered a Face Plate for my 2205 from Tom Manley and he is a real nice guy and very knowledgeable when it comes to Mcintosh gear. I think Terry DeWick and Tom are affiliated in some way they share the same web page.

They took a couple months off to have a vacation and then catch up on back orders. At the time the site said there was an 80 day back log. Now the site says 14 to 15 week (105 days) backlog. I sent my Mx110 to him and it arrived on 8/4. Communication has been minimal, I sent one email a week back and have not heard a reply. I know it got there because FedEx sent me a delivery notice. Terry's rep is strong enough that I can deal with a wait and lack of communication. It would have been nice to get an email acknowledging the receiving of the mx110. His site does say that he doesn't open the box until he starts work. first in / first out sort of thing. I can respect that.

I'm rebuilding my MC240 now. I have a thread running which may be worth a read through if you are also rebuilding yours. The link is in my contents page, which is linked in my signature below.

Hey strat10, Before this I ordered a mx112 glass from him also. Very smooth, he was very knowledgeable. Usually I buy small things, then if the service is good I go to bigger things.

I talked some local shops about C30 and MC240 told me it would work just fine, no reason why it shouldn't sound good. I don't know his reasoning. :scratch2:

Hey sxty8goats

Sweet we have the same combo. I'll definitely check out your restore.

I ordered some can caps and orange drops 716p. My right channel distorts at high volume and it just weaker in general on mc240. I pretty sure can caps are bad. I did tube rolling on it be sure wasn't a tube. Same result

I'm sure it the caps.

I've spoken to Tom Manley twice. Very patient and knowledgeable. Answered all of my questions without the slightest bit of attitude. I purchased a few small items from him for a couple of restorations. Never had a problem.

I'd chalk it up to a bad day and move on.

I recently had a parallel experience. I was selling a cosmetically beautiful fisher receiver that needs a total rebuild. Talked with the buyer extensively, through nine phone calls and an almost two hour visit. We discussed repair kits, the good local tube techs, the best of the national techs, and the best route to take.

The buyer is doing the exact opposite of what he indicAted when he bought the amp, which isn't surprising, as he was all over the map with questions.

Inexperienced buyers can be poor owners through no fault on their part, or wrong expectations. I have seen dealers avoid such a sale.

Honestly I already, was buying the preamp, just asked if it would sound good with mc240 amp. He just talked about refund, told me I was an issue......

I never told him i changed my mind. I never went back on my contract with him.
He heard that I got mc240.After that He wanted no business of mine.
He had $275 out of $1400.

I tired best to keep a sale, he made me so uncomfortable about it, so i gave up. I would of paid for this week.

I just bought mx110 form a different person.

Inexperienced buyers can be poor owners?

I don't know how you assume I am an Inexperienced buyer? I buy gear, sell gear and fix my own gear.

Your example is way off. I knew what i wanted, I had paid, seller who wanted me to cancel the sale because, he has the issue with me, either by a few questions something or something else.

marantz1974 said:

:

Hey sxty8goats

Sweet we have the same combo. I'll definitely check out your restore.

I ordered some can caps and orange drops 716p. My right channel distorts at high volume and it just weaker in general on mc240. I pretty sure can caps are bad. I did tube rolling on it be sure wasn't a tube. Same result

I'm sure it the caps.

Click to expand...

Mine was DOA on power up so the first thing I did was rebuild the power supply. That brought her back to life but I got an occasional pop from her as though a dusty record was playing.

I'm in the process of re capping the remainder of the bumbulbees and swapping out the resistors. It's been read that the resistors can drift out of spec but everyone I've tested has been in spec except one. A couple have been close.

Hey sxty8goats I had a 65 goat with tri power bored out to a 403 with all the trimmings the 68 was to heavy it couldn't keep up with the older goats but they were cool looking for their time but if you wanted to go fast 64,65 goats was the way to go and green was the color back in the day for 68.:thmbsp:

marantz1974 said:

Honestly I already, was buying the preamp, just asked if it would sound good with mc240 amp. He just talked about refund, told me I was an issue......

I never told him i changed my mind. I never went back on my contract with him.
He heard that I got mc240.After that He wanted no business of mine.
He had $275 out of $1400.

I tired best to keep a sale, he made me so uncomfortable about it, so i gave up. I would of paid for this week.

I just bought mx110 form a different person.

Inexperienced buyers can be poor owners?

I don't know how you assume I am an Inexperienced buyer? I buy gear, sell gear and fix my own gear.

Your example is way off. I knew what i wanted, I had paid, seller who wanted me to cancel the sale because, he has the issue with me, either by a few questions something or something else.

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Marantz, from your own statement, you are putting together your first McIntosh system. While you obviously have other experience, doing something for the first time, where you are asking a LOT of questions, qualifies you as a novice in some respects to the specific gear you are targeting.

Sellers generally get very cold feet when they see a pattern emerge where they have been burned before. It might be the same words, questions, behaviour, or an overall feeling. If multiple red flags get raised, most sellers and dealers would rather start over than getting burned again.

And yes, an inexperienced owner that does not know a piece of gear well, or has not heard how a preamp interacts with another amp, could be holding expectations that do not get realized. Like all other brands of gear, there is a lot of McIntosh gear for sale, and for some the cause is expectations that were not met. We all have been there at least once.

sxty8goats said:

They took a couple months off to have a vacation and then catch up on back orders. At the time the site said there was an 80 day back log. Now the site says 14 to 15 week (105 days) backlog. I sent my Mx110 to him and it arrived on 8/4. Communication has been minimal, I sent one email a week back and have not heard a reply. I know it got there because FedEx sent me a delivery notice. Terry's rep is strong enough that I can deal with a wait and lack of communication. It would have been nice to get an email acknowledging the receiving of the mx110. His site does say that he doesn't open the box until he starts work. first in / first out sort of thing. I can respect that.

I'm rebuilding my MC240 now. I have a thread running which may be worth a read through if you are also rebuilding yours. The link is in my contents page, which is linked in my signature below.

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I have no affiliation with Terry.
However I am certain that many felt his cut-off time for receiving equipment before he went on vacation did not apply to them. Hence the additional time now before it gets on the bench.
Terry does the best, most affordable work on pieces that, quite honestly, few would even try to repair/restore.
I have sent many pieces to him and his estimate for when it arrives on the bench is very accurate. I always take his estimate, add a week for travel to his shop and expect to receive an email from him then.
Additionally, I always have a piece of equipment that 'understudies' for the piece I send him; so I am not high and dry until I get it back from him.
Patience, patience, patience...

Hey Dave

While agree with your statement as before It does not apply to me. I did not ask him many questions.
I asked him about 2 trade in which I sold anyway. I ask him how the mc240 and c30 would sound together. That's it. I don't see what the issue would be. I've asked many more question to other reseller they were always nice . I have never had a problem other then odd eBay people. Even if let's say I didn't like the performance it is my choice I could easily sell it. As said before I sell and buy and repair stuff all the time. What ever the seller felt was out of line. I never did anything show a red flag. It was quite the opposite. I know gear, how something sounds is all opinion. Recapping a hh Scott amp is same as recapping McIntosh amp. Maybe easier. Thank you for your insight to an abusive uninformed buyer who is not me.
I know what you mean though I felt like I really didn't do anything wrong. He really nice before i mentioned mc240. It was a shock, i was really looking forward to buy c30 from him.
I really did try. I'm a nice guy, I don't understand what he saw, really bummed me out.

Hey sxty8goats

Nice! I'm going to do the power supply first also. I'll post some pics too once get stuff started.
I got some custom can caps made. Hoping ill get some caps in the mail soon!

sheltie dave said:

Marantz, from your own statement, you are putting together your first McIntosh system. While you obviously have other experience, doing something for the first time, where you are asking a LOT of questions, qualifies you as a novice in some respects to the specific gear you are targeting.

Sellers generally get very cold feet when they see a pattern emerge where they have been burned before. It might be the same words, questions, behaviour, or an overall feeling. If multiple red flags get raised, most sellers and dealers would rather start over than getting burned again.

And yes, an inexperienced owner that does not know a piece of gear well, or has not heard how a preamp interacts with another amp, could be holding expectations that do not get realized. Like all other brands of gear, there is a lot of McIntosh gear for sale, and for some the cause is expectations that were not met. We all have been there at least once.

Click to expand...

This makes some sense. Sometimes when I get a whole raft of questions that ought to be basic knowledge for a particular high end audio product or older vehicles, or... certain types of questions, I feel it better just to not reply and wait for the next buyer as there are just certain types of customers that drag along behind you long after a sale and can cause problems later on.

strat10 said:

Hey sxty8goats I had a 65 goat with tri power bored out to a 403 with all the trimmings the 68 was to heavy it couldn't keep up with the older goats but they were cool looking for their time but if you wanted to go fast 64,65 goats was the way to go and green was the color back in the day for 68.:thmbsp:

Click to expand...

Mine was green, and a bit extra heavy, she was a drop top. I miss that car.