My Mc275 quit working!

[garyrc]

Good News:  McIntosh has a sterling reputation for being relatively trouble free.

Bad news:  There are always exceptions.

 

Good News: McIntosh is famed for standing behind their products.

Bad News: None.

 

I knew a McIntosh dealer with an authorized McIntosh repair station.   A guy brought in a pair of mono McIntosh Amps, one MC 30 and one MC 40 that had been in the below grade basement of his family's summer home.  Somehow, the swimming pool ruptured and the power amps, on the basement floor, sat under chlorinated water until it evaporated and/or seeped in.  The following summer, when the family went back, they found 1/2 inch tall white stalagmite-like mineral growths all over the floor, and the beautiful chrome (or Ferrochromium plating, or whatever) parts of their McIntoshes were completely corroded.  The dealer took them into the back room and hung them up on a couple of hooks, so the little bit of remaining water could drain out.  He asked his young assistant to rotate them periodically, then towel dry them.  Later they replaced a few caps that looked bad, and replaced all of the tubes.  They tested fine, and sounded fine!  By that time, the amp's owner decided he would graduate to the MC 275, so the dealer moved the corroded ones at a rock bottom price (after demoing them, of course). 

 

In the early '60s, The McIntosh Clinic would come around to authorized dealers once a year, and test amps the public would bring in -- McIntosh, or not -- for free.  If someone's amp was not working up to specs, they would futz around with it, adjusting bias, etc., changing a tube or two, and if it wasn't a McIntosh, and the repair was quick and easy, they would do it for free, but the store would charge the customer for tubes and other parts.  If the amplifier was a McIntosh, they would bring it up to specs at absolutely no cost, including tubes, usually on the spot, no matter how long it had been out of warranty.  I saw them do this to a mono amp that -- I think -- was a 1950 model.  They started by (dramatically) throwing away all of the tubes, visually inspecting the amp, then going through it with instruments.  I'd say it took them about 1/2 hour, or less.  It was the best advertising in the world!  Alas, the Clinic is no more.  I think the reliability of solid state -- or a modern business model -- killed it.