McIntosh specifications

McIntosh Laboratory is an American manufacturer of audio and home cinema equipment.

Frank H. McIntosh was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1906 and turned 83 years old. McIntosh was an extremely musical person. He refused a scholarship to study music, he was much more interested in the technique of music reproduction. McIntosh studied mathematics and radio engineering, wrote columns on radio engineering for various newspapers and became an editor for the magazine "Popular Mechanics". The McIntosh company history began in the mid-1940s. Frank H. McIntosh had a consulting firm in Washington in 1945. The task was to test and procure high-quality technical equipment for radio and TV stations. He demanded from the suppliers of these devices high performance in conjunction with low distortions. Many amplifiers did not meet the requirements set for them. This was ultimately the impetus for Frank McIntosh to develop his own Hifi amplifiers. The quality of the amplifiers he later produced exceeded not only the requirements placed on them, but also the industry standard valid at that time. In order to be able to continue to meet these developments, Gordon Gow was hired by McIntosh in 1946 as an assistant to jointly produce an amplifier with an exceptional performance and set the standard for the audio industry. The result was the McIntosh 50W-1 power amplifier (50 watt sine wave with a frequency response of 20 to 20,000 Hz with less than 0.3% distortion). It contained McIntosh 's first patented circuit (patent 1949), the Unity Coupled Circuit Circuit. This technology is still in use today. The company McIntosh Laboratory Inc. was founded in 1949 with Frank McIntosh as president and Gordon Gow as vice president. Other employees were Maurice Painchaud, responsible for quality control and Sidney A. Corderman in the research and development department. The economy of the 50s was positively influenced, among other things, by the commercial use of TV and music playback. McIntosh quickly found his way into the emerging Hi-Fi market. In 1950, Gordon Gow became executive vice president and the McIntosh company produced the first preamplifier, the McIntosh AE-1. McIntosh launched the A116 power amplifier and the C108 preamplifier. 1952 McIntosh 's first loudspeaker system F100. in 1953, the MC30 power amplifier and the C4 preamplifier followed. in 1956 it was necessary to enlarge it due to the growth of the company. the company moved to its current location: 2 Chambers Street, Binghamton, NY. The production went ahead and in 1957 McIntosh 's first tuner, the FM/MW tuner McIntosh MR55, came on the market. The 60s were characterized by innovations and all devices from McIntosh got the famous front panel lighting which made the Hifi devices from McIntosh unmistakable. This design was very well received by buyers and has been maintained since then to this day. It is said that Gordon Gow suggested the appearance of the front panel and applied the typical McIntosh golden letters with ink after the design. The MI-2 FM Multipath display device was the first device with an all-glass front panel. In 1962, the collaboration of McIntosh and Dave O'Brien began. The McIntosh loudspeaker production started in 1967. Highlights from the 60s were the introductions of the first stereo power amplifier McIntosh MC240, the first tuner preamplifier with the Panloc mounting system, McIntosh MX110, the tuners MR67 and MR71, the first pure transistor product: the preamplifier McIntosh C24, the first transistor power amplifiers, MC250, MC2100, MC2505 and MC2105, the first transistor tuner preamplifier, the MX112 as well as McIntosh 's first receiver, the McIntosh MAC1500. At the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, a number of McIntosh amplifiers were used, among others (Mark Levinson also equipped the festival with his amplifiers). It is more than likely that Mc Intosh and Levinson met on this occasion. 1970 the first models of the McIntosh speaker range: ML1, ML2 and ML4. The McIntosh MR78 tuner was introduced in 1972 and is now famous as a timeless classic. McIntosh received another patent for the circuit design of the tuner in the same year. McIntosh received further patents for loudspeakers and equalizer systems as well as for the Power Guard® circuit. in 1973, Frank McIntosh decided to launch a separate receiver series under the name Stereotech, a so-called low budget series which was not to be sold under the name McIntosh . The first FM / MW stereo receiver was the Stereotech 1200, power 2 x 50 watts at 8 ohms. This was followed by the 1230 and 1270 models in 1975. The receivers were designed by McIntosh and built by FEC, Foster Electric Company, in Japan. However, there was no economic success and so production was stopped again in 1976.