Monthly Archives: January 2019

The day that McIntosh jumped the shark…

Yes, it finally happened.

McIntosh has jumped the shark.

Known for decades as a manufacturer of power amplifiers, preamplifiers, tuners and integrated amps (with a few speakers along the way), McIntosh was not into the source end of audio equipment. They have apparently added DACs and digital sources in recent years, and have only added turntables amidst the vinyl resurgence.  Their last ridiculous turntable model used a pointless blue meter on the front. Why?  Because McIntosh.  It served no other purpose than branding.

This latest, however, is typical of the lame “lifestyle” products out there today. This is an all-in-one unit. Preamplifier (with tubes…more about those in a moment), phono stage and power amplifier. And it even has a remote. And Bluetooth.  And additional inputs on the back.

And just what is up with those tubes jutting up out of the plinth?  Seriously??  So if we mishandle a record (let’s face it–we’ve all done this), we have these nice tube cages all nice and in the way so we have even more chance to fumble our records. And how is anyone going to properly align a cartridge with all that junk in the way?  I would hope they are removable.  And I also would hope that sickening green glow could be shut off. To its credit, there is no fugly blue meter on the front of this abomination.

The pricetag is typical McIntosh.  Thing is, McIntosh apparent is pushing this to the 1%-ers who hear that McIntosh is a “high end product” from their peers at the country clubs and $1,000/round golf courses, the ones who can’t be arsed to set up their own system and want a fancy trinket for their etagéres.  While most hipsters aren’t well-heeled, even they would avoid this pretentious addition to the turntable world.  (After all, the hipsters already had their Runwell, which apparently didn’t sellwell and likely won’t endwell since the hipsters moved moved to dualwell, aka cassettes, because vinyl became too mainstream for their precious existence.)

See, here’s the thing. We live in a disposable society.  The precious few who would buy this, who aren’t even remotely in McIntosh’s target market, will likely use this to stream MP3s from their phones. And occasionally play a scratchy old record from grad school. If the turntable breaks, the amplifier quits, or even if the tubes wear out, they’ll give it away, or throw it in the trash, and promptly replace it with another expensive trinket, this time without that pesky old turntable.

For anyone else, what happens if the power amp fails?  Or the bluetooth radio goes haywire?  Or what if the motor dies in the turntable?  They have to find someone who will repair it, or they are stuck with an expensive doorstop.  All-in-one lifestyle products may look good on paper, but the failure of any one component renders them useless, and the inability to upgrade any one piece gives it limited utility.  On top of it, you can’t even upgrade. What if you need more power to drive larger speakers? What if a new digital format comes along? Yep, your stuck with what you bought.

A person can do so much better if they buy a proper turntable, integrated amp and speakers, with a digital source tacked on or even an old CD player.  If one part fails, replace it–your other components are still good. Need to upgrade your digital source? Go ahead. Power amp not cutting it?  Trade up!

Remember, too, back in the 70s, an all-in-one record player/tuner/tape player was typically regarded as very low end playback equipment. Think about it.

So the all-in-one concept is somewhat flawed. But what is even more flawed is that now, in 2019, McIntosh has finally dipped into the realm of lifestyle products. I never liked the McIntosh sound (I have long found them to be harsh and mechanical sounding, although I’ve surprisingly never had a chance to hear their tube amplifiers), but I have always respected their position in the marketplace, and appreciate their longevity. Back before they were corporate owned, they had a certain charm about them.  But today, it feels like this type of product came straight from the corporate marketing department. This does not represent McIntosh at its best. It is more a knee-jerk reaction to market pressures.  Hopefully this thing dies a slow death. They deserve better.

I could lambaste Pro-Ject for doing the same (yes, they also have an all-in-one turntable), but more because they keep churning out more and more models and variations, rather than improving and focusing on a smaller lineup of turntables, and getting their quality control shaped up. They have all but abandoned the high-end market for lifestyle and novelty turntables.  (A “Yellow Submarine” turntable? Are you f**king kidding me??)

So take a good long look at this McIntosh turntable. If it lasts out the year, I would be surprised. No well heeled audiophile will touch an all-in-one turntable for this much money. The hipsters and millenials can’t afford it. Where’s the market?  Well, um, there really isn’t one.

RIP, MTI100. It was nice knowing you.

Using the LG Magic Remote with the Martin Logan Motion Vision Soundbar

I lucked into a good deal on a lightly used Martin Logan Motion Vision soundbar.  The flaw in my new LG TV is that the digital output is constant, not variable via the remote control.  I did not want the soundbar in this application to require an extra remote and a list of instructions for others to operate.  I considered a universal remote, but, the Magic Remote offers a cursor mode that is most helpful. Plus, it also works wirelessly.  More on that shortly.

The soundbar has a learning mode–you can teach it the IR signals from your remote.  I went to the task of setting the volume and mute buttons, and it seemed to work OK.  Yet I was trying to adjust the volume and nothing was happening on the soundbar.  I tried programming again when the TV was on but this time the learning commands failed.

I soon realized that LG’s Magic Remote operates in IR mode when the TV is off, but goes into wireless mode when the TV is on.  Was there a way to disable the wireless mode on the remote?  None that I could find.

Digging around on Google, I finally located a possible solution via the AVSForum–there was a way this forum member had accessed a menu on his LG OLED TV to add a soundbar.  I had no such menu.

Or rather…I actually did have such a menu.  LG hides this behind the “STB PWR” button, which is for using a set top box (like you would get from a cable company).  When you press this button, the TV goes into a setup mode where you can pick various peripherals to set up, including soundbars.

Since there is no support for the Martin Logan soundbar, the trick here is to pick any of the listed soundbars, but then go back to the learn mode on the soundbar and have it learn the remote’s IR signals.  The act of choosing the external soundbar sets the remote into IR mode for the volume and mute buttons.  Once I did that and programmed the remote, we now have remote volume control!  The soundbar has a function where it will turn on when it receives a signal from the TV via the optical digital input, so even the power is being handled.

The only drawback is that the remote is glacial in its volume adjustment speed–it ticks up or down at about two levels per second, and the soundbar has 100 possible levels.  Thankfully I don’t tweak the volume too often.