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|   An Ebay Cautionary Tale, and an endorsement - Mac 1 arrives: | Dougman
Apr 17, 2001 11:47 PM | | Well, My McIntosh MC2120 amp arrived today. Barely. It was quite apparent looking at the horribly mangled box on my front porch, covered with "Contents Repackaged by the US Post Office" tape and stickers, that this was not going to be the type of arrival that I was hoping for. To make a long story short, this 60+ lb. Amplifier had merely been wrapped in a plastic bag and put into a single box, filled with foam peanuts, by my seller. While this type of packing might be adequate for a 10 pound item, it is no way sufficient for a 60 pound beast of a power amp, as it was free to move around inside the box, and obviously shifted amongst the foam peanuts in transit, knocked itself off of the shelf it was riding on, and went for a rockin roll, while bursting it's container. Upon opening the resealed crumpled box, I was greated by an MC2120 that looked like it had been hit with a sledgehammer on 4 different corners, including the two upper rear heatsinks, one of which had the back fins bent in around 1.5 inches, the other bent in around 1/2 inch. The right side of the face plate (3/16" cast aluminum, no less) had the last 1 inch of the top corner corner bent at around a 45 degree angle, and a more gradual bend on the bottom of the plate of perhaps 20 degrees.
And, since the plastic wrapping had been destroyed during the ordeal, the amp itself was just sitting loose among the peanuts, hundreds of which had lodged inside the fins of the heat sinks, or pieces of which somehow squeezed their way through the metal cages around the circuitry. Well, after removing the bottom plate and the metal cages, I spent about an hour with a knife and tweezers removing bits of foam peanuts from the amp's innards, many of which had caught on the various exposed terminal posts or soldered connections of the amp's circuit boards. After an hour of this, and a detailed visual inspection, I was satisfied that there were no cracked leads or solder joints, nor any loose connections, nor stray bits of foam peanut on any surface that might heat up in use, I put the hood back on and prepared myself for the worst. I connected up a set of speakers, and a tuner+preamp, and hit the power switch. Well, the front panel indicator light bulbs didn't go on, but all else is working great. It sounds great, despite it's very brutal battle scars. So, now, I'm in negotiation with the seller, to determine if he will credit me a portion of the purchase price, since I bought a MC2120 in excellent condition, and recieved one that spent too much time in direct contact with a concrete surface. And, the fact is that the U.S. post office contends that they received the item from Canada Post (the seller was in Ontario) already out of it's inadequate container. It is unclear even WHO would pay a claim if any shipper could be held responsible, especially when it was clearly NOT properly packed. So, barring a reasonable settlement from the seller, my only recourse will be to leave negative feedback. But, at least, I have a GREAT SOUNDING amplifier that is now an UNDENIABLE conversation piece. John Cameron Swayze would be proud of this baby.
BTW, it SOUNDS great. In conjunction with the Apt/Holman pre-amp, it is totally natural and transparent. Subtlety and invisibility is the only way to describe the sound quality of this tandem. The gear just recedes completely into the background, and lets the music come to the forefront. |
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