Does Mc Intosh make reference gear

Regarding origins of the high end, I would say it started to reach its peak back around 1970 or so with the introduction on the OHM A and F, large full range speakers capable of lifelike presentation and dynamics on a large scale. THat is of course when working correctly, which was often not the case. Things took off from there, thanks largely of course to Al Gore...:^).

Jgiacalo...I agree with you. I am at where I will stay ... with McIntosh.

In the beginning....

No Al did NOT however invent the Klipschorn or found ALtec or JBL, which is probably where the high end really started, with large high efficiency speakers that worked quite well with the tube amps that were predominant in the early years of high end audio.

Yep..Al Gore cleared the way for Spectron and got their patents approved for the first Class D amp in 1974.

YEs, tube amps were the dawn of high end audio civilzation, especially driving large high efficiency horn speakers.

THen came the middle ages of largely eh Class A/B SS amps that opened up some new doors in terms of getting bigger better sound out of smaller packages, but things tended to mostly muddle along for years.

Then came high efficiency Class D amps and the dawn of a new era. Class G came and went offering decent sound in a smaller package, but this was the real deal.....a path into the future.

Now we are at the dawn of a new era, the Class D amp era....all thanks mostly of course to that great inventor and humanitarian, Al Gore....

BTW, I think even McIntosh has come out with some new CLass D amp products of late that still looks like Mc gear. That Al Gore......