mcIntosh factory tour

[aKnyght]

last week i was in binghamton, ny and arranged to tour the mcIntosh laboratory factory. also, to help keep hi-fidelity audio alive and relevant, i brought along a family member and friend who are students at binghamton universtiy.

it was a great experience and we enjoyed ourselves immensely as we learned how mcIntosh creates their unique products. what really struck us was how they have designed / engineered their production procedures so that their products are still hand-built while at the same time utilizing automation to make things like circuit boards. here, the automation allows a level of precision to be realized that would not be possible otherwise - particularly, given many of the parts placed on the circuit boards are very small. larger parts and wire connections are still hand soldered.

also amazing is the manufacturing creativity and attention to detail and quality all along the way - especially notable here are the cases, glass face plates and transformers which are all made on-site. for example, the blue panel trademark lighting is now LED and each component is tested with a color analyzer and the LEDs are individually adjusted so that illumination has the exact RBG values that give that special mcIntosh blue glow. i suppose the specific RGB values here are a trade secret akin to the coke formula ;-)

the tour ended with a session in their listening room which was set up for two-channel and multi-channel listening - driven of course by multiple mc2kw amps. amazing sound as one would expect... you really have not heard pink floyd's the wall until you have heard it at concert level through their system! in terms of multi-channel - simply jaw dropping. no wonder here why they own this segment of the market.

finally, the most amazing thing i learned was that, soup-to-nuts, mcIntosh only has 150 employees - all but 10 of them in binghamton... it is astounding the breadth and quality of products coming out of such a small company that does not outsource manufacturing. certainly the most productive group of people anywhere.

here are a few pictures from the day...

[joeinid]

Thank you so much for sharing. Pretty awesome operation.

[Dizzie]

Thank you for the report and pictures. What does the Advantis machine do?

[UltraFast69]

Cool you had the chance to do that, an American Marvel, McIntosh is...


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[aKnyght]

Thank you for the report and pictures. What does the Advantis machine do?

the advantis machine populates the circuit boards with the various components... the blank green boards are fed into one side of the machine and then like a sewing machine the various components such as resistors, capacitors, etc. which are on spools/reels are then placed onto the boards very quickly and precisely. after complete, the boards then exit the machine and are sent to an adjacent machine where all the components are then soldered en-masse.

we were interested to learn that those machines are made by universal instruments which is only 3 miles down the road from the mcIntosh factory... pittsburgh is not the only post-industrial, river city working its way back via technology related companies, universities, etc.

here is a link to the advantis machine:

http://www.uic.com/solutions/surface-mount/

[Sean]

Awesome - thanks for sharing!


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