And Allpar Mod added: "It's a real shame that something with the McIntosh name is junk. I'm in to vintage audio and McIntosh home audio units from back in the day command big bucks and are considered the Rolls Royce of audio components."
In fact, they weren't only built by Clarion, but at the time Clarion owned McIntosh, so there's no telling what kind of inter/intra-company forces led to this. I wouldn't expect anything beyond Clarion quality in the digital portion, manufacture, etc., but I think that there's McIntosh design in the relevant audio sections. I've worked with their trad amplifiers; they are something special.
But I tell you, in the last few days since I got this thing going again I've been playing a handful of CDs that I thought I knew very well, and I'm hearing things - very subtle effects, a bit of echo, some cymbals - that I've never heard before on a car, home, or studio (I've radio DJed for many years) system. Let the haters hate, but I'm quite impressed by the sound.