About 26 years ago, a friend of my grandfather’s retired and left his McIntosh MA-5100 to my grandfather who had no use for it. He gave it to my parents, who also had no use for it and called me while I was away at college to tell me that they had ‘this old no name stereo and we’re just going to throw it away unless you want it’. I told them to hang onto it and a few months later arrived home to find a literal McIntosh sitting on my bed.

Ever since, it’s powered my computer speakers and I’ve slowly built a system around it. Mr-7082 tuner , Marantz 6100 turntable, Dad’s old Technic’s cassette deck, Peachtree DAC that feeds my computer’s audio and the 200 disc Sony CD Changer into the McIntosh. About half of it sat on my desk.

Last Monday I came home from a trip to discover that the glass under the desk had exploded and half my system (The McIntosh half), was now littered across the floor and my MA-5100 was hanging from the power and RCA cables 2”’s above the hard tile floor. The front fascia was intact.

This isn’t just a stereo. I’ve had this thing for decades and it’s one of my most prized possessions. I’ve had it for decades. In the 90’s, when the Llama’s ass got whipped, this was the thing that whipped it. I’m more than a little sentimental about it.

I dropped her at the shop this Friday where they will hopefully return her back to her former glory over the coming weeks. The tape deck didn’t survive the fall, I didn’t fire the MR-7082 aside from checking to see if it lit up (I’d like to upgrade that anyways as it kinda sucks).

At the end of the day, this thing just refuses to go to a dumpster.