McIntosh Teams with Neil Young to Launch Universal Disc Player

You could say that Neil Young loves iconic brands.

The classic rocker's primary guitar is a vintage Gibson Les Paul and is rig reportedly includes vintage Fender tweed amps. The rock-and-roll Hall of Famer's latest affiliation with an iconic brand now includes the consumer electronics manufacturer McIntosh.

McIntosh Laboratory, has recently announced that it is teaming up with Reprise Records and the Neil Young Archives for a promotion tied to its first-ever Universal Audio/Video Blu-ray Player: the MVP881 BR (SRP is $8,000).

As part of the limited-time promotion, purchasers of the McIntosh MVP881 BR Blu-ray player, which ships this month, will receive a free in-package "Disc Zero" promotional disc that features selected tracks from the “Neil Young Archives Volume 1” 10-disc Blu-ray boxed set, along with a coupon (valid through 2011) that affords them a $25 discount off of the purchase of the box set.

McIntosh president Charlie Randall says that it was a natural fit to work with Young because of the musician's preference to explore new audio technologies.

“Our alliance with Reprise Records and Neil Young for this Blu-ray promotion is truly a match made in audiophile heaven. Both McIntosh and Neil Young share a longstanding devotion to high-quality sound, and we’ve both been strong advocates of Blu-ray, which offers music lovers a brand new level of audio quality and performance," boasts Randall.

"To create the MVP881 Blu-ray player, McIntosh engineers and designers brought to the drawing table a combination of world-class expertise, technological virtuosity and sheer enthusiasm for their craft ... [these are] all qualities that are reflected in Neil Young’s music and life over the years. The result is a new type of component that reproduces music in a more realistic and emotionally connecting way. We’re proud and honored to help bring this groundbreaking product to market through an alliance with Reprise Records and Neil Young.“

Box Set Covers 1960s and Early 1970s Material
“Neil Young Archives Volume 1” is the first volume of the Neil Young Archives series of box sets and it was produced by the artist himself. "Volume 1" covers the period from his earliest recordings with the Squires in Winnipeg in 1963 to his classic 1972 album, “Harvest.” Some of the studio and live tracks featured in the box set include songs from Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Neil Young with Crazy Horse.

This 10-disc set holds a total of 128 tracks, all presented in high resolution 24-bit/96Khz stereo PCM quality sound. The set features nearly 60 previously unreleased songs, versions, mixes and rare tracks. The set also includes the full-length feature film “Journey Through the Past,” as well as a 238-page hardbound “journal” featuring Neil Young’s childhood photos, memorabilia, clippings recollections and more.

Source Device Lives Up to its Name
The McIntosh MVP881 BR is a single source component offering universal compatibility with just about all today’s video and audio disc formats, including Blu-ray, Super Audio CD (SACD), DVD-Audio DVD-A), standard CDs and DVDs.

McIntosh says the “dreadnaught style” component features custom fabricated steel and aluminum casework with compartmentalized sub-structures that inhibit resonance while shielding sensitive audio circuits. Highlighting the player's isolation design elements is an all-metal disc mechanism that is set in a heavy, damped base. McIntosh explains that this design provides for a quiet-running mechanism that is said to accurately read and playback disc data.

Other features include a cast-aluminum disc tray, an SD card reader, an RS-232C interface and an Ethernet connection for BD-Live content and future software updates.