McIntosh Labs Taps Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir for Latest legacy ad

There are few things more powerful than legacy for a brand to highlight.  Of course, in order to tap legacy, you have to have some, which McIntosh Labs has in abundance after seven decades of audio manufacturing.  The brand have become experts in subtly reminding audio enthusiasts that “we were there” in some of musics biggest moments from Woodstock to Presidents. A McIntosh system was requested by George Harrison, late one evening when the former Beatle was in residence at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.  That very system was also what prompted the hotel to evict Harrison for playing too loudly, usually after midnight.

Bob Weir. Photo Credit: Jay Blakesberg

McIntosh was the sound system installed in the first ever Air Force One, the plane of the United States President.  In the 1950’s President Dwight D Eisenhower had McIntosh Labs MC40 vacuum tube amplifiers and a MR55A AM/FM tuner as the planes sound system.

It was a McIntosh MC240 amplifier that was used by Beach Boy, Brian Wilson as her created the masterpiece Pet Sounds in 1966 and of course, the Grateful Dead invented the Wall of Sound, a 28,000 watt distortion free concert sound system comprising of 48 McIntosh MC2300 amplifiers, arguably the system that changed the concert-going experience forever.

Beach Boy Brian Wilson with a McIntosh MC240 amplifier

For McIntosh’s latest nod to legacy, the company has collaborated with Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Dead in the creation of a campaign called “The Voice of Sound”. 73-year-old Weir has used McIntosh equipment for most of his career.  “It is sound how we track our journey, it feeds of soul.”  Here is the video that comes out of a collaboration of two legends; Weir and McIntosh.