Thanks for the detailed response. Always eager to learn. I have nothing against Apple technology and design but I am highly skeptical of Apple's questionable business ethics, e.g. entering into music business against the settlement agreement with Apple Corps, Cisco's IPhone infringement you mentioned or the way IMac was advertised ("millions of colors" when it was capable of only 250K) or how owners whose Macbooks had faulty logic boards were treated.
As of McIntosh audio equipment, it was considered "doctors and lawyers stereo" since 1950s a and one of the better known American brands worldwide due to no-nonsense design and good value for money. Their core products were reasonably priced, 1/4 to 1/2 of 1984 Mac sticker price.
Consumer brand perception today is way different from what it was in 1982. Today, Apple brand is #6 on the list and giants from 1982 are nowhere in sight.
The disputed MacBook Pros and later 3nd Generation 20" iMacs involved in the two lawsuits actually could and did produce millions of colors... just not the 16.7 million discrete shades that an 8 bit display can provide that some thought was implied.
Apple used a sub-pixel brightness (Frame Rate Control) dithering technique, rapidly shifting a sub-pixel between two of the 64 possible shades on each of the three sub-pixel color diodes many times per second to simulate the shades that the discrete digital colors could not display constantly. With human persistence of vision, it was possible to display a perceived millions colors. If I recall correctly, the number of dithered shades was somewhere around 16.2 million colors. Of course the 1024 x 768 MacBookPro display that was in dispute at the time was capable of showing only 786,432 pixels at any one time. The 20" iMac display was capable of 2,304,000 pixels.
Apple did not advertise 16.7 million colors, or 24bit "Trucolor" as many of the other LCD companies did when reporting the capabilities of their 6 bit LCD screens, instead opting for the more accurate "millions of colors."
One of the lawsuits was settled out of court, the other was dismissed when Apple provided expert information showing that the 6bit displays could indeed produce millions of colors.
Their core products were reasonably priced, 1/4 to 1/2 of 1984 Mac sticker price.
When I culled out the older models, I don't find your 1/4 to 1/2 Mac pricing for the 1982-1985 production McIntosh products from your own link. Instead I find prices varying on the two pages for those production years from $1199 up for a single component (two channel amplifiers) of a multi-component system. This unit is hardly "reasonably priced" when in 1984 you could buy a top of the line Sony or Pioneer complete system for that same $1200.
By the way, thanks for the McIntosh history link. I got curious and did some more exploring. I did find on the loudspeaker pages some 1982-1985 model speakers that went from $199 (for a single bookshelf sized speaker of a pair) to speakers for $28,450 (with almost $14,000 of that for Rosewood and polyurathane trim... since Oak, Walnut and Ash versions of the same speaker hardware were almost $14K)... those prices are at least for a pair of speakers.