I heard the $45,000 McIntosh XRT1K the other day in NYC.
The bass was full and rich but everything else wasn't impressive. Having so many drivers I thought they would produce an exciting sound but they sounded small and rather bland.
Maybe McIntosh should consider making only subwoofers.
Although I'm not sure, they appear to use 44 of these HiVi 2" drivers.
HiVi B2S 2" Shielded Aluminum Driver
As a DIY community, I assure you, we are not missing out.
The bass was full and rich but everything else wasn't impressive. Having so many drivers I thought they would produce an exciting sound but they sounded small and rather bland.
Maybe McIntosh should consider making only subwoofers.
Although I'm not sure, they appear to use 44 of these HiVi 2" drivers.
HiVi B2S 2" Shielded Aluminum Driver
As a DIY community, I assure you, we are not missing out.
Attachments
Gotta one-up you buddy.... I listened to the xrt2k last week.
Half a million when paired with amps and receiver junk....
Honestly the imaging and clarity was only a bit better than my xrt18s. The 18s are amazing.
That being said, the SNR was out of this world, and the clarity was incredible. Detail like guitarist skin on the frets (not the strings). Stuff like that. I was blown away. However, no matter how well these speakers measure, they just don't have depth.
I compared to a pair of magico speakers in the same room on a pair of octave jubilees, and the sound was singularly transporting.
If I had to describe the difference... it was like the xrt2ks (and my xrt18s ) are for criticizing music (cuz you can) and the magico's (like the ones I build) are for enjoying...
You know?
Half a million when paired with amps and receiver junk....
Honestly the imaging and clarity was only a bit better than my xrt18s. The 18s are amazing.
That being said, the SNR was out of this world, and the clarity was incredible. Detail like guitarist skin on the frets (not the strings). Stuff like that. I was blown away. However, no matter how well these speakers measure, they just don't have depth.
I compared to a pair of magico speakers in the same room on a pair of octave jubilees, and the sound was singularly transporting.
If I had to describe the difference... it was like the xrt2ks (and my xrt18s ) are for criticizing music (cuz you can) and the magico's (like the ones I build) are for enjoying...
You know?
bobthedespot, I just looked up the xrt18 and it looks like a much better design (with multiple Philips tweeters that I owned back in the day - which were excellent). I bet they have lots of air and detail.
I also heard a pair of $15,000 B&Ws in the same room that imaged beautifully. That speaker was at least built to a very high level of quality.
I'd like to hear Magico speakers.
I also heard a pair of $15,000 B&Ws in the same room that imaged beautifully. That speaker was at least built to a very high level of quality.
I'd like to hear Magico speakers.
Attachments
The magico's I listened to with the jubilee's were SO incredible. Just a transporting experience. - price showed it too. lol
My xrt18s are up for sale if anyone is looking for a pair. I can create a classified, and I can deliver the speakers/meet you half-way to swap within 400 miles or so of the east coast or the Mississippi river....
My xrt18s are up for sale if anyone is looking for a pair. I can create a classified, and I can deliver the speakers/meet you half-way to swap within 400 miles or so of the east coast or the Mississippi river....
The design of this speaker seems to be seriously flawed. It consists of an array of horizontally mounted d'Appolito configurations. This configuration can be made to work if mounted vertically, because then horizontal dispersion is quite good. However, on the vertical axis, it only has a minute listening window, probably no more than 20 degrees. with drivers of the size used in the McIntosh.
So, what in all likelihood is a horizontal listening window of at most 20 degrees will make these speakers only work right in one position in the room, and only after careful setup.
Well, perhaps if you pay that kind of money for speakers, you don't want to have others listening in on your hard earned sound, so it might have been a design criterium.
So, what in all likelihood is a horizontal listening window of at most 20 degrees will make these speakers only work right in one position in the room, and only after careful setup.
Well, perhaps if you pay that kind of money for speakers, you don't want to have others listening in on your hard earned sound, so it might have been a design criterium.
In my experience line-arrays don't sound very detailed and the sound doesn't have great depth. Also, they don't sound very dynamic, they sound very friendly 'soft' instead. I think it is related to the time-smeared impulse response.
Don't get me wrong though, I love line-arrays! I own a pair of floor-to-ceiling arrays myself and I very much enjoy how they get out of the way and just let you enjoy the music. They sound very effortless and natural. Unlike point-sources, there are no discrete very early floor and ceiling reflections to give away the loudspeaker's location. I think that is why they don't have that generic loudspeakers-in-a-small-room-sound.
The mcIntosh speakers have a crossover at 2 khz. That is higher than I would like, given a horizontal inter-driver distance of approximately 20 cm. I wonder if simply leaving out the tweeters and using only one vertical line of full-range drivers would make for a better speaker.
Don't get me wrong though, I love line-arrays! I own a pair of floor-to-ceiling arrays myself and I very much enjoy how they get out of the way and just let you enjoy the music. They sound very effortless and natural. Unlike point-sources, there are no discrete very early floor and ceiling reflections to give away the loudspeaker's location. I think that is why they don't have that generic loudspeakers-in-a-small-room-sound.
The mcIntosh speakers have a crossover at 2 khz. That is higher than I would like, given a horizontal inter-driver distance of approximately 20 cm. I wonder if simply leaving out the tweeters and using only one vertical line of full-range drivers would make for a better speaker.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.