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McIntosh XRT2K Loudspeaker System

by January 09, 2006
Filed under: Loudspeakers

You want the most speakers you can get for your hard earned money? McIntosh's new flagship line array speaker system may be your ticket. At $40,000/ each and a total of 110 drivers per cabinet (roughly $363 per driver) this speaker would make King Kong proud.

XRT2K Loudspeaker System System Specifications

Se al ed Du al Column 3-Way

  • Six 12" Aluminum cone woofers (per side)
  • Sixty-four 2" titanium Midranges (per side)
  • Forty ¾" titanium tweeters (per side)
  • Tri-wire and tri-amp capabilities
  • Aluminum enclosure core
  • 8-Ohm impedance for compatibility
  • usable with up to 2,000 watts of power
  • can be driven with as little as 75 watts
  • Titanium tweeters for response to 45kHz
  • Anechoic Response 16Hz - 45kHz
  • Crossover Frequencies: 250Hz and 1.5kHz
  • MSRP $40,000 each
  • Shipping now

We spent a good deal of time listening to them at the show with various source materials. My most memorable listening session involved Pink Floyd The Wall with the Track "Hey You". The Mac's made this CD sound bigger than we have ever heard it and inspired me to dust off some of my old Floyd collection.

[PICT00200011] It was quite an impressive sight seeing these speakers tower over their behemoth MC2kW amplifiers 2kwatt power amplifiers and reminded me of my college days of working for high end dealer that sold McIntosh gear. This setup appeared to have enough power reserves to run a small nuclear power plant or the Chris tmas lights in Chevy Chases Chris tmas vacation.

Though these speaker didn't quite convey the intimacy or focus of say a traditionally well engineered two way system in a nearfield environment, they did maintain a very broad soundstage and endless dynamics. This was certainly a setup I was proud to witness and really helped revitalize what this company is best known for - uncompromised audio.

Here is the equipment list for everything else that was in this room:

MC2KW 2,000 Watt Monoblock Power Amplifier

  • Three mod ule s separating the power from the output
  • Two 1,000 watt power mod ule contains ½ of the b al anced circuitry complete with its own power supply resulting in double b al anced configuration
  • Sign al from the power mod ule s enters a double-wound, mirror image output transformer where each kilowatt of power is added canceling noise and distortion
  • B al anced and Unb al anced Inputs
  • Thru puts for Bi and tri-amping
  • Connections for 8, 4, and 2 ohms
  • 3 full sets of termin al s for tri-wiring
  • peak responding output meter
  • Input sensitivity 2.5V unb al anced; 5V b al anced
  • Dynamic Headroom: 2dB
  • Frequency response: +0, -0.25dB from 20Hz to 20kHz; +0, -3.0dB from 10Hz to 100kHz
  • Sign al to noise ration (A-weighted): unb al anced: 90dB (123dB below rated output); B al anced: 94dB (127dB below rated output)
  • MSRP $30,000 each
  • Shipping now

C1000 Configurable Tube/Solid-Ste Controller and Preamplifier

  • Tri Chassis with your choice of tube, solid state or both.
  • Low noise MM and MC Phono inputs in both tube and solid state mod ule
  • Fully B al anced Circuitry
  • Du al Mono mirror image design
  • 3 outputs per channel for tri-amping
  • Listen & record processor loops
  • Front panel ¼" headphone jack
  • Remote controllable
  • Peak responding output meters
  • Sign al to Noise Ratio: C1000P (solid state) High Level 100dB; Phono 88dB
  • Sign al to Noise Ratio: C1000T (tube) High Level 93dB; Phono 80dB
  • MSRP: C1000P: $9,000
  • MSRP: C1000T: $9,000
  • MSRP: C1000C: $8,000

MS300 300GB Music Server

  • Huge 300 GB Hard Drive
  • Integrated Web Interface Capabilities
  • Plays CD, CD-R, CD-R/W and MP3
  • Capable of Streaming Music Files Over a Home Network to Remote Locations on Ethernet Enabled Devices
  • MSRP: $5,100
  • Shipping now

MVP861 A/V Player

  • Plays CD, SACD, DVD, DVD-A, CD-R, CD-RW
  • Three 192/kHz/24 Bit D/A Converters deliver highest resolution sound these formats can deliver
  • Video incorporates12 Bit/108mHz DACs with progressive scan
  • Component, S-Video and Composite outputs
  • Spins CDs at 4 times regular speed and DVDs at 2 times storing data into an 8MG buffer memory al lowing multiple passes to extracting al l the data from even scratched or smudged discs
  • Dolby Digit al , DTS and Multi-Channel DVD-Audio and SACD decoders
  • Digit al Bass Management
  • Speaker C al ibration Adjustments
  • B al anced and Unb al anced an al og audio outputs
  • NTSC and PAL Video
  • RD232 Data Port
  • MSRP $4,100
  • Shipping now

MCD201 SACD/CD Player

  • Fixed and Variable Outputs
  • B al anced and Unb al anced outputs
  • Optic al and Coax Digit al Outputs
  • Data and IR input connections
  • Precision volume control for b al anced, unb al anced and headphone outputs
  • Plays CD, CD-R, CD-RW, SACD and MP3 discs with CD/SACD layer switching from stop mode with front panel button
  • Spins CDs at 4 times regular speed and DVDs at 2 times storing data into an 8MG buffer memory al lowing multiple passes to extracting al l the data from even scratched or smudged discs
  • MSRP $3,300
  • Shipping now

MDA1000 D/A Converter

  • Eight 24 bit Burr Brown digit al converters
  • Modifies music data stream from 16 bits to 24 bits and to a sampling rate of 768kKHz al l while still in the digit al domain
  • Seven digit al inputs:
    • 3 Coaxi al inputs on RCA jacks
    • 3 optic al inputs
    • 1 b al anced digit al in on XLR jack
  • B al anced XLR outputs
  • Unb al anced RCA An al og Outputs
  • Front Panel Volume control with option al bypass function
  • S/N Ratio a-weighted: better than 110dB
  • MSRP: $8,000
  • Shipping now

  • Technics turntable model SL-1200 mkII
  • Denon Cartridge 301II

For more information, visit http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/default.aspx

About the author:
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Gene manages this organization, establishes relations with manufacturers and keeps Audioholics a well oiled machine. His goal is to educate about home theater and develop more standards in the industry to eliminate consumer confusion clouded by industry snake oil.

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