The biggest omission from the McIntosh RS100 & MB50..

[o0OBillO0o]

Recently, McIntosh introduced two innovative and interesting products; the RS100 wireless loudspeaker and MB50 wireless media bridge.

Please watch the short YouTube video and you can hear McIntosh's Ron Cornelius describe some of their home theater and wireless products.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymIvdG7qMdA[/ame]

BUT

There is no included ethernet port, on the RS100 and MB50, for reliable and consistent data!





It's not the end of the world, but in my opinion, for this price point ($1000 and $2000, respectively) and McIntosh's level of design, this is an omission I would have not made. 802.11g/n "Wifi" is not as robust (interference, signal strength, data integrity) as wired CAT6e Ethernet cable.

I understand, today, "wireless" means, "WiFi" and a wire to plug the product into the wall. Lets hope the RS200 and MB55 aka future product iterations include Ethernet.

[VintageMac]

I have an RS100 in my bathroom. I ran CAT-7 to it from my router and then used an Ethernet to USB adapter - and it works great!

[crwilli]

Interesting hearing him state they have a two tier product strategy. A base model such as the MX122 and then a more audio/videophile model like the MX160. I suppose there are other examples like the c2600 and c1100.

But I don't really feel the C2600 or the MX122 are base models at many thousands of dollars. However, everything is relative.

[JWJW]

Originally Posted by VintageMac

I have an RS100 in my bathroom. I ran CAT-7 to it from my router and then used an Ethernet to USB adapter - and it works great!

How does it sound? I'm considering buying one. Thx.

[o0OBillO0o]

Originally Posted by VintageMac

I have an RS100 in my bathroom. I ran CAT-7 to it from my router and then used an Ethernet to USB adapter - and it works great!

well, that's good to hear. Still buying an adaptor is not ideal, to me, than just having real Ethernet.

Thanks, I think you solved this one.

[VintageMac]

"How does it sound? I'm considering buying one."

It sounds wonderful. I am feeding it with the Ethernet connection to the USB port and use DTS Play-Fi. Then I am also feeding the auxillary input with the output from a SONOS bridge. This way I can either stream from the internet or use my own SONOS playlists, etc.

I'm not fond of the Play-Fi system after using SONOS for years. SONOS just works beautifully. Play-Fi is much more ridgid and requires your music library to meed their expected locations. The interface is also a little funky to use (especially compared to the SONOS).

Using it as a SONOS speaker is great. It sounds much better than a SONOS 5.

And, it has a beautiful gloss black finish with the blue meter.

Larry

[JBT]

Originally Posted by VintageMac

"How does it sound? I'm considering buying one."

It sounds wonderful. I am feeding it with the Ethernet connection to the USB port and use DTS Play-Fi. Then I am also feeding the auxillary input with the output from a SONOS bridge. This way I can either stream from the internet or use my own SONOS playlists, etc.

I'm not fond of the Play-Fi system after using SONOS for years. SONOS just works beautifully. Play-Fi is much more ridgid and requires your music library to meed their expected locations. The interface is also a little funky to use (especially compared to the SONOS).

Using it as a SONOS speaker is great. It sounds much better than a SONOS 5.

And, it has a beautiful gloss black finish with the blue meter.

Larry

That's impressive. I have an older version of the Sonos 5 setup in my kitchen and it sounds great!!

[o0OBillO0o]

Originally Posted by VintageMac

"How does it sound? I'm considering buying one."

It sounds wonderful. I am feeding it with the Ethernet connection to the USB port and use DTS Play-Fi. Then I am also feeding the auxillary input with the output from a SONOS bridge. This way I can either stream from the internet or use my own SONOS playlists, etc.

I'm not fond of the Play-Fi system after using SONOS for years. SONOS just works beautifully. Play-Fi is much more ridgid and requires your music library to meed their expected locations. The interface is also a little funky to use (especially compared to the SONOS).

Using it as a SONOS speaker is great. It sounds much better than a SONOS 5.

And, it has a beautiful gloss black finish with the blue meter.

Larry

Larry...... Good review!

Interesting comments of Sonos vs Play-Fi. Sonos is a much more mature product and most likely has a greater user base. The Sonos Play:5 can really rock and fill a kitchen with music, so that's another plus for the RS100, based on your comments.

/break/

My next "dig" on the MB50 & RS100 products, and you wrote critical thoughts too- "Rigid", is using DTS Play-Fi as the mode of audio transport.

Sure, DTS Play-fi can do 24bit/192KHz PCM, today only digital downloads support that high bit depth and sample rate. Today, music is streamed at 16bit/44KHz. Further, there is much to discuss that one can perceive the difference between 16 bit vs 24 bit audio, assuming the same master, while sitting in the bathroom listening to your RS100.

From the User Guide:

Critical Listening Mode

The Play-Fi App supports the native sound resolu- tion formats of the music played. When the sound format is high resolution, the sound is normally down-sampled to insure proper Wi-Fi Streaming Capability with the most common wireless network hardware. In the Play-Fi App there is a Critical Listening Mode which keeps the original sound resolution up to 96kHz/24Bit. This requires the RS100 and Mobile Device be connected by high performance network equipment.

I digress, McIntosh should have went with Apple's Airplay. (Yes, DLNA- the manual indicates the RS100 & MB50 can function as a DLNA renderer.)


Next, can anyone tell me how I play music on my MB100 or MS750 without using the mono-only analog input on the RS100?
Hint: It involves DLNA.

Speaking of analog-The user guide does show a "MCD550-like" SACD/CD Transport connecting the fixed right channel output of the SACD/CD Transport. However, It appears that users must change the volume from the front of the RS100 Loudspeaker. I'm not even sure you can change the volume of the AUX input from the DTS Play-Fi app.

So now McIntosh has a AP1 App, MB100 App, and licenses the DTS Play-Fi app, but no integration or consistency of product between the three.


The RS100 and MB50 are top-level products. We can now enjoy McIntosh it just about any residential location. Right now, there are two big US companies that still have the lead in this segment.

[o0OBillO0o]

Okay, the OPPO Sonica* is $300, where do you think it will perform in relation to the RS100?

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcFcBtnsjSA[/ame]

*Has RJ45, Ethernet. (Amongst everything else!)