XR200 Speakers.....Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?

[winston1156]

I'm no expert but the materials used in most drivers have a 'cost' that is miniscule. The cost is the years of research to perfect the behavior of the material, the physics behind the enclosure and so forth. Just because the driver material is not exotic does not mean it cannot work very well. Given the multi-driver concept, it seems that the individual driver does less work so the tolerances could be lower than a design that relies on, say two drivers to reproduce a wide bandwidth at high volume.

Then there's the whole concept of vertical integration: a mfr. that makes it's own drivers can 'cut out the middle man' on some things. Maybe this is true; maybe not. The point is that you really cannot judge the sound of a speaker by the cost of it's raw materials. Indeed, if you look at some six figure speakers, you probably would have to wonder why they cost so much if they are 'just some drivers in a box'.

[Ron-C]

I am not surprised that it is hard to find speakers in high gloss piano black since that is so labor intensive to do. The good part is that finish goes so well with many furnishings.
XR200s do have 3 LDHP woofers, 12 midranges and 7 tweeters in each cabinet for a total 22 drivers. In this model the titanium dome mids and tweeters act like and measure as a point source. The drivers are timed with inductor transformers so the output tapers away from the center row of drivers.
The advantage is very high power handling, low distortion and pinpoint imaging with great depth and spatiality.
The disadvantage is cost in both the increased driver count and crossover complexity.
The complex, top ported cabinet allows maximum performance from the three custom 8" woofers which use the McIntosh LDHP patented, twin shorting ring design on their voicecoils which lowers distortion by a factor of 10 and flattens the impedance curve. This allows the speakers to be much cleaner and more extended in the bass than others of this price range.

Thanks,
Ron-C

[JFR0317]

Originally Posted by jdandy

This whole talk boils down to a single conclusion. There is only one person in the entire world who has to be happy with my system, me. Everything else is just converstaion among kindred souls with differing opinions. This is true for each of you with your systems, too.

That is very true, Dan, although you're using a pretty loose definition of kindred, based on some of the comments.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by JFR0317

That is very true, Dan, although you're using a pretty loose definition of kindred, based on some of the comments.

John.......We are kindred souls in our love of this hobby, and the quest to improve our individaul sound systems. Beyond that, we all have individual notions as to what good sound is, and what pleases our aural senses. Our ideas of what sounds good, and what doesn't are as diverse as the stars in the night sky. This is a good thing, and keeps the excitement level up. Occassionally, there will be bone heads and ego maniacs who are adversarial, make no sense, and exhibit zero proof sources to back up thier nonsensical chatter. Such is life. Why would we expect our hobby to be any different than all other areas of life.

We can choose to smile or frown, the choice is ours. The most important thing to remember is each of us controls our own attitude. There will always be differing opinions. How one deals with the differences is the key.

[JFR0317]

Originally Posted by jdandy

John.......We are kindred souls in our love of this hobby, and the quest to improve our individaul sound systems. Beyond that, we all have individual notions as to what good sound is, and what pleases our aural senses. Our ideas of what sounds good, and what doesn't are as diverse as the stars in the night sky. This is a good thing, and keeps the excitement level up. Occassionally, there will be bone heads and ego maniacs who are adversarial, make no sense, and exhibit zero proof sources to back up thier nonsensical chatter. Such is life. Why would we expect our hobby to be any different than all other areas of life.

We can choose to smile or frown, but the most important thing to remember is each of us controls our own attitude. There will always be differing opinions. How one deals with the differences is the key.

Words to live by, Dan.

As for opinions, well, we all know what they are like.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by JFR0317

As for opinions, well, we all know what they are like.

YEP. I've got one, too.

[two dot]

Originally Posted by jdandy

John.......We are kindred souls in our love of this hobby, and the quest to improve our individaul sound systems. Beyond that, we all have individual notions as to what good sound is, and what pleases our aural senses. Our ideas of what sounds good, and what doesn't are as diverse as the stars in the night sky. This is a good thing, and keeps the excitement level up. Occassionally, there will be bone heads and ego maniacs who are adversarial, make no sense, and exhibit zero proof sources to back up thier nonsensical chatter. Such is life. Why would we expect our hobby to be any different than all other areas of life.

We can choose to smile or frown, the choice is ours. The most important thing to remember is each of us controls our own attitude. There will always be differing opinions. How one deals with the differences is the key.

Thanks, Dan... Well put as usual.

[Kevin M.]

Originally Posted by Ron-C

I am not surprised that it is hard to find speakers in high gloss piano black since that is so labor intensive to do. The good part is that finish goes so well with many furnishings.
XR200s do have 3 LDHP woofers, 12 midranges and 7 tweeters in each cabinet for a total 22 drivers. In this model the titanium dome mids and tweeters act like and measure as a point source. The drivers are timed with inductor transformers so the output tapers away from the center row of drivers.
The advantage is very high power handling, low distortion and pinpoint imaging with great depth and spatiality.
The disadvantage is cost in both the increased driver count and crossover complexity.
The complex, top ported cabinet allows maximum performance from the three custom 8" woofers which use the McIntosh LDHP patented, twin shorting ring design on their voicecoils which lowers distortion by a factor of 10 and flattens the impedance curve. This allows the speakers to be much cleaner and more extended in the bass than others of this price range.

Thanks,
Ron-C

My wife loves the XR200. She says it is the best looking speaker I have ever chosen. I guess I am a fanatic for clean accurate bass. Mcintosh really leaped over the competition with bass articulation,always a Mac strong point, and extension with this speaker. Nothing I have heard anywhere near the price is in the same league for bass. It amazes me that a speaker this size has such great bass response. I wish I could afford the XRT1K but I can not. This speaker though gives me the same kind of sound that I hear from the XRT1k. No, it may not be as good but it stopped me from longing for speakers I could not afford. The LS360 has served me well and I still believe they represent a bargain for the performance you get. I knew that sooner or latter a speaker would be better by a wide enough margin to make me sale my LS360s. It took a while but the XR200 is that speaker. Vocals are clean and clear and as tranparent to the source as any speaker I have ever heard regardless of price. I believe that is the part that sold me even over the bass.Further, when you move around the image remains stable. The icing is that this is a true full range speaker and should perform so in any room without needing boundary reinforcement.

[Ron-C]

XRT1K is a line source where the XR200 is a point source. A point source will work at close distances where you need to be back a bit for the line sources. XRT1K plays louder but the XR200 will play louder than other like priced speakers so this may not be important.
As far as bass the XR200 and XRT1K are very close in both extension and power. These two models will outperform most subwoofers.

Thanks,
Ron-C

[f1 fan]

They are beautiful loudspeakers.



Dave