McIntosh XLS340 Loudspeakers Review

[Johnd]

Well...now that it's Sat. p.m., I'm "toast"ing to "thfift. Problem with that? Cheers.

 

[mulester7]

.....I promise you this, I am going to hear McIntosh speakers being pushed by McIntosh pre and power before I'm done....but I'm tied up with this bbq contest right now....I got to find a gob of chicken fat...like 30 pounds at a time....you know, the solid hunks of fat around the rear end of a chicken, which is sometimes trimmed heavy as you buy whole chickens at a store in the blister-pack thick-stuff....Tyson trims heavy.....I'm calling Tyson in the morning at Russellville....I put away grain trains at Tyson-Pottsville-mile post 413 on the Van Buren subdivision which is six miles short of Russellville, to feed their contracted-raised chicks, I'll be special as soon as I spill that, trust me, ha....I'm going to try out a theory of taking the pure charcoal smoked taste of chicken up a notch or two, I hope....ample chunks of chicken fat directly over the coals on the cooking grid, with the meat moved around to NOT be over fire, ready to smoke, with the top vent wide-open, at first, then brought to 1/2 open to produce solid white smoke, four streams, looks cool, and the instant the streams lessen in thickness of white, a quick change of fresh chicken fat brings the streams back solid....for a total of around an hour.....callin' Tyson in the am....doin' some last minute tests for the meat, the sauce will be there....no proof.......

 

[STRONGBADF1]

.....I promise you this, I am going to hear McIntosh speakers being pushed by McIntosh pre and power before I'm done....but I'm tied up with this bbq contest right now....I got to find a gob of chicken fat...like 30 pounds at a time....you know, the solid hunks of fat around the rear end of a chicken, which is sometimes trimmed heavy as you buy whole chickens at a store in the blister-pack thick-stuff....Tyson trims heavy.....I'm calling Tyson in the morning at Russellville....I put away grain trains at Tyson-Pottsville-mile post 413 on the Van Buren subdivision which is six miles short of Russellville, to feed their contracted-raised chicks, I'll be special as soon as I spill that, trust me, ha....I'm going to try out a theory of taking the pure charcoal smoked taste of chicken up a notch or two, I hope....ample chunks of chicken fat directly over the coals on the cooking grid, with the meat moved around to NOT be over fire, ready to smoke, with the top vent wide-open, at first, then brought to 1/2 open to produce solid white smoke, four streams, looks cool, and the instant the streams lessen in thickness of white, a quick change of fresh chicken fat brings the streams back solid....for a total of around an hour.....callin' Tyson in the am....doin' some last minute tests for the meat, the sauce will be there....no proof.......

Mac says your chicken would taste better if you use that rotel trying to drive those McIntosh's as a heat source!

Sorry Gene, I just had to. I'll be good
SBF1

 

[Johnd]

Mulester, now you gotten me off on a tangent: why is 1/3 of the US (morbidly) obese? Is it chicken fat, or lack of walking those short distances, or both? That's another thread for another time. Happy Sat p.m. to all.

 

[The Dukester]

All kidding aside, I would like to see a comparison of the new designs to the old R Russell models. I have heard one set of the new XRT28s and I was not impressed. The dealer kept stating how bad the accoustics were in the room he had them and I kept asking him "Why would you do that? Would not people like to hear what they are capable of?" He just stated that they sounded more like what they would in most home invironments b/c people don't do anything to make sure they sound their best. Crikes, I mean if I spend that kind of dough on speakers, you can be dang sure I'm going to do everything reasonably possible (and probably a little unreasonable) to make sure I get all I can from them.

He told me the bass in the new designs was so far superior to the old. I kept asking, "What bass?" He says, well, the old speakers are boomy. The new have so much better transiet response; they don't hang onto the note like the old ones. Hear how tight they are? I'm thinking, see how little bass they have! Not that I like boomy, muddied bass, but I do like bass! For those wondering, he was driving them with a pair of mono block 1200s. The only thing I agreed with was the mids and highs did sound very clear. The ear is quick to forget what it just heard, so it's hard to compare when you listen at the store and come home to compare to what you have.

I have a pair of the old XRT30s that I dearly love. I think they still sound great! I would like to hear a pair of the new speakers in my home, but the closest stocking dealer was the guy's place I auditioned the 28s in and he is a good 2.5 hours away. So, Clint; hows about you get a pair of the new 28s or 30s and I'll bring my old RR units down and we'll spend the weekend comparing! Nothing like a good ol' speaker party!

By the way, Mule, you go with that sauce! I know it's good!!!

 

[gene]

Back in my college days working at a high end dealer, I can tell you the Mac speakers from yesteryear were very good indeed.

 

[DavidW]

Just to clear a few things up.

I thought after reading some of the posts that there were a few issues that needed clarification.

At no point did I have trouble driving these speakers with either amplifier or a 38 watt tube integrated I have for an upcoming review. What I said was that they have to be loud before they sound decent. At low listening levels, they are flat and uninspiring. This is something one must consider when purchasing a product. It is not feasible to think that one can have the speakers cranked up all the time, especially if one has a wife and perhaps some kids who go to bed before listening time is over.

The lack of bass was not a fault of the amplifiers: look at the published frequency response. McIntosh says they crap out at 65 Hz, hardly deep bass. Neither amp broke a sweat much less audibly bottomed out which would be the tell tale of a power shortage. More power will not fix this; it will only make them louder with the same frequency response until they suffer compression at the speaker's SPL limit.

Lets not forget that from 125 watts to 1000 watts is only a 9 dB spread.

PS Audio is not a "new bee" as the company dates back to 1974. Perhaps not as venerable as McIntosh, but certainly not recent. They have a long history of making Stereophile Recommended Components including the 100 Delta that I own (out of print),
the 200C http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/741/index.html,
the HCA-2 http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/729/index.html,
and most recently the GCC-100 http://www.stereophile.com/integratedamps/106ps/index.html.

I'd include some Audioholics reviews of PS Audio, if we had some.

As for Rotel, Bowers & Wilkins owns them now. They get very good reviews at Audioholics, Stereophile, and many others. Their gear has no shortage of power or control. Case in point, try the following addresses:

http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/RotelRMB-1095amplifier1.php
http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-bin/displayreview.php?reviewid=4833
http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/100rotel/index.html

The reason you see a lot of Rotel on the market, according to my retailing friends, is that B&W very aggressively markets their products. Translation: they sell a lot of them therefore there is a big pool for the secondary market. And remember, by definition, audioholics are always looking to try out new gear.

By the end of their US sales run in 2005, Celicas were priced up to ~ $25000 with options. Not super pricey, but not cheap either. Nearly two model years later, they still sell for ~ $22000 used.

Btw, no longer master of its own destiny, McIntosh is owned by D & M Holdings; one for any audio elitists.

http://www.hometoys.com/releases/mar03/dandm_01.htm

For those of you who enjoyed the review, thanks for taking the time to read it.

David

 

[Vynilforlife]

Mac says your chicken would taste better if you use that rotel trying to drive those McIntosh's as a heat source!

Sorry Gene, I just had to. I'll be good
SBF1

The chicken was awesome, I'm sure. As far as vintage McIntosh speakers, anything built before 1992 is a great unit, as are the amops.

 

[Vynilforlife]

ROFL. I had a feeling its Mac, considering I know his opinion about old school speakers.

SheepStar

I don't get it, who is Mac?

 

[Sheep]

I don't get it, who is Mac?

Mac = MacManNM = Badabing = Buffethead1985.

He was banned, and then came back.

SheepStar

 

[Vynilforlife]

Mac = MacManNM = Badabing = Buffethead1985.

He was banned, and then came back.

SheepStar

Oh, like Lazarus!

 

[highfihoney]

heres another thread i missed when i was drunk

i think that review was spot on! when i listened to the entire ls line of speakers i thought they all were drasticly weak in the bass & when i asked the dealer about them he told me that that line of speakers was geared more tword the ht buyer that use subwoofers & were not designed with deep bass in mind.

i personally didnt care for their sound.

 

[highfihoney]

I have a pair of the old XRT30s that I dearly love. I think they still sound great! I would like to hear a pair of the new speakers in my home, but the closest stocking dealer was the guy's place I auditioned the 28s in and he is a good 2.5 hours away. So, Clint; hows about you get a pair of the new 28s or 30s and I'll bring my old RR units down and we'll spend the weekend comparing! Nothing like a good ol' speaker party!

Once you owned xrt 30's as you do the xrt 28's will never hold water compared to the 30's,i have xrt 22's & after i bought the mc1201 monoblocks i was thinking about buying a demo pair of xrt 28's for $8,000 which as im sure you know is a great deal.

i did an ab comparison in my home with the 22's & the 28's & i was not impressed with the 28's at all,there was no bass response at all with lower listening levels unless i allmost maxed out the bass control on the c2200 preamp,i also tried them with a c39 preamp to see if they were better with solid state over tubes & it was about the same except that with the c39 i had to increase the loudness control which the c2200 does not have in order to get an acceptable bass response.

i cant imagine running xrt 28's with an audiophile preamp that dont have tone controls,when i put both preamps tone controls in bypass there was no bass at all.

the only good thing that came from the demo was that i finally got a chance to see my amps push a 4,800 watt peak