This article is on the McIntosh XR50 and McIntosh XR100 speakers. At first glance, these speakers do look similar, but McIntosh designed them for two totally different kinds of rooms and listening situations. They are not for everyone, but if your listening room and tastes fit into one of these two categories, we think you should give them some serious consideration.

Company History

If you are into audio gear at all, you have probably heard of the McIntosh name. They were founded in 1949 by Frank McIntosh and have gone on to become one of the most well-known brands in the audio world. They have designed some of the most iconic electronics ever created and have been a part of some of the most significant events in music history. The Grateful Dead famously used an all-McIntosh amplified speaker system known as “The Wall Of Sound” in their concerts in the 70s. McIntosh has been at the forefront of both tube and solid-state electronics and has a huge following for its sound quality, beautiful appearance, and tank-like build quality that will last for generations.

McIntosh is not like most companies that make speakers. Typically, speaker companies focus on speakers only, and none of them have created the incredible amount of great electronics that McIntosh has delivered out of Binghamton, NY, for over 75 years. When their engineers decide to make a speaker, it's more for a specific type of room and listening desires. But don’t get me wrong—they take speaker design very seriously and have some of the best testing facilities you will find anywhere.

McIntosh XR50 Bookshelf Speaker

They are not designed to be laid on their side, though, and need to be set up vertically. This relatively tiny little box gets down to an honest 40 Hz, which is amazing, considering their form factor. Most people who first hear them are sure there is a subwoofer in the room.

Back, about 30 years ago, McIntosh invented and patented their LD/HP® woofer. This stands for low distortion, high power. This was first released in their XR250 speaker system. When they were doing the design and testing all kinds of woofers, they noticed most of them fluttered at some frequencies which added both distortion and a blurring to the actual bass sounds. Now, it is very hard for the human ear to hear distortion at low frequencies, but their engineers still wanted to eliminate as much as possible. The way they did it was to look at the woofer's magnetic gap. They used metal pieces below and above the gap that had high conductivity. This reduced the way the voice coil magnetic field reacted with the steel part of the magnet structure. While this may sound pretty technical, the end result was a woofer distortion measurement about 1/10 of anything else they tested at the time.

McIntosh has improved this tech over the years, and you’ll find one 6” Poly Cone woofer in the XR50 that uses their LD/HP® tech. For the rest of the frequency range, they once again did something pretty unique. The midrange/tweeter drivers are inverted 2” titanium domes. These are positioned with one above and one below the super tweeter. These handle a lot of the frequency range from 500 Hz all the way out to 8 kHz. With their orientation, you get extremely wide horizontal dispersion but a more limited vertical dispersion. The limited vertical dispersion reduces ceiling and floor reflections, while the expanded horizontal dispersion makes for a big soundstage. Two of them can also handle more power than one, which is another plus.

You’ll typically see 1” dome tweeters, but the XR50 uses a ¾” titanium dome. The smaller dome has the advantage of wider dispersion but the con of less power handling. By crossing over at 8 kHz, the power they receive is dramatically reduced. And these extend out way beyond the range of human hearing to 45 kHz which helps give them a very open sound.

Now, like with most good things, there is a catch. If you have been in this hobby for a very long time, you might remember the classic AR3 speakers. Many speaker engineers consider these to be one of the first well-engineered speakers to be released. They also had very low distortion, but the catch was you needed a very large amplifier to properly drive them. Well, the XR50s are the same. They have a sensitivity rating of 81 dB which is about the lowest we have ever seen. Although like with everything they make, McIntosh does not fudge their specs at all on anything. But you will need very good power and a lot of it. We feel you need 200 watts per channel, and more is even better.

And McIntosh just happens to make a bevy of integrated amps and separates that can fill their power demands just fine.

So, if you have a small room with no space for a larger tower speaker or a subwoofer but want bass like you were used to with your big tower speakers, you should have a hard look at the XR50. You’ll probably spend as much or more on your amp as the speakers, but you will get bass that will bring a big smile to your face. Not only that, the sound field they can throw out is very large for their size. If your listening room has been downsized or if you want a killer office system, the XR50 is a wonderful solution

McIntosh XR100 Floorstanding Speaker

These towers are only 8” wide, excluding their nice base, and are available in the same beautiful finishes as the XR50. You may not think a speaker this small could produce true concert-level sound, but they can and also produce a massive sound field that will completely fill your room.

If you double the number of woofers in a system, the sensitivity increases by 3 dB. And if you quadruple the number, you get an increase of 6 dB. The XR100 has 4 of the same great woofers that are used in the XR50. Not only does this decrease the power needs, but it also increases power handling, decreases distortion, and allows the bass to go even lower. These get down to an honest 30 Hz, even with their very small footprint.

To keep up with the power handling ability of the four woofers, McIntosh needed to go with 10 of the inverted dome titanium midrange drivers. Just like with the woofers, this increases sensitivity and lowers distortion. But they also added a twist. The two drivers above and below the tweeter cover the range from 2K to 8K, while the 4 above and 4 below cover from 300 Hz to 2K.

McIntosh can still use the single ¾” titanium tweeter as it is crossed over high enough to handle even the 600-watt rated maximum on them. You also get the addition of biwiring or biamping capability with the XR100.

So how did McIntosh take what looks like the same tech and make it able to play so loud, with almost nonexistent distortion, and be easier to drive? The answer is simply more of the same.

Performance

Put on your favorite rock and roll live album, crank these up, and you will literally feel like the band is in the room. They sound very neutral with effortless extension and true bass punch. The only trade-off, and it may not actually be a trade-off for many, is the imaging. A lot of small tower speakers can paint an image where you feel like you can see the guitar or snare drum in space right in front of you. You do need to be sitting equidistant from both speakers to experience this, but it is very involving. With their 8 midrange drivers, the sound is not as localized on these as most small towers can be. However, the 8 drivers throw out this super wide and big soundstage that is also a lot of fun. And none of the speakers we know of that can produce that perfect image can put a concert in your room like these can.

Another plus to both of these is if you are already in the McIntosh family and love those green lights, you can use your McIntosh amp to power them up on the base of either of these when you turn your system on.

We hope this overview has helped you better understand these great speakers from our friends at McIntosh. They are certainly not for everyone, but they do fill two unique needs of some music lovers.

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