If Mac were to reintroduce a loudspeaker, which would you chose?

twiiii

Lunatic Member
Personnally for me I would choose a stacked pairs of XR-7 or a pair of XR 290's. Other suggestions.
 
Well I sure enjoy my XRT22s ... Been tempted to seek out some XR290s but they just never come up for sale, so it would have to be those. Now if I were 25 again, I'd want stacked ML4Cs.
 
I saw a pair of stacked XR7s come up For sle in Florida once after I contemplated stacking my XR5s. That sent me on the XR290 search, detoured by a XRT20 and XR19 stack, and eventually I was lucky to find a pristine pair of XR290s available and within driving distance .

After 14 months with XR290s they continue to delight daily. I did a room to room comparison last night between my XRT20s and the XR290 playing Ottmar Liebart, Best of volume one, song Barcelona Nights. The XRT20s did quite well. But need a gob of power starting at 50 WPC it is catching up in realism then 100WPC plus to get percussion to pop approaching live music and XR290!! The bass though pleniful on XRT20 not as defined.

In comparison the XR290s sound realistic any power level but really can transport one to the live performance with breadth, depth and better dynamics. A mere 5 to 10 watts and it is outdoings the XRT20s at 10 time power levels. Then again clarity and detail XR290 is still way out front.

Making a XR290 reissue affordable not possible with three lines of drivers. That being said a line array reissue like XRT18 could bring experience home to more people more affordably and upgrade the woofer and mid to LD/HPs and freshen its look of cabinet and array.
 
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id be lying if i didn’t admit to thinking of using a pair of xrt18s for my left and righ surround channels ... !

I like that idea. They would match your XRT22s well. I really like XR19 as left and right surrounds with XR290s. That pair in San Diego have been sitting out there awhile. Nice little drive for you. I keep prodding a co worker to snag them but he bought a new NAD integrated instead.

Hmmmm you got me thinking as a surrond mate for the XRT20s in my bedroom. Currently using bose cubes. Full range surround is better LFE impact.
 
As difficult to sell as the line array Mac speakers were back in the day, today, in the modern audio mix they are even more ill relevant.

Having experienced any number of stacked speaker systems, a pair of XR16s, with the top speaker inverted to get the tweeters and mids closer together, will run circles around stacked 7s or MLs any day of the week.
 
If line arrays are irrelevant, then why is everyone talking about the latest $29,000 30.7 Magnepan saying it is the best thing out there unless you spend over $250,000 dollars for conventional coned speakers. Yes I will agree we had trouble selling the large line arrays. But they were really trend breakers at the time. Today they are better understood. If those 6 XRT 28's weren't in China, I would probably buy a few.
 
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I did not say they were illrelevent as a design concept but as a practical matter with today's video centric systems.

I will suggest that the recordings done by Cozart and Fine in the late 50s early 60s have more in common with modern recording techniques and future sound storage mediums than old two channel mixes.

Center out recording technique is today's standard as it certainly has to be for any medium tied to a image.

Looking at the pro sound offerings line arrays seem to be all the rage along with DSP manipulation far beyond anything we could imagine when we we training with the Davises at Syn Aud Com.
 
If line arrays are irrelevant, then why is everyone talking about the latest $29,000 30.7 Magnepan saying it is the best thing out there unless you spend over $250,000 dollars for conventional coned speakers. Yes I will agree we had trouble selling the large line arrays. But they were really trend breakers at the time. Today they are better understood. If those 6 XRT 28's weren't in China, I would probably buy a few.

The 30.7 looks interesting. I wonder how dynamic and the amount of power needed? Some of the reviews tout coherence. Interested if they meet coherence that Roger Russell’s IDS-25 provides that sell less new than 30.7?Three diffent panel arrays need an IRS V or Genesis Prime footprint.

A comparison with my big McIntosh 3 way XR290 line array with both the magnepan 30.7 and the IRS Vs at PS Audio HQs listening room is on my bucket list next time in Boulder or Minneapolis.

Here are the Genesis primes. I have no idea where one would hear them. These maybe 250 k coned speaker that Magnepan touts?

http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/products/prime/prime-technical-specifications/

Anyone here ever hear Infinity IRS V?
 
Only at their debut in what must have been 1980 or '81 at the Chicago CES. We were not a dealer but the Infinity rep got me a invitation into their exclusive premier.
 
I love my XLS-340 speakers. Don't need an equalizer, easy to handle (they aren't 200 lbs each), and were very reasonably priced.
 
Anyone here ever hear Infinity IRS V?
I haven't heard them, but somebody never picked up a pair, they took in for service, at the place I took my XRT20s.
They're just sitting there, overwhelming the tiny lobby. I asked the owner what he was going to do with them. He said that, for the time being, they are a good conversation piece. Much too massive for any room I have in my house, anyway.
 
I haven't heard them, but somebody never picked up a pair, they took in for service, at the place I took my XRT20s.
They're just sitting there, overwhelming the tiny lobby. I asked the owner what he was going to do with them. He said that, for the time being, they are a good conversation piece. Much too massive for any room I have in my house, anyway.
Tell him that you've located the owner, I forgot about them, and will be by to pick them up shortly!
 
Who better than you to determine that?
They've been there for at least a few months, so I'm sure he's been propositioned a handful times. If he was willing to sell them for under for a couple grand, they would likely be gone. As I said, I don't have the room for them, and I'm not really interested in putting in the work that would be required, in order to flip them. Just taking possession would be a huge undertaking, not to mention storage. I suppose the financial rewards could be worthwhile, but I would imagine that the proprietor knows what he's got, and what they are worth. If I had a nice 30'x50' room, it might be another story.
 
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