Does anyone own or have listened to the McIntosh Men 220?

Cosmicmes

Active Member
I came across an article, on McIntosh's "room equalizer", and I wonder..... It must be a newcomer to the line, I first saw an ad two nights ago. I'd appreciate any feedback.
 
Yeah I am an MEN220 owner, have had mine for about 3 years, essential equipment for me, its not that new, must have come out in about 2012 or around then...

I think its a very powerful tool, I use it as an active 2way stereo crossover, and I use the Room Perfect which it has onboard as well....

There are a few in depth threads buried here, if you dig them up it will answer all questions....
 
I recently bought one and it works wonders in my cavern of open rooms with two channel (C2500 and 275 MK6 / Klipschorns); I consider it a must have in this space. I will be getting a MX151 when the truck arrives Monday and since that has the Room Perfect built in I am not sure what to do. I will check the MX in 2 channel more and decide if I am keeping the month old C2500 and the MEN220 or just going with the MX.
 
Thanks for the tip, coincidentally, that was article that I stumbled across!

The Room Perfect is the easiest quickest upgrade that will transform your system and music enjoyment. You are suddenly aware of what you were missing. Checkout Lyngdorf used products if matching Mcintosh aesthetics is not important. Good values to be had. Finding MEN220 used at reasonable price is difficult.
 
There's more to the MEN220 than Room Perfect, that was the secondary reason I got it......
I got my MEN220 for a great price, second hand, virtually unused.....they are out there.
 
The Room Perfect is the easiest quickest upgrade that will transform your system and music enjoyment. You are suddenly aware of what you were missing. Checkout Lyngdorf used products if matching Mcintosh aesthetics is not important. Good values to be had. Finding MEN220 used at reasonable price is difficult.

I never come across the MEN200 used. And I'll look into the Lyngdorf stuff as well. Much appreciated!
 
There's more to the MEN220 than Room Perfect, that was the secondary reason I got it......
I got my MEN220 for a great price, second hand, virtually unused.....they are out there.

Man, you must be living The Good Life! I never see them used, hopefully I get lucky :beatnik:
 
I don't have a dog in this hunt, but you ought to know that there are 2 versions of the '220. One's fully balanced, the other wasn't and had some unpredictable affects with certain amplifiers.
 
I don't have a dog in this hunt, but you ought to know that there are 2 versions of the '220. One's fully balanced, the other wasn't and had some unpredictable affects with certain amplifiers.

There was service option for those. You could return them to the factory for modification I understand.

Yes it was when using them with quad balanced amplifiers...

Mine was updated with that modification, works great with my MC452
 
There was service option for those. You could return them to the factory for modification I understand.

Yes it was when using them with quad balanced amplifiers...

Mine was updated with that modification, works great with my MC452
I don't have a dog in this hunt, but you ought to know that there are 2 versions of the '220. One's fully balanced, the other wasn't and had some unpredictable affects with certain amplifiers.
Can you tell me how to tell a balanced MEN vs the early unbalanced model? I’m in the market for a used MEN. Thanks!
 
I would contact McIntosh, I knew mine had been done as the previous owner told me he had sent it back to Mc for the Modification.
Mc will be able to tell you what to look for.
 
Yes I have 7 channels built into my MX 151 and I have played with a MEN 220 at Audio Classics and else where a few times. The unit is designed to get the best possible performance from a speakers in a reverberant space. It takes samples of the speaker emissions and analyzes them trying to reproduce the best "original" sound of the speaker in that space. Its not there to correct speaker issues. So if the speaker has a dip or peaks Room perfect will try to faithfully reproduce that dip or peak . Which means I prefer to use my Crown parametric Eq's to get the sound I want . If you have a PC you can use some of the built in parametric filters of the MEN 220 to correct your speakers short comings first before turning the automated Room perfect loose. Now if you have perfect speakers first thats not an issue is it. So to do it right you need and FET analyzer with calibrated microphone to check your speakers emissions first in the direct field usually at 1 meter and correct the few glitches, and then you can turn the RP loose.

That said when I tried the the MEN 220 with Mac 1K speakers I wasn't happy in the either mode. Mac tweeters aren't the greatest in the top two octaves and just using the RP out of the box didn't help. But given a pair of speakers that are normally pretty linear like XR 290's magico's 5's and 7's the results can be rather spectacular. It won't fix a Model 5's dip around 300 Hz or an XRT 28's hump at 800 HZ, thats part of those speakers signatures. But using the right analyzers first with the parametric filters in the MEN 220 you will get some amazing results. I eventually went thru the exercise of setting up my RP filters with the MX 151 for all 7 channels. It really can help in many cases to improve the sound. Rooms can be such nasty places and a big part of the sound we hear, so anything that can improve a room and helps the speaker to be the best it can be is a great plus in my book. Its certainly cheaper than hiring an acoustician to come in and fix your room and piss off your mate with his suggestions that may or may not work..
 
Can you tell me how to tell a balanced MEN vs the early unbalanced model? I’m in the market for a used MEN. Thanks!


There's a thread on this somewhere, a member on here had a problem with his MC-501's that prompted Mcintosh to do a modification to the devices. (3 or 4 years ago, I'll see if I can find it.)

The fix was a daughterboard was designed and implemented so the outputs were completely differentially balanced- something that Quad Balanced amplifiers needed.

(Complete supposition coming here) I'd think the build date would be enough, as suggested, Mcintosh would know.

More supposition here, measuring for continuity with a diode tester pins 1 and 3. If pin 3 (low) and pin 1 (ground) are connected- it's not modified.

Again, I reserve the right to be completely off base- no experience nor early vs. late schematics.

The best thing would be if the person involved would pop in, I've forgotten all the details.

Searched, thread may have been deleted- it was a number of years old.
 
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If I ever get enough time off work, I will pop the hood on my MEN220 and see if its possible to tell what they did...
 
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