McIntosh at CES 2005

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mcintoshmagic

Active Member
So what all will McIntosh be showing off in their booth at CES this year? Will they be unveiling the MS300 music server and C1000 ultra high-end preamp there? Anyone have links to sites with good coverage?
 
I'll have a look Friday & get back to you... I did locate this news brief:

With a huge 300GB hard drive and integrated web interface capabilities, the McIntosh MS300 Music Server will effortlessly catalog, access and manage well over 1000 CDs at true bit-for-bit fidelity on its internal hard drive or, depending on compression rate, over 50,000 songs. A new Free Lossless Audio Compression (FLAC) encoding and decoding element eliminates the inherent loss of data common in MP3 compression resulting in a distinct improvement when ripping music from CDs. Navigating through menus is uncomplicated via an on screen interface which simplifies finding and playing any song, album, play list or artist in the collection.
 
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Looks like they are just showing the MS300 music server and XLS speakers which were shown at CEDIA already. Maybe we will get some decent pictures of these other products this time. No mention of the C1000 preamp that I can find.
 
McIntosh: The 300GB MS300, McIntosh's first music server, can distribute up to four different songs simultaneously to four zones. Supported formats include PCM and lossless FLAC (Free Audio Lossless Audio Compression). It can be networked via Ethernet to a PC to transfer PC music files, andcan be controlled from Web-browsing PCs or other devices in the house. It's due in the first quarter at a suggested $5,100.

That price puts it out of reach for me though it's only $100 more than the Escient FireBall DVDM-300 on which it's based.
 
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I saw an amazing "LARGE," or should I say "HUGE" three (3) piece mono block amp that our friends at McIntosh have been toying with over the holidays. It pushes 2,000 watts. They played the pair (six blocks) thru a new set of speakers that was designed to handle the power.

I'll attempt to get more specs over the weekend...
 
I saw the MS300 and received a "run-down" on it by Ron-C. I really want one. I will have to go brow beat my local guy when he gets back from CES. Anybody want to buy a pristine MCD7008?

I really enjoyed eyeballing all that magnificent McGear!!!! Come on, Lottery !!
 
mcintoshmagic said:
McIntosh: The 300GB MS300, McIntosh's first music server, can distribute up to four different songs simultaneously to four zones. Supported formats include PCM and lossless FLAC (Free Audio Lossless Audio Compression). It can be networked via Ethernet to a PC to transfer PC music files, andcan be controlled from Web-browsing PCs or other devices in the house. It's due in the first quarter at a suggested $5,100.

That price puts it out of reach for me though it's only $100 more than the Escient FireBall DVDM-300 on which it's based.
Click to expand...

What's the scoop on this? Will it handle 192kHz and HDCD or is it simply 'redbook' capable?
 
They definitely had rented a lot of space, but when we tried to get through it, the narrow hallway (1/2 the width being taken up by tables with gear displayed) was jammed with people trying to cram into the middle listening room, where some guy was extolling the virtues of whatever was in there. I could see nothing through the crowd but the top half of some huge speaks that looked like they had about a gazillion drivers in them. They fired it all up, and, while we were only just squeezing through the crowd in the hallway and certainly in no position to give an adequate listen, my first instinct was to head quickly for the exit. The other listening rooms weren't even open.
 
Interesting article. I am really enamored of the McIntosh MS300; both for the "normal" McLust we McFolks have but also for its practical application. I would Love to get rid of my CD storage problem by having the content resident on a music server like the MS-300.

It seems to me, however, that the online database is essential for its operation. What happens if, as a result of some legal action somewhere, GraceNote goes on hiatus? I don't have access to the manual and it was one of the questions I meant to ask Ron-C at the CES, but is the album art and CD data dependent on a "live" internet feed, or is it actually downloaded and once downloaded, does it reside on the disk?
 
tentoze said:
They definitely had rented a lot of space, but when we tried to get through it, the narrow hallway (1/2 the width being taken up by tables with gear displayed) was jammed with people trying to cram into the middle listening room, where some guy was extolling the virtues of whatever was in there. I could see nothing through the crowd but the top half of some huge speaks that looked like they had about a gazillion drivers in them. They fired it all up, and, while we were only just squeezing through the crowd in the hallway and certainly in no position to give an adequate listen, my first instinct was to head quickly for the exit. The other listening rooms weren't even open.
Click to expand...
So there were just plain too many people there altogether on Sunday?

Carl
 
CES wrap up. I just got back home after the 580 mile drive from Vegas to Palo Alto. The show closed at 4:00 on Sunday and we finished packing up at 8:00 using 8 people and one hired helper to shrink wrap the pallets. All 23 of them which held 11,000 lbs of gear. Who's idea was it to use 7 MC1201s in the theater room? The new MC2KW 2000 watt amps are three chassis for each channel and each one is the size of a MC1201. The new big speakers are about 500 lbs each also.
The purpose of CES is to hold business meetings with the world wide distributors, US independent territory Representatives, and the press. Dealers are part of this also and come to see and order the new models. On long lead models like the MC2KW amps and matching XRT2KW speakers these were new to everyone and open to suggestions before they are produced in August. These were well received as is, so most changes will be cosmetic. The MS300 music server was a big hit and the operating software should be finished in a month and then it will begin to ship. It is 24/96 on the A to D and D to a section. It sounds very good but not as good as the MDA1000 Dac. I would say it compares with MCD205 changer in sound quality. I was using the 24/192 DACs in the MX135 for the demo connected with a 75 ohm digital Co-Ax.
A lot of folks were lusting after the new C1000 pre amp, me included, and many reviewers have requested a listen.
I know a lot of the general public attend this show so we do try to entertain and inform also. Quite a few dealers bring key customers who have specific questions for the engineers. In the two rooms with the new XLS speakers or the 2KW system it did take time to explain all the product details. In the afternoons you might wait to get in the rooms. The multi-channel home theater demo was every 15 minutes. The booth was dead for the first hour each day and anyone could sit as long as they liked in the two small rooms. The show was very quiet on Thursday - Friday and Saturday was the most crowded along with Sunday afternoon.
After a day of crowds and demos we would have meetings and dinners every night with dealers or technology partners. In the morning I would get to the booth early to check everything, wipe the Ford GT down and make sure the battery was charged.
The only bummer is that I did not have time to see the other displays and exhibits. Many manufacturers did come by the booth though and we spoke to most of the major offshore firms and many smaller audiophile software, hardware and technology folks.
Ted, our Senior Digital engineer met with Teac-Esoteric and they showed him their new $65,000 CD/SACD player!!!! See, McIntosh is not that expensive.
The weather was very wet and we even had snow during lunch one day! I would rate this as our most successfull show in my 12 years at McIntosh. The funniest moment, and there were many, was when a videophile asked what video component cables I used and I told him 'Broadcast Cables'. He looked at me funny so I showed him a cable and it said 'Broadcast Quality' on it. I then told him they were $54.00 for all three of them, 2-2 meter, 1-50 ft. and he walked out shaking his head. This is after he had told me the picture was stunning of course.
Ron-C
 
CarlV said:
So there were just plain too many people there altogether on Sunday?

Carl
Click to expand...

This was on Saturday, and there really weren't that many people- maybe 25 or so. It's just that ergonomically, the place was hopeless for its intended use.
 
Yep, 25 people for sound rooms designed for six is too many. I had 12 seats in the theater and we had standees all the time in the afternoons. Bigger rooms would be nice but we are a small company and that is what we can get for $25K room rent. If you want to be in the rooms before we open just let me know next year and you can come in early one morning. Many did.

Ron-C
 
ron-c said:
Yep, 25 people for sound rooms designed for six is too many. I had 12 seats in the theater and we had standees all the time in the afternoons. Bigger rooms would be nice but we are a small company and that is what we can get for $25K room rent. If you want to be in the rooms before we open just let me know next year and you can come in early one morning. Many did.

Ron-C
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Thanks for the kind offer, Ron-C. I fully understand the constraints placed on Mc, and for that matter, all the companies that try to showcase top notch equipment in less-than-desirable environs.
 
foetusized said:
Escient are the a$$holes that bought and raped the open-source CDDB project. I wouldn't touch anything associated with them with a 10 foot pole. Bad karma for Mac in dealing with them, in my opinion.

See http://web.archive.org/web/20020215034914/http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-529835.html for details, plus I have a page on my site about CDDB -- Foe
Click to expand...


My reasons for not going for the Escient is two fold. The OS is a rather different realtime OS which is not Linux/Unix, Windows or even OS/2. That means it is a closed system. The other reason is that it will not play RealAudio streams or files. There are no plans to add support for that format either. That is what Escient customer support told me.

Sorry Ron, I rate it a :thumbsdn:

rich
 
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