Note that this is a discontinued product. You may want to visit the brand's page here to browse their newer products.
What reviewers think
Bloggers and YouTubers have tried this product—so we've summarized their strongest opinions below. Links to full reviews follow.
Product Strengths
- Epitomizes rock and roll, thanks to a huge dynamic swing and a solid bass foundation
- Captures low-level detail like a pair of mini-monitors, yet expands to the loudest musical passages with ease
- Has midrange clarity and lacks the cloudiness that plagued past models
- Distributes the sound to completely envelop the listener
- Reproduces music powerfully, effortlessly, and clearly, even at high volumes
Product Considerations
- Can play louder than needed, so be careful not to hurt yourself
- Needs a big listening space
- Requires a powerful amplifier with a lot of headroom and control, according to one review
- Soundstaging was hard to gauge with confidence due to the reverberant room, according to one review
- Can be bi-amped or tri-amped, which can take you beyond concert level SPLS, so proceed with caution
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Vs Sonus faber Aida—paints with broader strokes
Takeaway: The XRT2.1K is a world-class speaker that plays everything well with effortless clarity and strong dynamics. These user-friendly and beautifully crafted speakers offer an immersive listening experience.
What are hifi reviews useful for? (1) Identifying products you should demo in person at a dealer. (2) Learning which products reviewers unanimously praise as the best they've heard (this means they probably are legitimately great). (3) Identifying a product's attributes that satisfy your idiosyncratic needs and tastes. Beyond that, we often discount what reviewers say because they heap praise on most products—and are often apprehensive about publishing strong criticism or comparisons between products. Further, they seldom have more than a few products on-hand, often relying on their memories to compare past products. Always listen for yourself.
All
XRT2.1K
reviews
[{"title":"The McIntosh XRT2.1 K Speakers","link":"https://www.tonepublications.com/review/mcintosh-xrt2-1k","source":"Tone Publications","datePublished":""},{"title":"McIntosh Laboratory XRT2.1K and Sonus Faber Aida -- Two Flagship Tower Speakers Introduced in Two Days","link":"https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/opinion/1145-mcintosh-laboratory-xrt21k-and-sonus-faber-aida-two-flagship-tower-speakers-introduced-in-two-days","source":"SoundStage! Hi-Fi","datePublished":"2018"}]
An excellent review of a great product
/
Publisher
/
3/1/2022
An excellent review of a great product
Publisher
/
3/1/2022
Video Review
Manufacturer details
Features
Specifications
- Impedance: 8 Ohms Nominal
- Power Rating: 2,000 Watts
- Frequency Response: 12Hz - 45kHz
- Sound Pressure Level, 2.8V/1m: 90dB
- Crossover: 150Hz, 450Hz, 2.1kHz
- Number of Woofers: 6
- Woofer Size: 8"
- Woofer Type: Nanocarbon Fiber/Nomex Honeycomb Long Throw
- Number of Midranges: Low Frequency: 2, Upper Frequency: 28
- Midrange Size: Low Frequency: 6.5", Upper Frequency: 2"
- Midrange Type: Low Frequency: Nanocarbon Fiber/Nomex Honeycomb Long Throw, Upper Frequency: Aluminum–Magnesium Dome
- Number of Tweeters: 45
- Tweeter Size: 3/4"
- Tweeter Type: Aluminum–Magnesium Dome
- System Type: Ported 4-Way Floor Standing
- Unit Dimensions (W x H x D): 22-11/16" (57.66cm) x 83-7/32" (211.2cm) x 25-27/32" (65.6cm)
- Unit Weight: 354 lbs (160.2 kg)
- Shipping Weight: 468 lbs (212.2 kg)
Description
The XRT2.1K Loudspeaker represents the next evolution of McIntosh home audio speakers. Borne from our 45+ years of designing speakers, the XRT2.1K is a full range system that provides spacious sound reproduction with an unusually deep sound stage. Standing 7 feet (2.1 meters) tall, a pair of them will grab the attention of every person in the room. But when the music starts, the only thing people will pay attention to is the enveloping sound they are experiencing.
Release Timeline
Manufacturer Site
Brand highlights
Taking a step back to look at reviewers' thoughts of the brand's entire lineup—not just this product—what stands out most is the following:
- McIntosh products blend classic, retro aesthetics, reminiscent of their 1970s designs, with modern materials and cutting-edge internal components, offering a unique visual appeal.
- The brand's amplifiers are known for their substantial power output, often exceeding specifications, and their ability to drive a wide range of speakers across varying impedance levels due to their unique Autoformer technology.
- McIntosh offers a high degree of customization and control through features like multi-band equalizers, adjustable input sensitivity, and advanced settings accessible via dedicated apps or web interfaces.
- They distinguish themselves with a focus on long-term reliability and customer satisfaction, with products built to last for decades and supported by a dedicated dealer network.
Select products
Select product comparisons
MHT300
- Positioning: Positioned as a versatile home theater receiver in McIntosh's lineup, suitable for custom installations or standalone display.
- Description: Supports 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz video, making it ideal for modern home theaters. Unlike other McIntosh products, it offers 7.2 channel audio with expandability to 7.2.4, providing flexibility for future upgrades. This makes it perfect for users looking to integrate advanced video capabilities and immersive audio in a custom home theater setup.
MHA200
- Positioning: A compact, high-quality headphone amplifier designed for personal audio enthusiasts.
- Description: Uses vacuum tube amplification, delivering a warm and detailed sound that is distinct from solid-state amplifiers like the MC462. Its compact size and multiple impedance settings make it versatile for various headphone types.
MC462
- Positioning: A powerful stereo amplifier, offering robust performance for high-end home audio systems.
- Description: Features a Quad Balanced design with McIntosh Autoformers, providing 450 Watts per channel with low distortion. Compared to the MC1502, it offers a solid-state solution with increased dynamic headroom.
MC1502
- Positioning: A high-power vacuum tube amplifier, ideal for audiophiles seeking classic tube sound.
- Description: Delivers 150 Watts per channel using vacuum tubes, offering a rich, warm sound that contrasts with the solid-state clarity of the MC462. Its Unity Coupled Circuit ensures consistent performance across various speaker impedances.
MC901
- Positioning: A unique dual mono amplifier, combining both vacuum tube and solid-state technologies.
- Description: Integrates a 300 Watt vacuum tube amplifier with a 600 Watt solid-state amplifier, providing the best of both worlds for bi-amping loudspeakers. This hybrid approach is unlike any other McIntosh product.
MC21KW
- Positioning: A flagship monoblock amplifier, representing the pinnacle of McIntosh's power amplification.
- Description: Delivers 2,000 Watts of power, making it suitable for the most demanding audio setups. Its tri-chassis design and advanced technologies like Autoformer and Power Guard set it apart from other amplifiers.
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Avg. Product Price
$100,001+
Used For Sale
543
Available (Scroll Down)
Brand Popularity
2
of 900+
Badges
Top 50 Brand
Top 250 Brand
Products Listed
77
Founding Year
1949
Our take on the brand
McIntosh is one of the most iconic amplifier brands in the world, recognizable for its signature blue LED displays and distinctive industrial design. With a legacy spanning decades, McIntosh is known to many, even outside the audiophile community, and is sold in both mass-market retailers and specialized hifi stores. Their amplifiers are characterized by a warm, tube-like sound that enriches the midrange and smooths out the overall tonal balance.
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What if you spend more?
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What competes at this price?
Burmester
BC150
150000
/
Released
2021
The new BC150 loudspeaker model by Burmester is now making the innovative leaps in sound quality, technology, and design from the Signature Line possible for other product lines. Within this loudspeaker model, elements of the BC350 loudspeakers from the Signature Line were incorporated.
Burmester, a high-end audio brand renowned for its German craftsmanship, designs and handcrafts its components in Berlin. Known for its distinctive industrial aesthetic with chrome finishes, the brand supplies premium sound systems for Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.
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Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Detailed, exciting, dynamic, and transparent sound
- Vanishingly low cabinet coloration, contributing to speed and detail
- Lung-emptying, bowel-clearing, demolition-grade bass
- Bass integrates well with the rest of the frequency range for an integrated musical performance
- Voices have breath and contour, yet the result always retains a minimum of warmth
Product Considerations
- Room acoustics should be a strong consideration, as the BC150 reveals room issues
- Needs a lot of quality electronics upstream
- Requires firm control and ample current capacity from the amplifier
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- The BC150 sounds more like a Burmester B38 with greater abilities to scale
Takeaway: The Burmester BC150 is a high-precision audio instrument that is both musically communicative and musically analytical, offering a detailed and transparent listening experience. It offers clarity and purity of sound, and brings music to another level.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Burmester, a high-end audio brand renowned for its German craftsmanship, designs and handcrafts its components in Berlin. Known for its distinctive industrial aesthetic with chrome finishes, the brand supplies premium sound systems for Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.
Product Page
Product Page
Borresen
M3
283975
/
Released
2023
The M3 speakers are the perfect blend of form and function, which reflects the excellent and highly productive partnership between two great minds in the audio industry – Michael Børresen and Flemming Erik Rasmussen. The sleek and elegant design of these speakers, combined with their outstanding audio performance, makes them a testament to Audio Group Denmark's commitment to audio excellence.
Børresen Acoustics stands out for its iron-free magnetic motors and cryogenically treated metal components, which reduce inductance for clearer sound. The brand's speakers feature unique elements like zirconium-based 3D-printed baskets and a patented ribbon tweeter design, combined with series crossover networks for phase-locked electrical current across frequencies.
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Our Summary
Product Strengths
- The M3 presents music with an unprecedented degree of individuality and specificity, without sacrificing tonality, texture, or body
- Remarkable level of resolution
- Astonishing transparency and is resolute
- Accurate tonality and represents timbre faithfully
- Exceptional high-frequency detail and speed due to a planar tweeter
- Accepts only banana terminations
Product Considerations
- The planar tweeter misses the very last measure of extension, shimmer, and effortlessness accomplished by the very best available today
- Low-frequency extension was limited to the high 20 Hz, low 30 Hz range
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Compared to Magico M9, the M3 has recalibrated the resolution yardstick by which all other loudspeakers must be measured and compared
- Compared to Von Schweikert Audio ULTRA 9s, the M3 has recalibrated the resolution yardstick by which all other loudspeakers must be measured and compared
Takeaway: The Børresen M3 loudspeakers boldly represent the realization of striking potential in audio and push known boundaries. People who choose the M3 will enjoy a specific level of playback that is unavailable from other loudspeakers.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Børresen Acoustics stands out for its iron-free magnetic motors and cryogenically treated metal components, which reduce inductance for clearer sound. The brand's speakers feature unique elements like zirconium-based 3D-printed baskets and a patented ribbon tweeter design, combined with series crossover networks for phase-locked electrical current across frequencies.
Product Page
Product Page
Wilson Audio
Alexx V
154000
/
Released
2021
The original Alexx loudspeaker, launched in 2016, quickly gained critical acclaim throughout the industry. Alexx benefited from several elements developed during the five years Wilson Audio's founder David A. Wilson, and his unwavering R&D team, brought to life his magnum opus: the WAMM Master Chronosonic. Now, five years after the monumental accomplishment of the WAMM, Alexx V builds upon the original Alexx's success by offering a completely re-engineered performance envelope without greatly increasing the footprint. Comparing the overall size of Alexx V to the original, Alexx V is only 1" deeper and 1" taller while maintaining the same width.
Wilson Audio is often considered the quintessential American high-end hi-fi brand, a staple in premium audio dealerships across the country. Many reviewers use Wilson speakers in their own home systems, reflecting their reputation for outstanding dynamics, bass depth, and the ability to reproduce classical music with remarkable realism. Wilson focuses on creating an uncolored sound, aiming to replicate the experience of live, unamplified performances.
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Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Sublime image size and expansiveness, coupled with an ability to be driven as hard as your ears or your amps can take
- A sense of balance to the sound of the Alexx V makes renewal possible, expressive and articulate from the deepest bass to the highest treble
- Trickle-down benefits from the WAMM Master Chronosonic and Chronosonic XVX
- Bass performance is otherworldly
- The Alexx V has the ability to uncover and continue to deliver micro-details at extremely high SPLs, even after that slam of a transient
Product Considerations
- Some power behind the throne is needed, because the loudspeaker's impedance plot drops to two ohms at 250Hz
- The dome tweeter does sacrifice the last ounce of micro-detail, compared to the insane resolving power of the best diamond and beryllium drivers
- The choice of finish needs to be considered with care
- Cable management can impact performance
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Compared to the original Alexx, the Alexx V is a massive improvement—closer to a baby XVX in so many ways
- Compared to the Alexia 2, the Alexx V was more than a mere additive sum, a step-function improvement
- Compared to the Wilson XVX and WAMM Master Chronosonic, the tweeter is effortless and resolving by normal standards, but no match for the extraordinary levels of detail retrieval
Takeaway: The Alexx V offers a sublime listening experience with excellent balance and dynamic range that allows the listener to get closer to the music. It is a worthy contender for those looking to upgrade their listening experience.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Wilson Audio is often considered the quintessential American high-end hi-fi brand, a staple in premium audio dealerships across the country. Many reviewers use Wilson speakers in their own home systems, reflecting their reputation for outstanding dynamics, bass depth, and the ability to reproduce classical music with remarkable realism. Wilson focuses on creating an uncolored sound, aiming to replicate the experience of live, unamplified performances.
Product Page
Product Page
Linn
360
110180
/
Released
2023
360 is audibly invisible. It produces a performance with unprecedented clarity and realism, that's entirely absent of sonic colouration. Incorporating innovative drive unit and amplifier technologies, 360 turns out our lowest ever levels of audible distortion. The honed curves of its cabinet are partnered with meticulously matched drive units to deliver the cleanest possible dispersion characteristics.
Linn is a hifi brand known for its modular designs, particularly the Sondek LP12 turntable where users can upgrade virtually every component over time to maintain performance across decades. The brand stands out for developing its own technologies in-house, including the Organik DAC with FPGA processing and Space Optimisation, which models room acoustics without needing microphone measurements.
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Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Excellent imaging, providing a strong stereo image for multiple listeners due to wide dispersion and Space Optimisation+
- Flexible and capable of playing all kinds of music, getting out of the music's way, and suitable for both large and smaller rooms
- Dynamic, detailed, and can play at a wide range of volume levels, from quiet listening to near PA levels
- Features a new driver array, including a Beryllium dome tweeter, thin-ply woven carbon fiber midrange (used on NASA's Mars Rover), and aluminum-magnesium alloy bass units
- Incorporates new amplifier technologies—'Power DAC' for the lower bass and 'Adaptive Bias Control' for the mid and treble—reducing distortion
Product Considerations
- The midrange dome is exposed, which might be a concern with children
- Owners of previous Linn systems may find the price difficult to accept
- Some audiophiles may prefer Linn to trawl its past rather than building its future, and they will want an Isobarik
- Some audiophiles may not be able to see past the LP12
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- The 360 offers significantly improved imaging and soundstaging compared to the Klimax 350
Takeaway: The Linn 360 is a high-end loudspeaker that provides excellent sound quality and flexibility, making it a great choice for enjoying music with friends or for personal listening sessions. Its innovative design and technology deliver a detailed and immersive audio experience.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Linn is a hifi brand known for its modular designs, particularly the Sondek LP12 turntable where users can upgrade virtually every component over time to maintain performance across decades. The brand stands out for developing its own technologies in-house, including the Organik DAC with FPGA processing and Space Optimisation, which models room acoustics without needing microphone measurements.
Product Page
Product Page
Magico
M7
375000
/
Released
2023
The Magico M7 is a four-way, six-driver floorstanding loudspeaker capable of astonishing performance. Featuring the latest Magico drive-unit technology, an organically shaped carbon-fiber-and-aluminum enclosure, and the latest Elliptical Symmetry Crossover, the M7 is a tour de force of advanced loudspeaker engineering. The M7 was conceived by Founder and CEO Alon Wolf as a more accessible version of the semi-active M9.
Magico is one of the leading American hifi brands, celebrated for its speakers' precision, clarity, and transparency. This reputation is built on the founder’s meticulous focus on eliminating vibrations, a design principle that customers claim significantly enhances sound quality. Their speakers incorporate carbon fiber and aluminum, along with custom-made drivers, to deliver a highly transparent listening experience. Magico’s sound is incredibly revealing, though some listeners may find it unforgiving with poorly recorded material. These speakers are favored by reviewers and audiophiles who prioritize transparency and accuracy above all else.
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Our Summary
Product Strengths
- The Magico M7 delivers the highest sound quality by the reviewer's metrics
- Described as 'vivid' due to a comprehensive lack of distortion, low compression, rich texture and detail, and coherence across the spectrum and image
- Soundstaging hangs in space with a realistically large soundstage window and deeper stage depth, approximating real sound in a real performance hall
- Superb instrumental definition with a tonal density that removes a filter, revealing the believable richness of each instrument combined with high definition and low etch
- Voicing is resolutely flat in terms of frequency response, so well-balanced recordings sound impressively right
Product Considerations
- The M7 might require bigger amplifiers to reach the dynamic levels of the best horn speakers
- It will not be a good fit for listeners who need frequency colorations to reassure them that their expensive speakers are doing something
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Vs MBL 101X, the M7 does a more believable simulation of the stage because it's rather clear about performer locations, but the MBL-101X gets the image off the speakers more reliably, but at the price of some placement precision and air
Takeaway: The Magico M7 speakers deliver a rare and significant sonic achievement with a focus on distortion minimization. These speakers set a benchmark across almost all important sonic dimensions, making them worth considering for serious audio enthusiasts.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Magico is one of the leading American hifi brands, celebrated for its speakers' precision, clarity, and transparency. This reputation is built on the founder’s meticulous focus on eliminating vibrations, a design principle that customers claim significantly enhances sound quality. Their speakers incorporate carbon fiber and aluminum, along with custom-made drivers, to deliver a highly transparent listening experience. Magico’s sound is incredibly revealing, though some listeners may find it unforgiving with poorly recorded material. These speakers are favored by reviewers and audiophiles who prioritize transparency and accuracy above all else.
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