Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

McIntosh ML1 MkII loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog sources: VPI HW-40 turntable, VPI 12" Fatboy tonearm, Pro-Ject Classic EVO turntable, Lyra Etna λ Lambda cartridge, Ortofon Bronze Cadenza cartridge, Sumiko Amethyst cartridge.
Digital sources: MacBook Air running Tidal, Roon, Qobuz. Bricasti M1 Series II DAC, Musical Fidelity M1 CDT transport, ProJect CD Box RS 2 T.
Preamplification: McIntosh C12000.
Integrated Amplifier: McIntosh MA252.
Power Amplifier: McIntosh MC462.
Loudspeakers: Harbeth C7ES-3XD, Wilson Audio Specialties Sasha V.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond AES, Coffee USB; Interconnects: AudioQuest Fire, Sky; Speaker: AudioQuest Firebird, Robin Hood; AC: AudioQuest Dragon.
Accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 7000 power conditioner, Mapleshade equipment rack, Audiodesksysteme Vinyl Cleaner Pro, VPI Periphery Ring Clamp, IsoAcoustics isolation footers, Gingko Audio Cloud Platforms.—Sasha Matson

COMPANY INFO
McIntosh Laboratory Inc.
2 Chambers St.
Binghamton
NY 13903
(607) 723-3512
mcintoshlabs.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on June 19, 2024 - 9:38am

I get vintage, but.. whaaaaaat? Lol..

Provide an alternate sans wood grille as well?

Nice review Sasha. Yes, Virginia, break-in is real. So are cable performance differences. Ask your cronies!

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on June 19, 2024 - 1:47pm

The grill actually improves the measured sound, with a chonk of wood in the middle lol.

Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on June 19, 2024 - 2:24pm

Lol! I bet it's necessary now due to the original design parameters for the rest of the speaker.

Ortofan's picture
Submitted by Ortofan on June 19, 2024 - 1:00pm

... upgraded parts in the crossover.

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on June 19, 2024 - 1:31pm

A $12k standmount speaker should not be using low cost caps in its crossover. They're not even high tolerance (5%?!?! - No. Use only 1% or better in a $12k speaker).

My Dynaudio Heritage Specials cost about half of what this speaker does and uses significantly better quality parts (top of the line Mundorf caps and WBT terminals, plus the amazeballs Esotar 3 tweeter, etc). I blame the new owners at McIntosh. A private equity company now owns the brand group, so I expect them to get "Gordon Gekko'd" over the next few years and parted out. Sonus Faber is also part of the group. Same crap Sound United did to Boston Acoustics (which is now defunct). Wonder what they'd want for the brand name?

JohnnyThunder2.0's picture
Submitted by JohnnyThunder2.0 on June 20, 2024 - 6:26am

would deliver so much more fidelity, musicality and finesse. Yeah, you would spend more for a similar sized box. Sadly probably over the heads of most potential purchasers of this speaker. But Macintosh is an American lifestyle brand so you get what you get: a Ford F150 of a speaker. PS - of the new versions of old American brands, I think Klipsch seems to be the most authentic though one of those new JBLs was admittedly a lot of fun to listen to for hard rock.

MatthewT's picture
Submitted by MatthewT on June 20, 2024 - 6:58am

With those stupid LED's under the tubes.

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on June 20, 2024 - 3:24pm

And the JBL's I want to hear are the 4367's that were reviewed here a couple years ago - 15" + horn and measures great.

Ortofan's picture
Submitted by Ortofan on June 24, 2024 - 12:55am

... about double the price of the ML1 MK II, for the same $12K one could buy a pair of Harbeth SHL5plus XD speakers, AND a pair of REL Classic 99 subwoofers - which have a 12" driver (and a 450W amplifier).
"Fidelity, musicality and finesse" plus deep, powerful bass response.

https://harbeth.co.uk/shl5plus-xd-loudspeaker/

https://rel.net/uk/shop/powered-subwoofers/classic/classic-99/

JohnnyThunder2.0's picture
Submitted by JohnnyThunder2.0 on June 25, 2024 - 10:15am

While a 12" woofer is going to move a lot of air and shake the foundations in a way other speakers physcally cannot, I would agree 1000% that the Harbeth/REL combo you described would be way more musical and beautiful sounding. Of course, I haven't heard these behemoths but they get disqualified from my world immediately without a silk or sophisticated soft dome tweeter like the Harbeths. I have heard the Harbeths in demo and it was one of the few times I felt some regret over the speakers I had purchased a few months before. Beautiful ripe bass and smooth sweet highs. Maybe they wouldn't play Van Halen or Wu-Tang Clan as well as these Macintosh speakers but in almost everything else I bet there would be no comparison.

MatthewT's picture
Submitted by MatthewT on June 19, 2024 - 11:57am

I'm sure it's just me, but I do not get the love for Mac gear.

georgehifi's picture
Submitted by georgehifi on June 19, 2024 - 12:42pm

They just love the colour blue, but where is it here???
And yes those Bennic caps are bottom of the barrel.
Cheers George

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on June 19, 2024 - 1:52pm

the love for the older built like a freakin' tank Mac's that last for decades, but not the newer built to a price point stuff. They were aquired by a private equity firm in 2022, and quality is never in their equations.

Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on June 19, 2024 - 2:22pm

Do not get how they could be so out of of touch with audiophiles and the generally informed public.

And to agree to a review when there are some glaring issues like parts quality for this price point. I would still think PE firms know their market. Pfft.

PeterG's picture
Submitted by PeterG on June 19, 2024 - 6:05pm

I love my C22/MC275 amps, but these are a stretch. At $12,000, there's some very tough competition, and so much about these seems like a marketing grab. In addition to the specifics mentioned above, we should add the bases--do those look well-engineered for rigidity. isolation, etc to you? I suppose I would listen if I was already in the store and the dealer insisted...

David Harper's picture
Submitted by David Harper on June 22, 2024 - 9:48am

Truer words were never spoken. Dynamic cones and domes in a wooden box.
12K/pair. Perfect match for the 28K vacuum tube amp in the next review.Back to the future. Audiophilia is truly a strange thing.
Value/performance inversely proportional to price. But I still read these reviews. The subjective descriptions of sound are mind-bending. I marvel at the ability of the writer to describe the sound of an amp or a speaker in terms that defy any rational real-world experience of home audio. But maybe imagination is what's important. Maybe I lack imagination.

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on June 22, 2024 - 1:26pm

You whine about the ultra expensive stuff then ignore the $300 streaming integrated (aka the new jack receiver) review posted yesterday.

As far as the subjective descriptions; perhaps they, like myself, have synesthesia. JCA has said he has it, and JVS' descriptions sound like he has it - he once described a golden glow within the sound that I've literally experienced myself. It wouldn't surprise me if HR and KM have it too. When I say something sounds grey, I literally see the color grey overlaid on the sound (phase issues in the treble cause this for me). If I say it sounds like stucco, I literally see/feel that texture of smearing when I hear the sound (DSD, don't know why, and always white stucco). The brain is weird and wonderful, and they're all different.

Synesthesia, at least for me, is like a cheat code for writing about sound since I literally have both visual and tactile sensations along with it. Unfortunately, I also have misophonia with a few sounds. Like the sound of someone licking paper, especially construction paper... aagh, just thinking about it squicks me out hard. When I was reviewing equipment, once I got a handle on the sound the writing was usually quick and easy.

Thinking your experience of the world is the same as anyone else's is the height of arrogance. If we were all the same humanity would have gone extinct long ago.

David Harper's picture
Submitted by David Harper on June 22, 2024 - 2:46pm

Every now and then I'm powerless to resist my compulsion to respond.
I'm working on it.

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on June 22, 2024 - 5:07pm

also, these do not meet the price to performance ratio required of $12,000 real US Dollar retail speakers, on this we do agree.

ok's picture
Submitted by ok on June 23, 2024 - 4:46am

(high, low, hard, soft, sweet, cold etc) are actually metaphorical. There must be a good reason for that, but it eludes me thus far.

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on June 24, 2024 - 3:58pm

When I say something sounds "grey", such as Outkast's otherwise excellent song "ATLiens," I literally mean I see the color grey while listening, with a roughly 90 to 95 percent transparency. It's not a metaphor, it's literal and it's how I hear high frequency phase issues. A doorbell literally shot squiggly red geometric shapes out towards me once. luckily, my visual synesthesia is very rarely that pronounced. Texture/tactile is a bit stronger for me.

Bruce Swedien has said it can be a curse to have synesthesia (he had it), because it can be distracting while trying to mix a record, such as Off the Wall or Thriller. He also used it as a tool, saying he knew the tonal balance of a song mix was right when it sounded golden. As in he saw a golden hue while listening. It's half the reason recording studios are often dimly lit. Rock-n-roll is the other half (metaphorically, wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean). 5 to 15 percent of the population has synesthesia, but anecdotally it's higher among sound professionals (sound is more interesting when you can see/feel/taste/smell it).

Woody, I assume is more mundane - it sounds like the resonance frequency of a log. I occasionally feel a woody texture, but it's very rare. Sometimes what people call woody sounds brown of various shades to me, but not always. IT IS NOT THE BROWN NOTE. "Woody" is around 300 to 500 Hertz.

High/low; frequency? so it's a grouping of numerical values.

warm/cool - metaphor, for me at least

hard - literal for me, usually really bad high frequency phase issues. or the NAD M23 into large Focal speakers (class D phase issues into very bright beryllium tweeter speakers). It literally sounded/felt like the edge of an off-white cultured marble countertop was hitting me regardless of volume. Hard and unpleasant. And a very bad pairing of amp and speaker. This may explain why I prefer soft dome tweeters (resonance behavior).

soft - can be literal for me, also metaphorical

sweet - metaphor for me

funambulistic's picture
Submitted by funambulistic on June 30, 2024 - 1:01am

Very interesting supamark! It is a helpful, if not trippy, tool for me as well. I see "sound bubbles" if the system is set up well and capable of producing them. I recently had the pleasure to listen to two systems belonging to members of a local audio club. They were relatively equal with regard to price (i.e., "if you need to ask" expensive). One produced said bubbles, the other did not. You can guess which one I preferred.

I also "see" different materials, especially metals but sometimes fabrics, mostly in the treble region. The "whiter" the material, the less I like it. If I see aluminium or steel (separate from the actual tweeter material - it could be a metal or fabric dome) I run for the hills!

ok's picture
Submitted by ok on June 24, 2024 - 7:46pm

..since I'm not familiar with synesthetic experiences. It still never fails to amaze me that there is no literal vocabulary peculiar to sonic qualities and one is forced to rely on various metaphors; it also makes it extremely difficult for one to communicate one's inner perception of sound/music in a meaningful and useful way - hence the usual argument "I don't (think I) hear it, so you don't hear it either!"

scottsol's picture
Submitted by scottsol on June 27, 2024 - 12:52am

These speakers in no way reflect poorly on the current owner of McIntosh. Rather than indicate a changed approach for the company, they perfectly align with the market position that Mc speakers have always filled.

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