What do you guys know about XR-5 speakers?

Never listened to a Mac speaker in my life. A pair of XR-5's appeared on CL list locally for $ 500.00. They look very clean. Are they worth a listen? Thanks.

Very much like a ML1 but voiced a little bit brighter, about 3dB at 10k therefore two tweeters not one.

As with all Mac speakers of the XR and ML series the mid dome is susceptible to damage.....buyer beware.

The XR-5 needed the Mac EQ and a lot of power for the time to get the best performance. I thought they sounded great and more realistic than the ML series. The bass was very accurate, being almost scary below 50 hz where similar speakers failed miserably. They blew the doors off of a Ar 3a's etc. They were a real step up from other New England School of speakers. They can't fill a big room, and if your after a wow factor, I would pass. The speakers were subject to surround failures on woofers and mids, tweeters are no longer available, so a thorough inspection would be mandatory. To me they reproduced faithful to the performance recordings with great accuracy. Studio recordings could sound trumped up, which if they were, were portrayed as such. A sharp knife can cut both ways I was told. As with all speakers listening position and speaker location can influence the sound, but Mac gave you the choice with their speaker EQ's to correct for these issues.

Thanks Twiii. My room is large, 18x30 so apparently they won't work. I am running a pair of small Klipsch towers now and they are nice but don't fill the room like I'd like. I also don't want something huge that becomes the focal point of the room. The search continues....thanks for your response. I appreciate it.

Surrounds are not an iisue and can be found. The MQ102 is a must. I started with a pair of XR5s I bought from a craigslist add after the guy sold advents I thought I wanted. He had them just refoamed and were in original shipping boxes. I then liked them so much bought XRT20s an XR19s in a deal I could not refuse. The 5s I need to dust off and repurpose. They are too nice to let stand idle. I ran them with a set of 901s and they definetly addressed the low bass issues. I found I had the 901s switched out for serious listening.

VB- My room is large. I would want to use them for fronts so after researching them I don't think they are for me. On second thought, considering my ears like Klipsch speakers and everything else in the room is Klipsch (in walls and ceilings), I'm going to go in that direction. The towers I'm using now just aren't warm enough for my liking. This space is our family room so my wife nor I want anything intrusive in the room. Thanks for your input!

Klipsch speakers are the easy way out. High sensitivity good dispersion control with the use of horns for the mids and highs, but other wise they are pure distortion generators below150 hz and they don't have the bottom octave of a Mac speaker. The older Klipsch Heritage speakers with the EV tweeter and Atlas midrange driver can't handle the power the new ones can, but have a much smoother HF response. If I were you I would look for some XRT 22 or XRT 30 or the XR290. The 290 gets the nod in this instance. a Pair of 601's or a 602 amp would be a good match for the 290. They'd put put the same or a touch more than a Cornwall, reach an octave lower than either the Cornwall or Korner horn with magnitudes of less distortion. The only current Mac speaker that would really fill your room is the XRT 2K and with the MC 2K amps would set you way back, but would guarantee to impress. Call Audio Classics they had a pre-owned set..

Corn wall maximum out put. 117 db, Korner horn 121 db, XRT 290 , 116 + db, XRT 2k 118+ db. But as the Macs are line arrays they only loose 3 db when each time you double the distance , while the Cornwall is about 4.5 db because of the horn and the korner horn about 3 db too as it is placed in a corner. You realize to get the best illusion for the korner horns they should be placed in the corners on the long wall with a Belle in the center. The focal, point for the Corner horns would be at 15 ft from the wall directly in front of the Belle. If you placed the Korner horns on the short wall the focal point would be at 9 ft from the wall and once you got further than 24 ft from the wall you would be out of the best coverage of the korner horns. Just some thoughts. And remember the Mac speakers will reach down to 16 Hz, where ther Klipsch speakers are rolling off rapidly at 35 Hz. The older Klipsch tweeters can only produce levels with in 10 db of the midrange and woofer. The newer units with the peaky response can reproduce with in 3 to 4 db of the midrange. Where Mac tweeters and line array mids can out perform the woofers in level with lower distortion. Where klipsch mid range and tweeters approach 10 to 20 % distortion Mac speakers are usually below 1% and normally below .3 % for the big line arrays. JBL makes their DD65000, and 66000 with woofers with distortion below 3% like the macs and they can produce the same levels up to a point with as low of distortion as the Macs, but above - 10 db from full output the JBL's start to sag like the Klipsch and the distortion really rises.

So above 110 db the Big Mac speakers have at least a magnitude less distortion than the Klipsch and JBL and in some cases two magnitudes lower distortion. The big JBL's are 4 to 6db more efficient than the Mac speakers at 1 meter, but at your seating location because of the full line array the Macs will be more . JBLs

Now lets get real for a moment. Most folks listen at 85 db with 90 db average for audiophiles and recording engineers. Throw in 10 db for peaks and thats only 100 db, Concert level for live un aided performance is usually 104 db. So in your room at your listening distance we figure you will loose about 6 to 8 db. So you add all that up and your speakers would need to be able to produce 112 db. Well the kipsch horn would only need 6 watts. Corn walls 14 or 15 watts and the Mac speakers about 200 watts. Not really a problem. But then you throw in the impress factor.

My speakers are 95.5 db at 1 meter 2 watts, so all I would need for 112 db is 80 watts. I have the potential for 720 watts for each speaker. I have never seen a power guard light flash or a meter go over 100 watts. And I'll guarantee the level was loud enough to impress.

Twiii- Wow. I'm impressed and kinda confused. I'll have to digest your post further.

The XR 5 speakers are a low distortion (for a speaker), easy to listen to, musical speaker. This makes them a marginal speaker for many audiophiles.

They were designed to make use of a MQ104 parametric eq if the owner was willing to add $400 to the purchase.

cdk...I have been reading about them and they might just do the trick. This system is not my main system but I'm not happy with my fronts. Bear in mind, this is a surround set up but we also listen to 2 channel through my MX 119. With this said, the room is large and while I don't expect the perfection, I want a warmer more detailed sound, particularly on low volume. Some comments indicate that they might not be large enough for the space. I guess that's my quandry to figure out. I'm thinking they would be better than what I have which was a stop gap until I made a final decision.

Gosh it was a long time ago......but I would spec xr3 s for a 12X14 room, xr5s for a 14X18, 16X20 xr6s.....

Placement could add bass efficency and therefore use smaller speakers in larger space. Using our voicing equipment allowed us to dial these in with even marginal placement.

18 x30....albeit that the listening viewing space is not at the far end so in essence the "media" area is 18 x 18.

With any speaker near the midpoint of the soundstage wall and the other closer to the corner, the bass response of each speaker will be different.

See the white paper I posted in the Mac tech sticky.

With these XR series speakers Mac put in it's dealers hands the ability to correct this by offering the aa2 analyzer and mq104. They will certainly sound different than klipschs...

Check the metal screen covered mid dome for buzzes and rattles very carefully......acoustic piano will eat them alive if a voice coil is loose.

Found a pair of XR 5's on CL. Been listening to them for hours. Warm, musical, detailed. I don't have the EQ, not sure I need it but I'll probably pick one up anyway. They fill the room perfectly. If anything, the bass is a bit strong. Perhaps the EQ will help??? In any event, I'm happy with the purchase. They are in great shape too. A few small frayed edges on the veneer which shouldn't be an issue to repair or even re-veneer. Thanks for your input.

Once you add the EQ, you'll understand what twiiii is talking about with the bass.

I think he's right. I have to turn the bass below flat to keep the pictures on the walls! Besides that, they are amazing!

Which of these Mc speakers would be recommended for an MA2275 tube integrated?

infinitary said:

Which of these Mc speakers would be recommended for an MA2275 tube integrated?

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Pick one with at least 89 dB at 1 Watt sensitivity while Roger was there since you only have 75 WPC. They are all good. I own 3 pair of his designs.

www.roger-russell.com/speakers2.htm

Based on the wording of the MQ 101 owner's manual (albeit reading between the lines) it doesn't appear you'll really need the EQ - provided both speakers are placed in corners.

62caddy said:

Based on the wording of the MQ 101 owner's manual (albeit reading between the lines) it doesn't appear you'll really need the EQ - provided both speakers are placed in corners.

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MQ102 is all one needs for flat response. I am running my XR5s in corners for rear surrounds without the EQ. Because XR cabinets are loaded with insulation and highly damped they sound way better with MQ102. But since they are rears the fronts are hooked up to MQ102. I am itching to buy another for rears despite in corner because I know what it does and how much better it sounds and feels.