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The Audio System That Costs as Much as a House

by Will Safer on January 9, 2008 at 03:42 PM




Binghamton, N.Y.-based McIntosh, maker of high-end home theater equipment for some truly demanding audio aficionados, is showing a $190,000 home theater system here at the Consumer Electronics Show -- a set up which they call, simply, "The Reference System." That $190,000 is just under the $240,000 national average for the cost of an entire home in the United States.

Each tweeter (the speakers that produce higher frequencies) in this system has 110 drivers, for example. Spreading the sound output among so many gives a much sweeter tweeter, so to speak. But that's hard for a system to manage, and creates the need for some seriously complex (and expensive) components.

"It takes a lot of power to produce sound that gives you the same type of experience you'd have if you were in a concert hall," said McIntosh's James Ludoviconi. "Despite this, the system itself is extremely quiet, so the only sound you hear is from the source content." Each 2,000-watt amp utilizes something called "quad-balancing" to eliminate the noise a powerful piece of equipment might otherwise make on its own. Quite a feat of engineering.

Frankly, we were impressed just looking at the set up.

Better get a bigger piggy bank.

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Tags: audio, expensive, home theater, HomeTheater, McIntosh, speakers

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