When you had been standing in entrance of the thin townhouse on West seventeenth Road in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, with its concrete facade dotted with slim, office-like vertical home windows, you’d don’t know simply by it that behind its towering bronze doorways is a five-story wonderland for audiophiles.
With its doorways formally open as of September 21, the Home of Sound is a one-of-a-kind, 11,000-square-foot audio expertise heart dreamed up by hi-fi firm McIntosh Group, which calls it “a thoughtfully curated multi-sensory townhouse that highlights the group’s manufacturers and premium audio improvements.”
That’s an understatement. The Home of Sound options a number of fantastically furnished and acoustically designed listening areas the place you possibly can go, have a drink, and hearken to a variety of state-of-the-art audio methods made up of a choice of the McIntosh Group’s high-end parts, together with McIntosh’s personal iconic, glowing blue-faced amplifiers, audio system by Sonus Faber, Professional-Ject Audio turntables (with Sumiko cartridges), parts from Rotel and its subbrand Michi, and extra. And it’s open to the general public, by appointment.
We got a customized tour of the townhouse that, with its furnishings supplied by luxe Italian model Baxter, feels extra like a comfortable residence than an audio showroom — which is solely the purpose as you possibly can’t truly purchase something there if you happen to wished to. (That’s not as bizarre as you suppose — main tech corporations have finished the identical factor in New York Metropolis, too.)
“We’re not promoting. We don’t promote right here,” Dave Mascioni, McIntosh Group’s international director of name advertising and marketing, informed me. “We offer experiences for people that can ideally ultimately discover their solution to our many, many sellers all through the world.”
Six listening areas
So, let’s speak about these listening experiences. With 5 flooring, the Home of Sound incorporates a massive house theater, two small and comfy listening rooms, two bigger open reference listening areas, and a rooftop area kitted with Sonus Faber out of doors audio system, a scorching tub, and an important metropolis view (it additionally makes use of this area for occasions).
The house theater demonstration was completely bananas. Arrange on the principle flooring, the multilevel room incorporates a 9.16.4 sound system pushed by a mixture of 19 McIntosh amplifiers and a variety of Sonus Faber Enviornment customized set up audio system that features 16 subwoofers, 10 of that are lined up beneath the large display screen. The demonstration included a video of a dwell acoustic efficiency from Eric Clapton enjoying Layla that sounded as excessive and extensive within the soundstage because it absolutely sounded within the live performance corridor it was recorded in. It was so lifelike, I feel we clapped after the tune was over.
We then watched a 6-minute clip from Denis Villeneuve’s Dune that was prefaced by a Sonus Faber rep, in his thick Italian accent, saying: “What you’ll hear now’s the wave that can arrive to you.”
He wasn’t kidding. The ten Sonus Faber Enviornment S15 subs had been really ground-shaking. Clear, outlined, and expressive, they rumbled the seat beneath me, prompting me to ask if the sofa I used to be sitting on was outfitted with an under-seat woofer.
It was not.
The remainder of the system consisted of 4 in-ceiling Enviornment 10 audio system and 6 Enviornment 20 audio system, with two on either side and two rears, and the six remaining S15 subs additionally within the again. The immersive encompass sound expertise was simply higher than any movie show I’ve ever been in, and we solely watched that quick clip.
Actually breathtaking
The 2 giant reference listening rooms on the second and fifth flooring had been equally spectacular from a pure music-listening perspective, with every completely acoustically calibrated to their rooms and outfitted with cozy couches you may mainly dwell on. Once more, McIntosh and Sonus Faber gear is the main focus, with an array of Professional-Ject and McIntosh turntables and ample vinyl data, in addition to hi-res digital music streaming through Roon, offering the music.
Of the reference rooms, nevertheless, the larger of them on the second flooring was really breathtaking, because it incorporates a set of McIntosh’s flagship XRT2.1 floor-standing audio system, which stand 7 toes tall and ship 2,000 watts of energy every. Pushed by a complete of 8,000 mixed watts from a number of McIntosh amplifiers (our demo was solely pushing a measly 200 of these watts, although), the whole value of this insane setup is, they informed me, round $270,000. For sure, within the giant room we had been in, the sound was breathtaking, and as spacious, clear, balanced, and noise-free as you would possibly anticipate.
The remaining listening areas, two cozy smaller rooms on the third flooring labeled “Disco” and “Jazz,” present a way more down-to-earth, intimate expertise a lot nearer to what most individuals would have at house. A McIntosh setup with Sonus Electra Amator III bookshelf audio system is within the Disco room whereas Rotel and Michi (a more moderen subbrand of Rotel) amplifiers and Sonus Faber Olympic Nova III floors-tanders are within the Jazz room. My glorious tour information, Sonus Faber’s international taining supervisor William Kline, curated the music, was sort sufficient to let me spin a replica of OK Pc that was serendipitously sitting on the candy McIntosh MT2 Precision turntable.
Moreover, the homey townhouse additionally has a full-featured kitchen, a eating room space that incorporates a vinyl library and lineup of Professional-Ject turntables and headphone amps, an out of doors terrace, and a bed room. I imply, you may truly dwell right here
From my private perspective, being guided by a number of the world’s best-sounding audio gear by the individuals who realize it finest is considerably moot, as a result of this worth level is much, far past my means. “In case your stereo system prices lower than your day by day driver car, you might be dwelling your life improper,” Kline joked. However despite the fact that I’m not the goal market, those that are, aspire to be, or are simply into listening to and studying extra about high-end audio can ebook an appointment and get a tremendous expertise that you could’t get on the vendor degree. In actual fact, Mascioni informed me that a lot of their sellers all over the world have taken inspiration from this experience-based setup of their shops, and the Group has aspirations to open extra Home of Sound places globally.
“We created the Home of Sound to carry to life McIntosh Group’s core design ideas throughout high-end sound, versatility, and longevity for not solely our tried-and-true model followers, but additionally as a solution to convert music and movie lovers into audio lovers,” mentioned Daniel Pidgeon, CEO of McIntosh Group. “There’s one thing about closing your eyes and indulging in pristine sound that sticks with you. We hope by our immersive product expertise hub, we will create that spark for those that makes them wish to put money into premium audio gear.”
The McIntosh Home of Sound opened on September 21, 2023, at 357 West seventeenth Road, New York. Prescheduled private excursions might be requested by visiting houseofsoundNYC.com.
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