About the McIntosh RS100
Wireless music with vintage McIntosh performance
Wireless music with vintage McIntosh performance
McIntosh made their name on superior sound and good old-fashioned craftsmanship, but you don't stick around 60 years without innovation. Enter their RS100 wireless loudspeaker system. This retro-styled speaker meets today's music-listening needs by featuring a multi-room music platform that I'm bullish about — DTS Play-Fi. Play-Fi lets you play music wirelessly from your phone, tablet, or PC and stream tunes from services like Spotify, TIDAL, Pandora, and Amazon Prime. Plus, you can add Play-Fi speakers and components to other rooms and create a whole-home audio system.
The high gloss black McIntosh RS100 wireless speaker (grille removed) lets you add wireless music and detailed sound to any room.
What I like most about Play-Fi is the freedom of choice. You can build your multi-room system out of speakers and components from a variety of brands, and control them all with one app. As for the RS100, it's all McIntosh. It only takes one glance at the classic-looking front panel, knobs, and glowing blue meter to see that.
Powerful, detailed McIntosh sound
While the looks are convincing, wait 'til you hear your wireless tunes reproduced with authoritative punch and clarity. A 3/4" titanium dome tweeter provides smooth highs, while a 4" long throw woofer delivers accurate mids and tight bass. Deeper lows are reinforced by a rear-firing port in the solid, distortion-dampening cabinet. If you need more bass, a subwoofer output lets you connect a separate powered sub (not included).
Thanks to Play-Fi, the RS100 offers lossless playback of songs in your digital library. It will even play your high-resolution files, all wirelessly.
Set up and control Play-Fi on your phone, tablet, or laptop
The RS100 connects to your home network via dual internal Wi-Fi antennas, reducing drop-outs and interference. Once you download the free DTS Play-Fi app, you're ready to use the speaker in mere minutes. It's available for Android™, iOS®, and Kindle Fire, along with Windows® PC operating systems. Use the app to select music, control playback, and adjust volume.
Mix and match speakers in other rooms
With Play-Fi, you can create a simple yet flexible multi-room audio system. Play-Fi allows you to send the same song to multiple components and speakers or play a different song in every room. Family members can even control speakers independently with their own device.
You can add Play-Fi to your existing stereo with the McIntosh MB50 streaming audio player. And these McIntosh devices will work with other Play-Fi devices from other manufacturers. That means you can mix and match different brands of wireless speakers and components, offering more flexibility than other closed systems.
Product highlights:
- 2-way bookshelf speaker
- high-gloss black finish with clear acrylic front panel and McIntosh's classic illuminated blue meter
- two built-in drivers:
- one 4" long-throw mid/bass woofer
- one 3/4" titanium dome tweeter
- rear ported cabinet for enhanced bass
- 60 watts total amplification
- frequency response: 55-20,000 Hz
- sensitivity: 85 dB
DTS Play-Fi Software:
- allows speaker to communicate with the McIntosh MB50 and other Play-Fi components and speakers
- built-in dual-band Wi-Fi allows connection to your wireless home network and wireless communication with other Play-Fi devices (recommended maximum of 16 devices on a network)
- free Play-Fi app for Apple, Android, Kindle, and Windows PC offers easy music selection and playback
- plays music stored on device
- supports Spotify® Connect, Pandora®, Rhapsody, Amazon Prime, TIDAL, SiriusXM, and thousands of free Internet radio stations (subscription required for some services)
- DLNA support for streaming music from compatible networked computers and NAS drives
- multi-zone synchronous playback (same music plays in multiple zones simultaneously) or multi-stream playback (music individually selected for each player)
- easy wireless setup using your smartphone, tablet, or PC
- plays MP3, M4A, FLAC, and WAV files; sampling rates up to 24-bit/192kHz
- not compatible with protected files with digital rights management (DRM)
General Information:
- analog RCA mono aux input
- for stereo sources, use a dual female to single male RCA Y-adapter
- USB port for firmware updates
- also compatible with Ethernet-to-USB adapter (sold separately) for a hardwired connection to your home network
- mono RCA subwoofer output
- configure two RS100 speakers for stereo playback
- AC adapter included (must be plugged in to outlet)
- removable magnetic grille covered in black cloth
- 802.11g/n Wi-Fi router required for multi-room streaming
- works with 2.4GHz or 5.0GHz routers
- 8-1/4"W x 12-3/4"H x 8"D
- weight: 15 lbs.
- warranty: 3 years
- Our 60-day money-back guarantee
- requires high-speed Internet and Wi-Fi router
- MFR # RS100
What's in the box:
- Wireless network audio speaker
- Grille
- 6' AC power cord
- Owner's Manual
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More details on the McIntosh RS100
Features & specs
| Connections | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ethernet Port | No | |
| USB Port | No | |
| 3.5mm Input | RCA | |
| RCA Input | No | |
| XLR Input | No | |
| Phono Input | No | |
| Digital Input | No | |
| HDMI Input | No | |
| Headphone Jack | No | |
| Subwoofer Output | Mono-RCA | |
| Wireless Features | ||
| Bluetooth | No | |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11 a/b/g/n | |
| Wi-Fi Bands | 2.4, 5GHz | |
| Driver Details | ||
| Tweeter Size (Inches) | 0.75 | |
| Tweeter Type | Hard-Dome | |
| Tweeter Material | --- | |
| Midrange Size (Inches) | --- | |
| Midrange Type | --- | |
| Woofer Size (Inches) | 4 | |
| Woofer Type | Cone | |
| Audio Specs | ||
| Watts RMS (Continuous) | 60 | |
| Watts Maximum (Peak) | Not given | |
| Frequency Response | Not given | |
| Max. Digital Audio Bit Depth | 24-bit | |
| Max. Digital Audio Sample Rate | 192 kHz | |
| Ecosystems | ||
| Apple AirPlay | No | |
| Apple AirPlay 2 | No | |
| DTS Play-Fi | Yes | |
| Chromecast built-in | No | |
| Roon | No | |
| Sonos | No | |
| HEOS | No | |
| MusicCast | No | |
| SoundTouch | No | |
| Bose Home Speaker | No | |
| WiSA | No | |
| BluOS | No | |
| Klipsch Stream | No | |
| KEF Stream | No | |
| Music Services | ||
| Amazon Music | Amazon Music HD | |
| Apple Music | No | |
| iHeart Radio | Yes | |
| Pandora | Yes | |
| Qobuz | No | |
| SiriusXM | Yes | |
| Spotify | Connect | |
| Tidal | Yes | |
| TuneIn | Yes | |
| YouTube Music | No | |
| Control | ||
| Handheld Remote | No | |
| Control by app | iOS,Android,Windows | |
| Amazon Alexa | No | |
| Google Assistant | No | |
| Other Specs | ||
| Width (Inches) | 8.25 | |
| Height (Inches) | 12.75 | |
| Depth (Inches) | 8 | |
| Parts Warranty | 3 Years | |
| Labor Warranty | 3 Years | |
Product Research
Features
Wireless Active Loudspeaker: The McIntosh RS100 wireless active loudspeaker allows you to easily add streaming music to any room in your home or office. Just connect it to your WiFi network and then stream from your Apple iOS device, Android smartphone/tablet or Windows PC. An auxiliary input is available for non-streaming use.
- Two-Way Speaker Design: The RS100 wireless loudspeaker features one 0.75" titanium tweeter and one 4" woofer with a 2,500Hz crossover. The 0.75" titanium dome tweeter reproduces high frequencies up to 20,000Hz. The tweeter's voice coil is magnetic-fluid cooled for less thermal compression. The 4" cone woofer reproduces low frequencies down to 55Hz. The long-throw woofer has an under hung voice coil in a 1/2" thick top plate, with copper cap for distortion reduction.
- 60 Watt Amplifier: The RS100 utilizes a built-in 60 watt amplifier to power the 0.75" tweeter and 4" woofer for dynamic sound that sounds great at any volume level.
- Bass Reflex Enclosure: The wireless speaker utilize a bass reflex cabinet with a rear firing port for greater efficiency and bigger, deeper bass response. The speaker cabinet is made of durable cast aluminum and finished with high gloss black finish. The speaker cabinet includes a detachable black knit cloth grille. The speaker cabinet is slightly angle upward for better sound dispersion.
Built-In WiFi: The McIntosh RS100 features built-in WiFi to connect to your home's existing wireless WiFi network to give you access to Internet Radio, select online music services, and music libraries on your smartphone/tablet or laptop/computer.
- 802.11 a/b/g/n
- Dual Band 2.4GHz / 5.0 GHz
- WPS (WiFi Protected Setup)
Note: The speaker's USB (type-A) port is used exclusively to connect the RS100 to a wired network using a USB-to-Ethernet adapter (sold separately - not available at Crutchfield).
DTS Play-Fi Wireless Technology: The McIntosh RS100 wireless loudspeaker employs DTS Play-Fi wireless technology for wireless sound that is reliable and high-quality. DTS Play-Fi combines DTS audio and WiFi wireless technology to wirelessly stream high-definition "lossless" audio with no impact on sound quality. DTS Play-Fi will stream pure, bit-for-bit, lossless audio, for uncompromised quality sound; up to 16-bit/48kHz. DTS Play-Fi has a range of up to 100' from your wireless router.
Note: All DTS Play-Fi enabled products work seamlessly together, so there's no hassle adding more speakers, or choosing more than one audio brand (like McIntosh, MartinLogan, Definitive Technology, Polk, Paradigm, Phorus, Wren, etc..) in your home.
DTS Play-Fi App: Download the free DTS Play-Fi App onto your Apple iOS (6.0+) device, Android (2.2+) smartphone/tablet, or Windows (7/8) PC for easy and convenient management of your music from your mobile device or computer. From the app you can initially set up the McIntosh RS100 wireless speaker, as well as add, link, and control all your DTS Play-Fi components. You'll be able stream music directly from the system's built-in music online services, or music on your mobile device or PC to multiple DTS Play-Fi enabled products throughout your home. The app lets you browse your music by artist, album, genre, or title; and provides album art. You can choose to play the same music in each zone or a different song in each room.
Variety Of Sources: The McIntosh RS100 wireless speaker & DTS Play-Fi supports a variety of music sources.
- Mobile Device (Apple iOS & Android): You are able to wirelessly stream your music files from your music library on your Apple iOS (6.0+) or Android (2.2+) device to the PW800 through the free DTS Play-Fi app.
- Online Music Services: From the free DTS Play-Fi app on your mobile device or computer, you can share and listen to Pandora, Spotify Connect, SiriusXM, TIDAL, Amazon Music (including HD), Songza, Rhapsody, and Internet Radio.
- Computer Audio: The RS100 wireless speaker is DLNA compliant for playback of various music files stored on your Windows PC (7/8) or DLNA-certified NAS drives connected to your home network. MAC OSX computers and laptops require third party software to be visible on the network (Twonky, Plex, Servio etc.) as they do not support DLNA. Use the free DTS Play-Fi app on your mobile device or computer to access these music files.
Supported Music Files: The RS100 wireless speaker and DTS Play-Fi support music formats such as MP3, AAC, FLAC, and WAV. The system will recognize music files up to 24-bit/192kHz and wirelessly stream these files at up to 16-bit/48kHz (CD quality sound). Some down-sampling may occur to ensure virtually lossless distribution throughout a home network.
Critical Listening Mode: For those who wish to hear high resolution audio as originally intended, Critical Listening mode will enable native rendering of high resolution files up to 24-bit/96kHz, with no down-sampling or network synchronization adjustment. In this way, audio files retain their original audio integrity. Critical Listening Mode is only available on one DTS Play-Fi speaker and not supported for multiroom audio distribution.
Maximum Number of Rooms/Zones Supported: You can play the same source in each zone or a different song in each room. Eight separate wireless source devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), each with its own source, are supported simultaneously and any wireless source device can stream to eight DTS Play-Fi playback devices. Due to the bandwidth limitations of most wireless networks, no more than 16 wireless DTS Play-Fi products on a single WiFi network at one given time is recommended.
Front-Panel Knobs & Watt Meter: The McIntosh RS100 wireless speaker features two rotary control knobs on its front-panel. There is a Standby/On knob and a Volume knob. The front-panel is made of acrylic with a clear protective film (not glass). The illuminated power output meter on the front-panel of the RS100 is peak responding, and indicates the output of the active speaker. There is also an illuminated "McIntosh" logo on the front-panel.
Aux Input: The RS100 wireless speaker is fitted with a RCA auxiliary input for connection of external wired audio device. The Aux input is only played back at the speaker and cannot be wirelessly distributed to other DTS Play-Fi speakers.
Subwoofer Output: The McIntosh RS100 features a mono-RCA subwoofer output for adding a powered sub to add more bass to the speaker system.
AC Power: The McIntosh RS100 wireless active loudspeaker operates off of standard household current using its built-in power supply and detachable AC power cord.
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Pairs well with the MB50. Allows me to stream the music from my system to other rooms. I will buy more.
Roland from Nashville, TN