McIntosh WS500 In-Wall Loudspeaker

High-Performance McIntosh Sound, Hidden in the Wall

The McIntosh WS500 In-Wall Loudspeaker is designed for systems where you want the performance and scale of a serious loudspeaker without placing a conventional speaker in the room.

Its fully enclosed 3-way design, dual 6.5-inch woofers, dedicated Titanium midrange drivers and Titanium tweeter give the WS500 the capability to serve as a primary loudspeaker in high-performance two-channel systems or as a front, center or surround speaker in a dedicated home theater.

And once installed, it can virtually disappear into the architecture.

Built for Serious Two-Channel Audio

Architectural speakers don't have to be limited to background music.

A pair of WS500s can become the foundation of a high-performance two-channel listening system, providing room-filling sound while keeping the floor completely free of loudspeakers.

This makes the WS500 particularly appealing for living rooms and other design-conscious spaces where traditional floorstanding speakers may not be practical.

It can also be paired with McIntosh MI128 or MI254 distribution amplifiers as part of a premium whole-home audio system.

A Powerful Home Theater Solution

The WS500 is equally at home behind the scenes of a dedicated theater.

Its combination of output capability and architectural installation allows it to be used for front left and right, center, or surround channels.

That gives a system designer tremendous flexibility.

A complete theater can be designed around WS500s, or they can be combined with other voice-matched McIntosh architectural speakers to create a system tailored specifically to the room.

The speakers stay out of sight while the sound takes center stage.

Voice-Matched With the WS300 and CS200

The WS500 is voice-matched with the McIntosh WS300 in-wall and CS200 in-ceiling loudspeakers.

That means all three models can work together while maintaining a cohesive tonal character throughout the listening environment.

For example, WS500s can be used across the front soundstage, WS300s for additional channels, and CS200s overhead.

As effects move from the front of the theater to the sides and above the audience, maintaining consistent voicing helps create a more believable and immersive soundfield.

Fully Enclosed 3-Way Architecture

The WS500 isn't simply a collection of drivers mounted into a wall cavity.

It is a fully enclosed loudspeaker with its own controlled internal air chamber.

This gives McIntosh greater control over the acoustic environment behind the drivers, helping minimize distortion and response irregularities that can occur when an architectural speaker relies on the wall cavity itself.

It also helps provide more predictable performance from one installation to another.

That's especially important in a professionally designed system.

Dual 6.5-Inch Woofers

The WS500 uses two 6.5-inch woofers to provide the low-frequency foundation and dynamic capability required for demanding music and movie playback.

Each woofer features a molded carbon-reinforced cone with a molded elastomeric surround, combining rigidity with the linear movement required for accurate bass reproduction.

The drivers use a long-throw, high-power design but remain shallow enough to fit within standard 2x4 wall construction.

That combination of performance and installation depth is one of the WS500's most important design advantages.

Proven McIntosh Midrange and Tweeter Technology

The WS500 uses two inverted Titanium dome midrange drivers and a Titanium dome tweeter based on the same drivers found in McIntosh's XR50 and XR100 traditional home audio loudspeakers.

That brings technology from McIntosh's conventional loudspeaker designs into an architectural format.

The goal isn't to make a good-sounding in-wall speaker.

It's to build a McIntosh loudspeaker that happens to install in the wall.

That's an important distinction for customers designing a room around both high-end audio performance and clean aesthetics.

Designed to Disappear

Once installed, very little of the WS500 needs to remain visible.

Its magnetically attached grille can be easily removed and painted to match the surrounding wall.

The minimal visible mounting flange allows the finished installation to blend cleanly into the architecture.

For existing spaces, the WS500 includes the necessary hardware and mounting mechanisms for post-construction installation.

For new construction and major renovations, an optional RK500 rough-in kit allows the speaker locations to be incorporated into the project from the beginning.

The Grid's Take on the McIntosh WS500

The WS500 is the McIntosh architectural speaker we'd look at when an in-wall design needs to function as a true primary loudspeaker rather than simply provide background audio.

The dual-woofer configuration gives it greater capability for demanding stereo and home theater applications, while the fully enclosed cabinet gives us a controlled acoustic environment instead of relying on whatever happens to be behind the drywall.

Its biggest advantage, though, may be how easily it becomes part of a complete system.

Because the WS500 is voice-matched with the WS300 and CS200, we can combine in-wall and in-ceiling speakers based on what works best architecturally without giving up a cohesive soundstage.

At The Grid HiFi & Home Theater, we can design a complete McIntosh architectural audio or home theater system around the WS500—including speaker layout, amplification, subwoofer integration, wiring, control and final system calibration.