Thinking about JBL 4429

[Mctwins]

Originally Posted by Sunshyne

Sorry for holding out. I wanted a few days of listening before commenting. My first concern was again, would the horns sound harsh moving to solid state? Not at all. The bottom cleaned up as well.

So far it has been all digital listening and I still need to break out the vinyl. I do eq on itunes to add more bass and run the preamps tone on bypass. With this amp, I can actually hear a sound quality difference in the tone bypass other than the change in bass and treble. I may get a pair of REL's first to compensate for lack of the low end with the speakers sooner than later.

All in all I am happy with this amp and it will hold me over until I get an MC 452 but that will be down the road. And I must add they now get loud! I have not tested how loud yet, but certainly much louder than I need or want. The green light almost never moves up to the next bar and is far from clipping. I did end up setting the amp around 3 o clock like you suggested.

I do like the highs of the mc275 because they have a little more body for lack of a better term, but was frustrated because I could not rock out. Stuff like Dylan and the Dead sounded really good with the 275 but they also sound great with the crown.

Cool to hear that it at least sounds good

Yes, stay at 3 o'clock on the knob position, safer this way. The best is to run a pink noise to know exactly what the setting would be.

Some procedure.....
Run a pink noise thru a cd-player and via your preamp. Disconnect the speakercable(when doing this also disconnect the powercable) then connect ONLY the powercable and turn the amplifier ON. Turn the knobs on the amp to zero and set the volume on your preamp to 80%. Turn up the knobs on your amp until you see it clips(flashing red) and back it down until you don't see any clipping. You have set your Gain Structure. Connect everything back again and play some music. Enjoy!!

Your lack of bass is due to your room acoustics. To ease your mind there is no problem with the bass from the 4429. Here is a measurement I did at my listening position and the distance is 5meters from mic to the speakers.

In my room it goes down to 35Hz and then roll of, not so bad for a small box speaker.

I don't use any EQ!!!!

You can always run a subwoofer if you want.

[Sunshyne]

I don't have a cd player so I used a pink noise sample from itunes. I set the preamp to 80, turned the crown to zero and up until clipping (speakers were disconnected) and then down until they were not clipping and that was one click past 3 o clock!

[Sunshyne]

I don't know how to improve room acoustics for the bass.
The speakers are still on the floor but not for much longer. I had some scrap black walnut 2"x2" and some black walnut laminated plywood cut to the footprint of the speaker that will raise the horns to ear level so I don't have to sit on the floor for critical listening. That is the weekend project. Here they are sitting, need to be screwed together and finished with Danish oil.

May put them on some isolation pads.

[Dave_72]

Originally Posted by Sunshyne

Yeah the meters are nice. It will be thousand$ more it will take up a lot more space so this will be it for a while. Plus it will give me the chance to sell the 275 or do a trade up at a local dealer. I have not contacted any other than AC (for a used one) but I'm afraid to find out what the damage will be.

Of course, you get what you pay for when it comes to McIntosh!

I believe retail price on a MC452 is $7500. Which in today's inflated high end prices (and egos, haha) isn't that bad at all. For example, a competing product, the Pass Labs X350.8 amp (350 wpc into 8 Ohms, 700 wpc in 4 Ohms,) is $14k. Is it a better amp? Hard to say, as the ability to hear it side by side with a MC452 is kind of tough. I could be wrong as there may be a dealer somewhere out there that has both exact units on the floor. But anyway, you could almost get 2 MC452s and bi-amp your JBLs for the price of 1 Pass Labs! lol.

I see, well good luck with whatever you do with your 275.

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by Dave_72

Of course, you get what you pay for when it comes to McIntosh!

I believe retail price on a MC452 is $7500. Which in today's inflated high end prices (and egos, haha) isn't that bad at all. For example, a competing product, the Pass Labs X350.8 amp (350 wpc into 8 Ohms, 700 wpc in 4 Ohms,) is $14k. Is it a better amp? Hard to say, as the ability to hear it side by side with a MC452 is kind of tough. I could be wrong as there may be a dealer somewhere out there that has both exact units on the floor. But anyway, you could almost get 2 MC452s and bi-amp your JBLs for the price of 1 Pass Labs! lol.

I see, well good luck with whatever you do with your 275.

MC452 retail $8500

[Dave_72]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

MC452 retail $8500

Ok, thanks. The prices never go down do they? lol. Still not a bad price for what you're getting.

Now which amp would win a shoot out, Ivan. The Pass Labs or McIntosh?

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by Dave_72

Ok, thanks. The prices never go down do they? lol. Still not a bad price for what you're getting.

Now which amp would win a shoot out, Ivan. The Pass Labs or McIntosh?

[Sunshyne]

It is hard to just bring an amp into your home to demo. Especially when it's large and heavy. Doesn't hurt to ask though. If I do get it, it will probably go somewhere off to the side as the weight is the main concern.

[Sunshyne]

I thought I remember a thread on their prices going up a 20% or so.

[Dave_72]

Originally Posted by Sunshyne

It is hard to just bring an amp into your home to demo. Especially when it's large and heavy. Doesn't hurt to ask though. If I do get it, it will probably go somewhere off to the side as the weight is the main concern.

This is true...and I'm not sure if any dealers will let you do a home audition of a big expensive amp. I guess if both parties know each other well, then it could happen.

Ok, I see, well whatever works for you!