Bi-wiring Mcintosh amp

[MORTIS]

Originally Posted by prepress

They do offer balanced connections; I wasn't sure if that made them balanced amps. I went by the fact that the front plate doesn't say "balanced," thinking of the 601s and other amps which say "Quad Balanced" on the chassis. This is why I'm a semi-audiophile; lack of attention to stuff like this.

The MC501, MC402, MC352 and a number of other fully balanced amps were before McIntosh started indicating on the face-plate the 'Quad Balanced' nomenclature.
The easiest way to determine if an Mc amp is fully balanced (Quad Balanced) is whether it has separate ground terminals for each set of impedance taps. If it does, then it's fully balanced from input to output.

[McDaddy]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

This is a cool thread. I’d love to see pictures of those running two pairs of speaker cables to see those connections in photos.

Here are some pics of mine. Thankfully, I just vacuumed the back of my setup last night!

Need to contemplate the contemplate the different ohm taps a little further though...may not keep this setup more out of long term equipment concern more than anything.

[Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by McDaddy

Here are some pics of mine. Thankfully, I just vacuumed the back of my setup last night!

That looks awesome!

[dixon007]

IMG_3280.jpgIMG_3279.jpg

[prepress]

So far I am moving along happily with bi-wiring my speakers from the 4-ohm taps. It's almost as if I have a new system.

[4music]

I have a pair of MC1201 connected to a B&W 800D2. At the moment I am experimenting with bi-wire (bass connected to 8ohm and mids to 4ohm). I noticed that the amplifier gets hotter than usual. Is this normal? Am I risking a potential problem to the speaker or amp?

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by Audiophilehi

I do!

As per Chuck Hinton at McIntosh "For 3Db more bass, hook the woofers to the 8ohm tap and the Mid/tweet to the 4Ohm tap."

So, why do you need 3dB more bass? Either the bass in your system/setup is in proper balance or not?

[62caddy]

Originally Posted by 4music

I have a pair of MC1201 connected to a B&W 800D2. At the moment I am experimenting with bi-wire (bass connected to 8ohm and mids to 4ohm). I noticed that the amplifier gets hotter than usual. Is this normal? Am I risking a potential problem to the speaker or amp?

Hotter operation is normal since more stress is being put upon the output circuits when a 4 ohm load is connected at the 8 ohm taps. Depending on duration and how loudly the system is played, the extra stress and heat is likely to shorten the life of the outputs to some extent. How much is impossible to say but cooler operation is always better.

Personally I think it's a bad idea to compromise the speaker's response as originally designed by the manufacturer. Better to use an EQ or relocate the speakers toward the wall if more bass is desired.

[prepress]

Originally Posted by 4music

I have a pair of MC1201 connected to a B&W 800D2. At the moment I am experimenting with bi-wire (bass connected to 8ohm and mids to 4ohm). I noticed that the amplifier gets hotter than usual. Is this normal? Am I risking a potential problem to the speaker or amp?

See my earlier post, #27. I was advised by Ron Cornelius to step back to the 4-ohm taps if the amps (501s in my case) started to get hot. I tried the 8-ohm taps for one song and didn't like it. My speakers are 6-ohm, and everything on 4-ohm sounds better to me, good overall balance. I used 4-ohm taps for mids/highs and 2-ohm for bass previously. the 501s never even got warm.

[GaryProtein]

I have been running two pair of ML-1Cs in parallel on the 4 ohm taps and one pair of ML-2Cs on the 8 ohm taps on my MC2300 power amp for, eh-hem, more than three decades in my living room system!