McIntosh MPC1500

['cisco]

Originally Posted by enit

I doubt that. It's real cool to see how many amperes your system draws, as you are playing your music, especially with the MC452s in, and playing high power. MPC1500 seems to sound better "in" than "out" for the amps.

I agree about the cool factor of looking at how many amps it's drawing and the voltage being displayed....my Monster does that.

I'll be looking at a MPC1500 tonight.....maybe I can sneak it out of the house without the owner knowing? .....being close to 90lbs.....I don't think so.

[dcanlas]

Originally Posted by 'cisco

I agree about the cool factor of looking at how many amps it's drawing and the voltage being displayed....my Monster does that.

I'll be looking at a MPC1500 tonight.....maybe I can sneak it out of the house without the owner knowing? .....being close to 90lbs.....I don't think so.

Lavon - Take it away if you can lift it out of the rack! this piece is so darn heavy!

[jmslaw]

Shockingly, I've got both 1.2kws and all my other Mac gear plugged into the MPC1500 and the meters are not even going past 3 amperes at pretty moderate volumes. I'm wondering if somehow the MPC 1500 is limiting the current of the amplifiers, as it seems as if the meters on the 1.2kws aren't swinging as far to the right as I am used to at comparable preamp volume settings? The volume certainly sounds as loud at the same settings. I was expecting to tax the MPC 1500, and it's barely Breaking a sweat!

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by jmslaw

Shockingly, I've got both 1.2kws and all my other Mac gear plugged into the MPC1500 and the meters are not even going past 3 amperes at pretty moderate volumes. I'm wondering if somehow the MPC 1500 is limiting the current of the amplifiers, as it seems as if the meters on the 1.2kws aren't swinging as far to the right as I am used to at comparable preamp volume settings? The volume certainly sounds as loud at the same settings. I was expecting to tax the MPC 1500, and it's barely Breaking a sweat!

That doesn't seem right to me; the MC1.2K's draw far more current than that at robust levels.

[jmslaw]

Ivan, I know.........I'm shocked, myself, but I'm driving Soundlab Majestic 945s-no easy load- and the ampere meters aren't pushing 3, even at moderate volumes, as loud as I comfortably listen! This is baffling to me!

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by jmslaw

Ivan, I know.........I'm shocked, myself, but I'm driving Soundlab Majestic 945s-no easy load- and the ampere meters aren't pushing 3, even at moderate volumes, as loud as I comfortably listen! This is baffling to me!

FWIW, I don't believe the meters on my MPC1500's

[jmslaw]

My meters HAVE to be off, but by that much??!! They ARE moving, but not past 3, unless I REALLY turn the volume past comfortable levels! Everything sounds great, so I'm not complaining, just perplexed!

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by jmslaw

Ivan, I know.........I'm shocked, myself, but I'm driving Soundlab Majestic 945s-no easy load- and the ampere meters aren't pushing 3, even at moderate volumes, as loud as I comfortably listen! This is baffling to me!

jmslaw.......The McIntosh MC1.2kw amplifiers on 120 volts draw 12 amps at full rated output. The McIntosh manual does not say what the idle current is but I suspect somewhere near 80 watts with no signal. Two 1.2kw's at idle would then only be drawing approximately 1.3 amps. Operating both amplifiers at less than 10 watts peak output will likely increase the 120 volt load by an additional 1.5 to 2 amps. I am not surprised that your connected load of amplifiers, preamp and source are drawing only 3 amps at the volume you are enjoying. Those big amps will start to draw more current as you crank them up to 300 to 500 watts of output and will draw substantial current with musical peaks hitting 1.2kw output. Even at those musical peaks the current draw will not be continuously at its full rated current of 12 amps per amplifier because musical peaks are not constant. The only way for the 1.2kw amplifiers to be drawing 12 amperes each is if you are running steady sine wave signals at full rated power. That's only done on a test bench.

Having said that, the McIntosh MPC1500 is rated to deliver a maximum of 12 amps to the connected load, so it should be clear to you that using the MPC1500 with two MC1.2kw amplifiers will prove to be current limiting quickly if you push the big amps to outputs that exceed 300 watts or there about. Ideally, to operate two MC1.2kw amplifiers with no concern about current limiting you would need to have each MC1.2kw amplifier feeding from its own MPC1500 with each on a separate dedicate 20 amp circuit.

As I understand your present use of the MPC1500 to power your system under the operating conditions you outlined, you are not current limiting the amplifiers in any way, but you have the potential to suffer current limiting if you do not pay attention to your output levels.

[Penthouse-D]

Interesting topic. I had a PS Audio P5 unit with a pair of 601's, C500T, MCD1100 and an MR88. At fairly high volumes, the entire sytem was drawing about 8 amps. Unless you have an enormous amount of gear running, I feel 12 -15 ampsis fairly sufficient.

[jmslaw]

Great responses! I'm listening at very comfortable levels in my ~4000 cu.ft room and the power meters on the 1.2kws rarely push past 120watts, but occasionally spike past that and the power guard lights flicker every so often. That said, the MPC 1500 isn't even sweating. I'm thinking my speakers are efficient enough that I can comfortably run both amps through the MPC 1500, much to my delight! The system sounds sublime, so I'm not going to question it. Thanks for the input!