Anyone try this way to wire your loudspeakers?

I reversed the leads last night and it was clear to me that I lost some bass only, with highs unaffected and mids just undecided. Listened most of today with same conclusion and that the swap was not that dramatic so I just switched everything back to my personal contentment. However, as originally stated the big gain with these loudspeakers and cables was wiring them separately from the 8ohm and 4ohm outputs dual shotgun - rather than my previous bi-wiring and also trying straight shotgun with jumper cables. Ah, now time to pour a whiskey, pull up Diane Schurr and listen to Louisiana Sunday Afternoon and other cuts from her COLLECTION album. Best to all AudioGoner's

Hi Ranchomirage,

I just purchased some MC2301's and was faced with the exact same dilemma as you. My previous amps, Octave MRE130 had two pairs of speaker out for each mono amp and I was able to use two pairs of double shot guns, ala biwire to the B&W Nautilus 800's. Now, facing the same issue as you, I also did exactly the same thing, running the mid-highs to the 4 ohm taps and the bass to the 8 ohm taps, sounds great to me. I thought about swapping, but based on your experience, I think I will stick with the current configuration.

On audioaficionado there are lengthy discussions regarding bi-wiring macs and many more enthusiasts there than here or asylum.

Glad you are enjoying your new macs. I am in music heaven with mine.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Not to take away anything from the enjoyment you're experiencing . . . but I thought I'd point out that the 8-ohm taps have about 6dB more voltage gain than the 4-ohm taps. There's no problem with doing this from the amplifier's standpoint, except with the possibility of somewhat increased distortion should the loudspeakers' high-frequency section present significantly less than an 8-ohm load through part of the frequency range.

But the sonic effects are overwhelmingly akin to simply cranking up the bass relative to the highs - very simply a tone control, that has frequency characteristics of the loudspeakers' crossover slope(s). The configuration of the cables themselves are unlikely to have anything except a miniscule effect when compared to this change in gain.

Again . . . if you like what you hear, that's great! For those that don't have multiple amplifier taps or loudspeaker bi-wire inputs, a very similar result could be had with a simple twist of a well-designed tone control.

Kirk, you beat me to it! And it's nice to see you posting again.

A minor point, though. Wouldn't the 8 ohm tap have 3 db more voltage gain than the 4 ohm tap, not 6 db? In other words a factor of 1.414, resulting in the output transistors seeing the same load when an 8 ohm load is connected to the 8 ohm tap, as when a 4 ohm load is connected to the 4 ohm tap, as when a 2 ohm load is connected to the 2 ohm tap (since the impedance transformation will be proportional to the square of the turns ratio, and hence to the square of the voltage ratio).

Beyond that, I second Kirk's statement that "if you like what you hear, that's great." And a good takeaway from the experience reported by the OP is that experimentation with how multiple output taps are utilized can pay off big-time.

A not so good takeaway, on the other hand, would be an expectation that a similar connection arrangement will necessarily, or even probably, be optimal in the case of other amplifiers and speakers (although it certainly MIGHT be). In contrast to most amps that provide multiple output taps (i.e., tube amps), the autoformer-based McIntosh designs have output impedances that are low enough to be essentially negligible, as they are with most solid state amplifiers. And the XR100 speakers are complex four-way affairs having 15 drivers per speaker, and who knows what kind of impedance vs. frequency characteristics (I couldn't find impedance curves for them). So the OP's system is considerably different in relevant respects than the majority of others.

To the OP, again, congratulations on some imaginative experimentation that has paid off. Enjoy.

Regards,
-- Al

Hi Al . . . good to be back as well. You are indeed correct, my bad. It's 6dB between the 8- and 2-ohm taps, and 3dB between the 8- and 4-ohm taps . . . same as a tube amp.