2. amps-preamps
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McIntosh & Maggies - am I hooked-up the best way?

I recently upgraded my two channel system - after researching Audiogon and serious negotiations with my wife... Here's what I've got;

* 2 McIntosh MC150 amps set up as mono bridged (note I had one originally)
* McIntosh C712 pre amp (also part of my original system)
* Denon 3910 SACD player (with Underwood level 2 mods)
* Magnepan MG 3.6 speakers (with Mye Sound stands)
* MIT bi-wire speaker cables
* Monster power and interconnect cables through-out
* 2 Monster Power HTS5000 power centers (also have my HDTV, satellite HD reciever. D/A converter (now only used for the satellite audio), VCR and cassette deck in the mix, so I needed more plugs!)
* Audiopoints brass points under amps, preamp and speaker stands

The sound is awesome... (a;though my wife claims to not be able to tell the difference...) My question, "are my amps and speakers hooked-up the best way?", is because when I have the volume up, then crank up the bass and loudness on my pre amp, the amp power meter lights pulsate with the music. While this is not a bad looking effect - it concerns me that the power meter lamps are influenced at all. I know that Maggies will take all the power (current) they can - but that is why I'm using the MIT bi-wire speaker cable... any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be appreciated!
mike95120
dcrookham53
57 posts
 
You may want to try them in 2 channel rather than bridged,
and biwire vertically or horizontally.
It may be an easier load on the amps if they don't have autoformers.
I'm not a big fan of using bridged amps, and since you have a pair there is no need.

Also, leave the bass and loudness control alone, get a sub if you want more bass.

I think you are light on power, I ran 400 watts x2 into
MG12's when I had maggies.
onemug
784 posts
 
Try one MC150 for both Maggies, lowish volume and compare to the bridged sound. When I tried bridged Mac, it seemed a little more tight as opposed to relaxed. I prefer relaxed. Next try passive bi-amp. You'll like it one way more than another. We're all free to gamble. My bet would be on the passive bi-amp. Good luck.
mike95120 OP
3 posts
 
Thanks for the suggestions... I'm assuming I have decent power here - the MC150s are rated at 150W per channel into 8 ohms, so in mono bridged mode they are 300W into 8 ohms, and since the Maggies are 4 ohm loads, they should each be seeing well over 300W.

If I understand the suggestions, I should try bi-amping by running two sets of non bi-wire speaker cables, one set from each amp (unbriged) to each speaker. I may have to wait for Christmas for Santa to bring me new MIT speaker cables...
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