bi-amping with Mc352 and Mc2102

Hi Larry

I have done something very similar - a McIntosh MC7200 SS amp and a Conrad-Johnson MV55 tube amp on my JM Lab Electra 926s. Getting the gain to match is the tricky part but in my case, it ended up working out pretty well. The 7200 has gain controls but I had to max them out and still didn't quite have enough gain to match the CJ. Then I realized I could switch the input sensitivity to 1.4V to get a little more and it turns out, it was just enough.

In your case however, the MC352 and 2102 have neither option so your only chance is that they "happen to have" the right amount of gain to work well together. If you don't get the gain to match correctly, you definately won't be getting your system's full potential and will be better off with simply one or the other amp, as Jaybo suggested.

Otherwise, as John said, you need an active crossover which will really complicate things. For me, I didn't keep the biamped setup very long. I now use bispeakering and that works much better with the amps I have. Good luck! Arthur

Larry, just as another ingredient here I have the 352 as well and power the Revel F32's and I Bi-Wired and found that to make enough difference to keep me happy.

Larryrosen, search for member "ljgj" here, he used the setup (MC352 and 2102) described by you, he hasn´t been posting lately, but always was very helpful.

I have a MC352 powering my McIntosh LS360's. They can play at concert levels with no distortion and sound amazingly sweet. I plan on getting another MC352 and use them as monoblocks. You might consider unloading that 2102 and getting another MC352. You'll be doubling your power output and if that isn't enough, you should sell it all and buy a boat ;)

Larry,you may want to visit AudioKharma for some detailed advice on bi-amping with a Mac tube amp. Apparently you have to limit the frequency the amp sees at the imput level or the amp will experience heat and distortion. This can be done with an active or passive filter on the line input. Also in reference to input level matching, the MC275 has 2 line pots, one for each channel which should facilitate this, otherwise you will need a filter with level control (Marchand) or a filter and a line pot.