aball
Responses from aball
| Amp — Leave on or turn off I'm an electrical engineer who designs amplifiers, among many other circuits. Contrary to some other comments about power cycling, that's not the main issue with solid-state amps. The primary failure mode are the power supply electrolytics desic... | |
| Efficient speakers -- What was your journey from A to B to ? I've tried a whole bunch of efficient speakers since realizing that conventional speakers lose something in translation. Avantgarde horns are the ones for me - they make everything else sound likes cones-in-a-box. They are so awesome that two of... | |
| Preamp advice I have used several McIntosh preamps with my MC240 but I didn't like any of them as much as my Kora Crescendo or Tom Evans Vibe. The ARC Ref 3 is awesome too, but it eats tubes like crazy. | |
| Looking for a McIntosh amp that gives a great example of the “McIntosh Sound” I've had a dozen McIntosh amps. I kept the MC152 and MC240. Even the MC452 wasn't as good as the MC152 - the 152 is really special. But, if you want the classic McIntosh sound, I don't recommend the ThermalTrak BJT output transistor amps, which... | |
| Preamp and Amp how much influence each contributes? I’ve had over 60 amps and probably 25 preamps and in my experience there is a bigger range of performance with preamps than amps. Volume is tough to do well, and input selectors are a can of worms despite looking simple, not to mention amplifying... | |
| Disappointing On Mcintosh......help I hate to tell you, but auditions like that are a waste of time. You don’t know what you’re hearing. If you don’t develop a reference point for yourself, you’re just wondering around making meaningless comments.Buy what you want and give it a tr... | |
| Seriously considering tube preamp…opinions? If this thread is any indication, the only solution is to “buy and try” as I always say. I’ve owned 60+ amps, and currently own 12 of them. They all have different strengths and musical preferences. There is no “best.” My suggestion is that you... | |
| McIntosh MC152 vs MC162 I have owned a 2125, 7100, 7200, 122, 202, 162, 452, and 152. The 152 is the best I’ve had by far, better than the 452 even. They really lucked out with its circuit. The 162 is good for the money but a bit grainy and with a constricted soundsta... | |
| McIntosh (MC601) amplifier overheating problem Hi Sandy - Yikes! I think this issue is even more widespread than it seems. That's the nature of this kind of problem.The unfortunate part about it is that, fundamentally, this is not a problem McIntosh had any control over - the transistors are... | |
| McIntosh (MC601) amplifier overheating problem Ok! McIntosh finally came through. Unfortunately, they did not want to swap the amps out for us (as Ayre has done for the exact same problem and situation), but they did send us 4 complete heatsink assemblies that are fully-populated and tested,... | |
| McIntosh (MC601) amplifier overheating problem Hi garebear, nice to hear from you!Hi chazzzy, ok well wish him good luck. It has now been 55 days and still no parts, and no emails in the last 2 weeks. To add insult to injury, I got an automatic reply from the Customer Service Manager just now ... | |
| McIntosh (MC601) amplifier overheating problem Hi g_nakamoto, it's normal that both are overheating because they both have bad transistors in them. The ThermalTrak transistors are the problem (which were made by On Semi, not McIntosh). Going by the amp serial numbers, there appears to be hu... | |
| McIntosh (MC601) amplifier overheating problem He bought them new from a McIntosh dealer, but they are out of warranty by 2.5 years. However, Ayre didn’t care if they were under warranty or not - they repaired them all regardless. In fact, there is a thread about all this on another forum wher... | |
| McIntosh (MC601) amplifier overheating problem McIntosh has finally arrived at a decision, after a month of back-and-forth, and it isn’t nearly as good as Ayre’s unconditional warranty for the same issue: they will only pay for parts in the form of built-up heatsinks. My buddy feels this is an... | |
| McIntosh (MC601) amplifier overheating problem Hey Jerry! Great to hear from you. I probably won't become a regular again (it seems little has changed around here lol) but it's nice to hear from you and the others that have messaged me directly.The 501s have different output devices, so you ... |