MA5100 And MC250 Question

BirdLives

BirdLives

Super Member
McIntosh newbie here...

Was thrilled to find a pristine MA5100 preamp/amplifier at a local estate sale; it appears to have low hours on it and may have, based on the unbelievable condition of it, spent the last 30 years in a box. It's now at the local authorized McIntosh dealer being brought back to "daily driver" condition.

I have a lead on a great MC250 and really want to try to use them together, but the MA5100 has no preamp out/in inputs so I've been told they cannot be connected and used together; is that true? Sorry if I've stated this poorly, but am confused on how to proceed...

Thanks very much...
 
MC 250 only gains you autoformers and a bit higher current. Use some nice efficient speakers and keep the load easy. It will delight you with a pair of Dynaco A 25 or a nice pair of Klipsch heritage any model.
 
BirdLives said:
McIntosh newbie here...

Was thrilled to find a pristine MA5100 preamp/amplifier at a local estate sale; it appears to have low hours on it and may have, based on the unbelievable condition of it, spent the last 30 years in a box. It's now at the local authorized McIntosh dealer being brought back to "daily driver" condition.

I have a lead on a great MC250 and really want to try to use them together, but the MA5100 has no preamp out/in inputs so I've been told they cannot be connected and used together; is that true? Sorry if I've stated this poorly, but am confused on how to proceed...

Thanks very much...
Click to expand...

The headphone output of the MA5100 may be used to feed the MC250. You need a stereo adapter cable 1/4" pin to male RCAs to make these connections.

The MC250's GAIN controls allow up to 30 V input to be used without overloading the amplifier inputs.
 
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62caddy said:
The headphone output of the MA5100 may be used to feed the MC250. You need a stereo adapter cable 1/4" pin to male RCAs to make these connections.

The MC250's GAIN controls allow 0.5 V to 30 V input to be used without overloading the amplifier inputs.
Click to expand...

Never knew this option existed; 62caddy, have you tried this fix? Any other Akers out there?
 
BirdLives said:
Never knew this option existed; 62caddy, have you tried this fix? Any other Akers out there?
Click to expand...

The option exists but either few think of doing it, or they believe doing so will overload the amplifier inputs and in many cases they'd be correct. But since the MC250 has gain controls, it can be done.

Have I done it? Many times and it works well.

Right now I'm using the headphone output of an MC2125 to feed another MC2125 and an MC2155 because my C32 is out and the CR7 has only set of outputs. Sounds every bit as good when the C32 was in!
 
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62caddy said:
The options exists but either few think of doing it, or they believe doing so will overload the amplifier inputs and in many cases they'd be correct. But since the MC250 has gain controls, it can be done.

Have I done it? Many times and it works well.
Click to expand...

Thanks, 62caddy. Appreciate your response...
 
62caddy said:
The options exists but either few think of doing it, or they believe doing so will overload the amplifier inputs and in many cases they'd be correct. But since the MC250 has gain controls, it can be done.

Have I done it? Many times and it works well.
Click to expand...
Creative. Love it.
 
Hmmmm, just be careful with that, 30V is +32dBu (or very close to), I find it very difficult to believe that you can hurl that much signal into the front end of a MC250, a MC250 can at best hurl out 24V...or there abouts..
+18dBu will clip the input of almost any piece of professional equipment, certainly any of our Crowns or Camco's....
Not to mention there is a major impedance mismatch there too. It may work okay, but you need to be careful and proceed with caution.

To put it in perspective, 30V, into 8Ω is 112.5watts.......
 
kevzep said:
Hmmmm, just be careful with that, 30V is +32dBu (or very close to), I find it very difficult to believe that you can hurl that much signal into the front end of a MC250, a MC250 can at best hurl out 24V...or there abouts..
+18dBu will clip the input of almost any piece of professional equipment, certainly any of our Crowns or Camco's....
Not to mention there is a major impedance mismatch there too. It may work okay, but you need to be careful and proceed with caution.

To put it in perspective, 30V, into 8Ω is 112.5watts.......
Click to expand...

The gain controls can deal with up to 30V input but they must also be set accordingly. Just as you can use a 300 watt amplifier with "50 watt rated" speakers with the volume control set accordingly.

30V @ 200K ohm input is only 0.0045 watt.
 
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FWIW - In my own experience, the gains of an MC2505 set at ~ 10:00 works well with the headphone output of an MAC1500 and still there's plenty of room to go even lower if needed. Minimum is around 7:00.

Very helpful for running an extra set of speakers so as not to overburden the MAC1500's outputs.
 
62caddy said:
The gain controls can deal with 30V input but they must also be set accordingly. Just as you can use a 300 watt amplifier with "50 watt rated" speakers with the volume control set accordingly.

30V @ 200K ohm input is only 0.0045 watt.
Click to expand...
Copy that, understand your angle Eric. You are of course correct.
Just trying to disclose all angles.
 
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