McIntosh MC30 Advice Wanted

pantoramasan

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Is it common practice among McIntosh MC30 owners/users to max out (turn the dial fully clockwise) the volume control pot and use the Pre amp for volume control?
 
I have no idea what the common practice is, I do know what the engineers planed on and what we tried to teach our clients.

Preamp volume controls are not perfect, the taper for each channel will often be different.

The designers try to have a range, say from 9:00 to 1:00 where the two channels track closely. The designers expect therefore the owner will set the amp gain controls to keep the preamp volume control to stay as much as possible in that zone.
 
My tech says all the way up gives cleanest signal .... of course you need to balance left and right output

Full up works for my 4 MC-30s
 
Full on may result in higher noise floor especially if the speakers are high sensitivity.

The method I use is to first set the gains at minimum and the preamplifier volume at maximum. Then play a source and begin increasing the gains until the music is slightly louder than the loudest you would ever listen and you're done. The system is calibrated for the lowest noise floor with the widest usable range of the volume control and optimal compensation when loudness circuit is used.

Simply setting the gains full on so the high output is reached at a very low volume range where L-R tracking of the volume control is least accurate can result in uneven balance and less precise control of volume settings overall in addition to throwing off the loudness curve.

Being the MC30 was designed to be used with tube preamplifiers that existed at the time, its inputs are of high sensitivity to begin with. Maximum gain would only be needed with preamplifiers of very low output. There is probably not a single SS preamplifier that falls into this category. It is practically inconceivable that full on gains with an early tube McIntosh amplifier would be necessary with any post-1980 SS preamplifier.
 
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