Meters Blue / Turquoise Green - Filter Gels or Bulbs ?

kermit_xc

Active Member
I ended up getting a second MC7270 to run my 801s in bridged setup - effin YAY, so that's great news


But as always with this hobby of ours - I got a problem now I didn't think I will have :)

the iphone doesn't capture that hue difference as well - but left is LEDs - right is original bulbs
fullsizeoutput_d03.jpeg

So, first MC7270 has been upgraded to LEDs - I didn't think twice about it until I just hooked up my 2nd 7270 with the original incandescent bulbs and I assume filter gells.

Well, I like the turquoise green much better - so, is the color determined by the bulbs themselves or strictly the gel filters ?

LEDs
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Original Bulbs / Filter
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The original incandescents look way better to me too. I don't know for sure, but would imagine that the bulbs determine the look of the meter. I have seen plenty of pictures of Mac amps where the bulbs have been replaced with LEDs, and most of them have that same, to me, garish look. I doubt that all of the newly LED'd amps had their meter gels replaced with that purple-ish blue color as well. On rare occasion, I have seen LED replacements that look natural, and preserve the integrity of the original appearance.

Anyway, congrats on the second amp. I bet they sound amazing together.
 
I prefer the original green, too. Its easier on the eyes in a dark room. Red would be a better color for the eyes in a dark room, but I don't think that would be acceptable for most folks. Roscoline , Rosco, made and makes Gel for theatre lighting still, I assume. I don;t remember the exact replacement number or name, either. But they had different grades of GEL and an exact match could be made using incandescent lamps. I don't know about with LED, I have done it with Quartz lamps. I have both 207's and a 206 amps and prefer the 206 as it is so close to my 2505.
 
So, tell us about the sound of the system now that you've gone to mono blocks ...

It sounds excellent ... more headroom and woofer control pays off, and my B&W 801s definetely appreciate the mono block authority.

But all that being great and what not ... the hue imbalance drives me nuts, I can’t focus on the sound before I address the meter uniformity ;)
 
When I got my 2nd MC2300, the meters did not match the turquoise green of my original amp. Both amps had incandescent bulbs, but the newer amp was lacking the green tint. I pulled all of the existing gels in the 2nd amp and replaced them with a combination of Lee Gels #117 (steel blue), #118 (light blue) and #213 (White Flame Green). It came out a nice vibrant blue/green, and is nearly indistinguishable from the original.
 
I ended up getting a second MC7270 to run my 801s in bridged setup - effin YAY, so that's great news


But as always with this hobby of ours - I got a problem now I didn't think I will have :)

the iphone doesn't capture that hue difference as well - but left is LEDs - right is original bulbs
View attachment 1191870

So, first MC7270 has been upgraded to LEDs - I didn't think twice about it until I just hooked up my 2nd 7270 with the original incandescent bulbs and I assume filter gells.

Well, I like the turquoise green much better - so, is the color determined by the bulbs themselves or strictly the gel filters ?

LEDs
View attachment 1191872

Original Bulbs / Filter
View attachment 1191871

That is a damn discernible difference. I definitely prefer the original look. I was going to order the LEDs, but now I don't want to, if it looks like this. This must be a filter issue, not the bulbs though...confused.
PS : I like your choice of music. Dave McKenna, a local guy who made good!
 
Hello

But as always with this hobby of ours - I got a problem now I didn't think I will have
:)


that's the reason why I don't want to replace bulb by LED ! all MCINTOSH owner's asking for that I say no because temperature color is different for tungsten filament and LED . That's all the requesting guy don't even understand
the other cause is when you replace bulb by LED you have to replace the gel too !
MCINTOSH Lab did produce specific light system with the new unit and it is not possible (or silly) to try to do the same ! replacing bulb by LED is stupid because your meter color will never be the same !
the argument to say that bulb do not stay OK during years is not true JKL7381 are 50000 hours life time if you choose the right factory JKL .
If you choose another one you may find 5000 hours life time ! make your choice
personnally and for all my customers I have choose the longest one
 
i recently added LED's to my MX-113. I used a kit I found on that popular auction site... firstly, there are gels on either side of the dial glass that create the color... my kit included 4 blue gels, so i could run 1 or two on each side for more or less color saturation, but I retained the stock gels.

Fuse type LED bulbs have the diodes arranged on a flat "blade" inside the bulb, so depending on how they're rotated, you can direct more or less light depending on how the bulb is positioned.

I canted my bulbs about 45 degrees to shine less light straight into the ends of the dial glass. It kept it looking more natural, IMO. The full blast of light looked too garish.66CDE88F-622D-4CC7-8CDC-37A35327F5DA.jpeg
 
LED lamps always look cheap to me in older equipment, the color is not right, the light is not distributed properly and has hot-spots, just takes a lot of the class out of owning classic equipment.

It is probably not the gel/filter, but the light. Incandescent light has a completely different spectrum from LEDs. Most white LEDs are blue LEDs with phosphor in them to glow white, but it isn't a full-spectrum white and as the phosphor ages it will become dimmer and more blue.

As Patrice says, the original lamps in some of these have lasted 20-50 years, chances are that a new quality bulb will last as long. Incandescent bulbs do vary a great deal in quality though, if the filament wire is not consistent in size and metallurgy it will have hot-spots along the filament that fail prematurely where these higher resistance points are.
 
While converting a Mc2125 to replacement meter light boxes and LEDs I was able to enlist the help of my two photographer neighbors to find the two new gels that would match the look of the 3 gels that were used with Incandescents.

My color perception is off. Learned this while calibrating projection TVs so the help of photographers was needed.

You will have to experiment yourself as I do not know if I can locate my notes.
 
I ended up getting a second MC7270 to run my 801s in bridged setup - effin YAY, so that's great news


But as always with this hobby of ours - I got a problem now I didn't think I will have :)

the iphone doesn't capture that hue difference as well - but left is LEDs - right is original bulbs
View attachment 1191870

So, first MC7270 has been upgraded to LEDs - I didn't think twice about it until I just hooked up my 2nd 7270 with the original incandescent bulbs and I assume filter gells.

Well, I like the turquoise green much better - so, is the color determined by the bulbs themselves or strictly the gel filters ?

LEDs
View attachment 1191872

Original Bulbs / Filter
View attachment 1191871


I know this in an old thread, but did you ever solve this? I’m currently looking to get my 7270 back to the more original look.

I think I used LEDs in it (been a while since I did it), but it currently looks like yours. I never really bothered me until I got another amp with original meters that’s going to be sitting near it.
I believe a bought a kit off eBay back when I replaced these lamps years ago. I just purchased a few different gels, the 117, and the 118 to see if that does the trick, but I wonder if I am going to need to replace the lamps back to incandescent too?

thanks.
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