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best practices for plugging in solid state mcintosh?

C

cookthebooks

New Member
as of now it seems like mac says plug power amps directly into the wall, but as far as preamp is present thinking just into a surge protector? a power conditioner? do i need to spend more than $100 on this stuff? appreciate peoples updated thoughts since some of the old threads seem littered with some perhaps...debunked information!
 
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I plug all the gear into a voltage regulating, sequential on unit. Vintage Mac gear off/on switches last that way. It's actually good for any gear that whose power switches are unobtanium. This is just the way I do it and by no means the "only" way to do it.
 
cookthebooks said:
so in your estimation forget worrying about the power stuff and just buy a cr7 to protect the on / off switches?
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The CR7 would be a wise investment on multiple fronts. Apart of the added conveniences features it provides, it will indeed protect equipment plugged into the outlets on its rear panel by way of an internal fuse in addition to protecting itself. I know this firsthand when a tree limb took out the neutral lead on the main power lines coming into my house resulting in 240V taking out multiple electrical household items. But not the CR7 or equipment connected to it- including units that are in "standby mode" which always have some A/C power running through even when turned off. Less likely an issue on equipment with old fashioned hard off/on switching.
 
62caddy said:
The CR7 would be a wise investment on multiple fronts. Apart of the added conveniences features it provides, it will indeed protect equipment plugged into the outlets on its rear panel by way of an internal fuse in addition to protecting itself. I know this firsthand when a tree limb took out the neutral lead on the main power lines coming into my house resulting in 240V taking out multiple electrical household items. But not the CR7 or equipment connected to it- including units that are in "standby mode" which always have some A/C power running through even when turned off. Less likely an issue on equipment with old fashioned hard off/on switching.
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sorry to pepper you with questions, but guessing you plug your power amps into the cr7 too?
 
I have all my stereo gear plugged into one of these. They are supposed to be the best protection against power surges. The one on a system that had a turntable with a intermittent hum cured the problem.

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cookthebooks said:
sorry to pepper you with questions, but guessing you plug your power amps into the cr7 too?
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No. The amplifiers are plugged into a McIntosh R612A power relay that is activated on/off by one of the switched outlets on the rear panel of the CR7. But that's only because I have three power amps. If you only have a single power amplifier, the 1650W or 1750W (?) max capacity of the CR7's rear panel outlets should be plenty.
 
Its always Amps on last and off first! I have two MC 207's for the HT system as the left nd right speakers are tri-amped with supplemental super tweeters. The stereo system with the XRT 28's are powered by two MC 830's driven by a C-34. I love graphic controls, direct coupled power amps. I gave up on tubes and autoformers in the middle to late 70's. I did love the sound of the MC 502 but my spekers aren't that efficient so skipped to MC 7200's for the bass aand another for the mids nd tweeters and a 7100 for the super tweeters. Now I use one MC 207 for the left and right and another for the center rear and sides pushed by a MX 151! Every thing is voiced and the electronic crossovers are UREI.
 
It depends somewhat on what you’re using.

Early preamps had the on/off switch in the volume pot, and turning these on/off wears out the NLA volume pot. Further, plugging into the switched outlet on these early preamps put the additional electrical load on the (volume-pot ganged) preamp’s power switch possibly causing it to fail more quickly.

Later preamps use relays and a separate power switch, not as much risk to the preamp, and later amplifiers use a 12v remote trigger to turn on amplifiers that are plugged directly into your outlets. These are designed by McIntosh to be plugged directly into your wall outlets as they draw too much power to plug into switched outlets and many/most power strips are not heavy-duty enough to allow full amplifier draw (output) without some degradation in power due to possible bottlenecks in the power strips. These modern amplifiers are also designed with a robust power supply that has ample filtration for normal power line noise.

So what are you using for equipment, this is important for this discussion.
 
FWIW, I`ve recently had to replace my decades old rack mount Panamax surge/spike/conditioner/ powerup/down/sequencers, both 15 &20 amp versions with NICE brand equivalents (bought out by Furman) to power up my 2 different high powered Mc. separates based systems.

They are heavy duty constructed, & very versatile in their sequencing programing for older Mc. preamps, including 12 v in/out. triggering capability for more modern preamps, and even have a rear plugin module internet based remote control capability, which I unplugged and removed, since I don`t need/desire that internet remote control capability use.
I was initially skeptical about the unknown to me NICE brand, having only been using Panamax since 1995 and Furman sequential powerup/down protectors since 2009, so since I have Amazon Prime and purchased them through them knowing I could painlessly return if I had any doubt about their design & construction after receiving them.

I was very, impressed with these NICE units HQ internal beefy construction, and their staying installed & in daily use in my systems, and have been protecting the Mc. preamps/power amps plugged into them through multiple surge/spike rich strong local thunderstorms, and made made power blips since.

This room`s Mc C-31V preamp has no 12 trigger out, so I use a very small inexpensive 12 wall wart plugged into one of the C-31V`s switched outlet to trigger the NICE brand surge/spike protected sequencer to power on/off the amp, it even comes with a accurately calibrated from panel line voltage LED meter.
 
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