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C24 Hookup Help Please

S

stephenj007

New Member
Hey, friends!
Ok, so I got my first Mcintosh C24 pre-amp today, and I am lost.
Excuse my ignorance, but I have never hooked one of these up before, and don't want to screw it up.
How do I run my speaker wires? The speaker wire connections have a connection for "amp" along with the speaker wire connections.
Also, do I need to make any other connections to my amp from the Mcintosh pre-amp?
A diagram would be helpful if anybody has one too...
Thanks in advance for the assistance.
 
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What amp are you using?

Without a manual, the speaker connections on the preamp are not at all intuitive. Not your fault! :) My suggestion is to keep it simple at first:
- Don't hook the speakers to the preamp. Hook the speakers directly to the amp and keep the C24 out of the loop.
- Hook the "main out" of the C24 preamp to the input of the amp. These are all RCA connectors - simple patch cord.
- Hook any source (CD player, iPod, etc.) to any input of the C24, such as AUX, tuner, tape, etc. Turntable ONLY goes to Phono as there is an extra gain/EQ stage there. Also avoid using Tape Head input as it also has an extra gain/EQ stage.

This will give you a preamp signal from the C24 to your amp, and a speaker signal from your amp to your speakers and should make music.

The speaker connectors (amp in and speaker out) on the C24 are simply for convenience: it allows you to use the speaker selector on the front of the preamp to select your speakers. It's just a switch matrix and is not necessary to use.
 
DC said:
What amp are you using?

- Don't hook the speakers to the preamp. Hook the speakers directly to the amp and keep the C24 out of the loop.
Click to expand...

Yes, good advice, and also the C24 is a sweet pre that has always gotten its share of criticism. I really like them, just don't use the power switch if it works (they always break and are very fragile so put it on a power bar or something like a Furman) and don't break the glass - they are unavailable and they don't make them. C24s crank though, never had a problem with mine and should not have sold it.
 
This pre greatly benefits from a rebuild w/ recapping and contact cleaning all switches and controls incl the transistor sockets if used. The power switch demands having a snubber cap added across it, 0.01uF/2KV Z5U ceramic. I put the cap at the rear across the switched/unswitched power sockets where there was plenty of space.
 
The speaker connectors on the preamp are used when using multiple speakers or headphones and want to turn off the speakers. If usin neither, just wire the power amp directly to the speakers; I always found some degradation of the sound when using the switching but a great benefit when wanting that 2nd speaker capability and the power amp was not made to accept and switch multiple speakers.
 
Speaker hook-ups like this were common back when the expectation was that a "real" pre-amp/control center had to have every possible option, leading to a lot of complexity and seldom/never used features. Many 'mystery' problems that eventually developed could be traced to corrupted switch contacts in these features, Mac is no exception, the C24 I just did suffered from a pretty thorough assortment of poor contact interfaces from the transistor sockets to the burned but restorable power switch.
 
Thanks for all the detailed information and assistance.
I have the unit working correctly now through my Marantz PM-68 Amp for now, till I find a bit more vintage amp!
All the help and assistance is much appreciated as always.
Regards,
SJ
 
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