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mcintosh ma5100 into a fisher 400

T

thegig

New Member
mcintosh into a fisher 400

hello i am a noob so bare with me. i have a mcintosh ma 5100. and a fisher 400. i just ran the mcintosh into my fisher 400 aux in. i run only a turntable with this set up. my turntable goes into the mcintosh. i got a really good sound from it. before i ran the turntable just into the fisher. then just into the mcintosh. seemed like somthing was missing. when i ran it into the fisher 400 the sound was amazing. i cannot adjust volume or anything on the mcintosh. just the fisher controls all that. was wondering if this is the way it is supposed to be? and if the mcintosh into the fisher really made such a dramatic sound improvement. any info on this would be great. thank you
 
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The mcintosh should not hook up to the fisher...if you want to use the mac it's speaker out needs to hook up to your speakers with the fisher on the sideline.
 
hello i am a noob so bare with me. i have a mcintosh ma 5100. and a fisher 400. i just ran the mcintosh into my fisher 400 aux in. i run only a turntable with this set up. my turntable goes into the mcintosh. i got a really good sound from it. before i ran the turntable just into the fisher. then just into the mcintosh. seemed like something was missing. when i ran it into the fisher 400 the sound was amazing. i cannot adjust volume or anything on the mcintosh. just the fisher controls all that. was wondering if this is the way it is supposed to be? and if the mcintosh into the fisher really made such a dramatic sound improvement. any info on this would be great. thank you
 
Huh?
Don't mean to seem rude, but your post is a bit of a riddle (at least for me). Can you re-state in a more readable fashion? BTW, welcome!
Mike
 
Is the Fisher 400 an integrated amp or power amp? It sounds like a weird pairing but I don't see why you could not connect a cable from the tape out on the Mac to the aux in on the Fisher.
 
Well, it's definitely not a conventional hook up. Doing it like that gives you two line stages or preamps if you will. If the Fisher had preamp power amp jumpers you would be able to use just the power amp portion. Maybe the Fisher guys know how to do it with the reverb circuit or something.:scratch2: I run a Solid State pre and tube power amp upstairs, and a tube pre and SS power amp downstairs. I think the two mix very well.:music:
 
the way the 400 is set up, the LAST thing before the Phase inverter/drivers is the volume pot. I suppose it's possible to put a jumper in between the two, then use the MA-5100 as a preamp. But I'd rather rebuild the phono section on the 400.

I'm just wondering if the 400 hasn't been rehabbed. The OP may be missing some SQ due to old caps and such if it hasn't been rehabbed.

Larry
 
i guess i want to know why it sounds best this way? running my turntable just through the fisher sounded good but was missing something. defiantly dident go very loud. then with the turntable hooked up to just the mac was good yet stil missing something. when i connected both i thought the sound was huge improvement. wondering why. and if im geting any sound quality from the mac as well by my turntable running through it into the fisher.
 
Looks to me like there is some confusion as to which FISHER unit is in the Rig. FISHER made at least 3-4 different pieces of gear with 400 in the model #.

400 tube receiver
400c integrated amp
400cx integrated amp
400T transistor receiver
There are probably more but I haven't had my coffee yet.

SOME Pictures of the equipment would help with shots of the front, then the back all connected.

Larry
 
Sounds to me like you might be using a slightly low output cartridge and need 2 preamps to get the gain up. What cartridge are you using? The Fisher 400 receiver phono stage seems to require a cartridge that has output at over 3.5mv. Not sure about the Mac (never used one). You might be better off just using a higher output cartridge rather than tying up two preamps...or getting a dedicated phono stage that can handle the gain requirements of a lower output cartridge.
 
Dadbar said:
Sounds to me like you might be using a slightly low output cartridge and need 2 preamps to get the gain up. What cartridge are you using? The Fisher 400 receiver phono stage seems to require a cartridge that has output at over 3.5mv. Not sure about the Mac (never used one). You might be better off just using a higher output cartridge rather than tying up two preamps...or getting a dedicated phono stage that can handle the gain requirements of a lower output cartridge.
Click to expand...


turntable is a reaga 2. with upgraded cartridge. th receiver is a fisher 400 tube
 
larryderouin said:
Looks to me like there is some confusion as to which FISHER unit is in the Rig. FISHER made at least 3-4 different pieces of gear with 400 in the model #.

400 tube receiver
400c integrated amp
400cx integrated amp
400T transistor receiver
There are probably more but I haven't had my coffee yet.

SOME Pictures of the equipment would help with shots of the front, then the back all connected.

Larry
Click to expand...
its a 400 receiver
 
so you're using two preamp sections - both mcintosh and fisher. you're feeding the phono signal that's already amplified by the mcintosh into aux of the fisher for it to go through yet another preamp section and then to fisher output.

what speakers are you using? and when you say, "sound improvement", do you mean louder? or more detail, definition, dynamics, and etc.?

it could be that your speakers are very inefficient or output/preamp section of one of those amps need fixing.

obviously, when signal is amplified a several times, it can be perceived as improved sound, but might be just louder with less quality sound due to passing all those extra stages.

have you try connecting the turntable to fisher and then fisher preamp out to the mcintosh power-in? that would be an ideal way to utilize both amps using the fisher tube preamp section with more powerful mcintosh solid state output section.
 
The MA5100 does not have a preout or amp in on any I can remember or see on my schematic.

As I see it you have a simple choice: tt to mac to speakers or tt to fisher to speakers....I am sure both units need complete restoration before either will be working at anything near their past performance. Any other hook up just adds extra noise and distortion. KISS
 
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