kevzep
Its all about the Music
So this annoying left meter going intermittent has been bugging me for quite some time, but how do I pull my 452 out of service when I listen to it every day, it plays music whenever I am home, even when I am working in the Lab....
Then there's the nature of intermittent faults, it might have to be on the bench for a couple of days....Oh the horror!!
Since I am slowly refurbishing our 80 Macrotech's right now, I have quite a few here ready to go back into service, so I thought, I'll just replace the MC452 with a Macrotech whilst I repair the MC452!! Perfect!! It was decided!!
View attachment 1307705
So there's the background on the Macro-Tech to go up against my beloved MC452....
Now we all know about the performance of the Macro on the subs, my system is actively bi-amped with the MEN220, I am about to have a shootout with the MEN220 vs the Lake Contour, as I feel I could benefit form the Linear Phase crossover Filters that the Lake has....but thats another thread.
I tried all manner of amps on the subs including the MC452. The Macro blows everything out of the water on sub duty, no question....
But how does it fare on the Midrange/Top end??? I have always been curious...
So out came the 452 with its Left meter which had not been working for a week.
So into the lab it goes.
Of course I turn it on and both meters are working!!!! ARRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!! Annoying, the worst kind of fault.
I took to top over off over the back of the meters, I reseated those connectors which are on the LED driver board, I gently wiggled those connectors, seems the meter drive cables come up and pass through the LED driver board, bit odd, but hey there must be a reason, serviceability most likely, pretty easy to get at.
Then I turned it over, underneath is the meter drive circuits right there, more connectors to re-seat. I was inspecting the integrity of the sockets on the boards as well, and everything looked good.
View attachment 1307719
So there wasn't much else I could do really, I could not find anything amiss. All the time, both meters worked and I could not get the fault to appear, I can only assume that one of those plugs wasn't seated correctly or something.
These amps are so hand built, great to see you get so much human touch for your money!!
Check out the Fibre Optic diffuser, thats some impressive engineering right there...I like the way they did that...
This is the Left Channel Meter Driver circuit here....
Anyway, not much else to check out, it does look to me checking out the output driver board that indeed one channel is made up of two amplifiers which are as far as I can tell, are bridged through the Autoformer.
So it was on the bench for two days playing some music and never once did the meter stop so I put it back into service.
So how did the Crown go??
BETTER than I thought it would, I keep saying the MC452 is the best amplifier I have ever heard, well that still stands NO QUESTION!!
Okay so the Crown, it has good top end extension, its all there. Obviously plenty of headroom. I listened to two albums I know very well at a reasonable level, not concert level but at times I did turn it up a bit.
First thing I noticed was the lack of image, very two dimensional, I also found myself "squinting" with my ears, if that makes sense, to unravel everything in the upper mid range, vocals guitars and anything else in that range was sort of "smeared" together if you like, and the top end, right at the top was not exactly reacting as much with the music, if that makes sense, it was't as delicate, or velvet smooth the like 452, BUT it was there, just not as easy to listen to, I felt I wanted to turn it down, but doing that doesn't help as you still don't have the separation and linearity I am used to with the 452.
Fatigue sets in fairly quickly with the Crown when listening at a decent level, one thing I notice with the 452 is I never get listening fatigue, but the Crown was hard work after a while.
But overall, the Crown did better than I thought, and for low level its not bad, but still, its not the lush velvet easy listen that the 452 is.
I do not know how McIntosh do it, but what this shootout made me realise, was, just how damn good these amplifiers are!! How do they do it??
If my 452 failed in some way and I had to put another amp in its place for a few days, I could handle the Crown, but it would not give me anything like the pleasure that the MC452 does.
The engineering in the MC452 is extraordinary, it is such an easy listen, it has such a relaxed sound, but retains pinpoint accuracy and the smoothest detailed and most pleasurable top end I have ever heard....
I love my 452!! Thank you McIntosh for the continual development to reach levels of audio performance previously only imaginable.......
Oh, footnote, I wanted to run the 452 up on my loadbank and THD analyser and FFT analyser, but I just didn't have the time, my THD analyser might not have the resolution to measure the 452 anyway....and frankly, power rating? pfft!! It has plenty of power for me!!
So there it is....
Then there's the nature of intermittent faults, it might have to be on the bench for a couple of days....Oh the horror!!
Since I am slowly refurbishing our 80 Macrotech's right now, I have quite a few here ready to go back into service, so I thought, I'll just replace the MC452 with a Macrotech whilst I repair the MC452!! Perfect!! It was decided!!
View attachment 1307705
So there's the background on the Macro-Tech to go up against my beloved MC452....
Now we all know about the performance of the Macro on the subs, my system is actively bi-amped with the MEN220, I am about to have a shootout with the MEN220 vs the Lake Contour, as I feel I could benefit form the Linear Phase crossover Filters that the Lake has....but thats another thread.
I tried all manner of amps on the subs including the MC452. The Macro blows everything out of the water on sub duty, no question....
But how does it fare on the Midrange/Top end??? I have always been curious...
So out came the 452 with its Left meter which had not been working for a week.
So into the lab it goes.
Of course I turn it on and both meters are working!!!! ARRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!! Annoying, the worst kind of fault.
I took to top over off over the back of the meters, I reseated those connectors which are on the LED driver board, I gently wiggled those connectors, seems the meter drive cables come up and pass through the LED driver board, bit odd, but hey there must be a reason, serviceability most likely, pretty easy to get at.
Then I turned it over, underneath is the meter drive circuits right there, more connectors to re-seat. I was inspecting the integrity of the sockets on the boards as well, and everything looked good.
View attachment 1307719
So there wasn't much else I could do really, I could not find anything amiss. All the time, both meters worked and I could not get the fault to appear, I can only assume that one of those plugs wasn't seated correctly or something.
These amps are so hand built, great to see you get so much human touch for your money!!
Check out the Fibre Optic diffuser, thats some impressive engineering right there...I like the way they did that...
This is the Left Channel Meter Driver circuit here....
Anyway, not much else to check out, it does look to me checking out the output driver board that indeed one channel is made up of two amplifiers which are as far as I can tell, are bridged through the Autoformer.
So it was on the bench for two days playing some music and never once did the meter stop so I put it back into service.
So how did the Crown go??
BETTER than I thought it would, I keep saying the MC452 is the best amplifier I have ever heard, well that still stands NO QUESTION!!
Okay so the Crown, it has good top end extension, its all there. Obviously plenty of headroom. I listened to two albums I know very well at a reasonable level, not concert level but at times I did turn it up a bit.
First thing I noticed was the lack of image, very two dimensional, I also found myself "squinting" with my ears, if that makes sense, to unravel everything in the upper mid range, vocals guitars and anything else in that range was sort of "smeared" together if you like, and the top end, right at the top was not exactly reacting as much with the music, if that makes sense, it was't as delicate, or velvet smooth the like 452, BUT it was there, just not as easy to listen to, I felt I wanted to turn it down, but doing that doesn't help as you still don't have the separation and linearity I am used to with the 452.
Fatigue sets in fairly quickly with the Crown when listening at a decent level, one thing I notice with the 452 is I never get listening fatigue, but the Crown was hard work after a while.
But overall, the Crown did better than I thought, and for low level its not bad, but still, its not the lush velvet easy listen that the 452 is.
I do not know how McIntosh do it, but what this shootout made me realise, was, just how damn good these amplifiers are!! How do they do it??
If my 452 failed in some way and I had to put another amp in its place for a few days, I could handle the Crown, but it would not give me anything like the pleasure that the MC452 does.
The engineering in the MC452 is extraordinary, it is such an easy listen, it has such a relaxed sound, but retains pinpoint accuracy and the smoothest detailed and most pleasurable top end I have ever heard....
I love my 452!! Thank you McIntosh for the continual development to reach levels of audio performance previously only imaginable.......
Oh, footnote, I wanted to run the 452 up on my loadbank and THD analyser and FFT analyser, but I just didn't have the time, my THD analyser might not have the resolution to measure the 452 anyway....and frankly, power rating? pfft!! It has plenty of power for me!!
So there it is....
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