mcintosh car amp

S&s, I have a stage 4 head unit dex p99rs, front speakers are Dynaudios 362's rear speakers are JBLs 660 gti'S and 2 12 in JBL gti MKII's in the trunk. Run with all 0 gauge monster cable (power and ground ran to the trunk) 2 Mcintosh mcc 301's running the subs 1 mcintosh mcc 302 running the rear jbls and the questionable mcintosh mcc404 running the Dynaudios. All 0 gauge platinum power blocks and fuse blocks as well. Everything the best, I think out there. It's all going into a beautiful 1998 Toyota convertible that I owned since new. I'm 3 quarters done so far with the install.Don't know what the problem is yet... but I know what it's not.

Also, less interesting things as 4 monster cable caps ( 1 for each amp) Big 3 upgrade all 0 gauge monster cable, Sears die hard Platinum battery, 180amp alternator. probably missing a few things lol.Don't know what the problem is yet... but I know what it's not.

cool stuff man, im surprised you can find the space in that car for all of it. the reason for saying that its a shame to bridge that amp is the same reason that its a shame when someone has a supercar and never drives faster than the speed limit. the clarity of those amps are why people pay so much for them and most wouldnt willingly sacrifice the clarity for some extra power. those Mcintosh amps are superamps, i honestly dont know if there is anything better, so it would be a shame to not run it as clean as possible. the gain you would see from an extra 50 watts might only be barely noticable and usually will only benefit you in the lower frequency ranges because they use more power to recreate those low notes. higher frequencies dont require that amount of power, just because the speaker is rated for 200W doesnt mean that it will draw that much power from the amp because higher frequencies usually present a higher ohm load to the amp and thus you might be getting 90W with a dynamic range of 200W on peaks. this is one of the reasons why crossovers are necessary to keep speakers alive and distortion free. even though your amp is prepared to give out 200W RMS, the actual power at any given time is still resistance based and a speaker's resistance is always going up and down with different frequencies. this is why you wont really hear a difference with the extra 50W because you are still not getting 50W all of the time. you might notice certain effects like like a low drum hit become more pronounced but thats assuming the sub doesnt take over those notes as well and then you wouldnt notice the difference

I presume bospet40 knows that 2x the volume requires 10x the power. EG - 100W output is only 3dB louder than 50W. Furthermore the human ear is unlikely to hear changes under 1dB. Though bospet40 probably knows that, I am surprised at the number of (car)audio(forum) buffs that don't seem to. Loudness (short duration peaks) is another issue though probably not relevant here.

soundnsecurity wrote: cool stuff man, im surprised you can find the space in that car for all of it. the reason for saying that its a shame to bridge that amp is the same reason that its a shame when someone has a supercar and never drives faster than the speed limit. the clarity of those amps are why people pay so much for them and most wouldnt willingly sacrifice the clarity for some extra power. those Mcintosh amps are superamps, i honestly dont know if there is anything better, so it would be a shame to not run it as clean as possible. the gain you would see from an extra 50 watts might only be barely noticable and usually will only benefit you in the lower frequency ranges because they use more power to recreate those low notes. higher frequencies dont require that amount of power, just because the speaker is rated for 200W doesnt mean that it will draw that much power from the amp because higher frequencies usually present a higher ohm load to the amp and thus you might be getting 90W with a dynamic range of 200W on peaks. this is one of the reasons why crossovers are necessary to keep speakers alive and distortion free. even though your amp is prepared to give out 200W RMS, the actual power at any given time is still resistance based and a speaker's resistance is always going up and down with different frequencies. this is why you wont really hear a difference with the extra 50W because you are still not getting 50W all of the time. you might notice certain effects like like a low drum hit become more pronounced but thats assuming the sub doesnt take over those notes as well and then you wouldnt notice the difference

Thanks man, you make some very good points. And yes space is tight a lot of trial and error as to fitting everything in the car. Most will be in the trunk and my biggest problem i'm facing and being a convertible is WATER, making sure nothing will ever come in contact to it. On top of the 2 MCC301's ( because of where they are mounted) I've made a gutter system just in case when I open the truck some waters drops would fall into the gutter, not my amps as even more protection. I think I'm going to use the other amp (MCC404) in my other car and buy another MCC302 to runs the Dynaudios. To me it just feels right. I guess that's why I posted this in the beginning.Don't know what the problem is yet... but I know what it's not.

S&S There are nothing better than the Mcintosh amps I have their home equipment and the car amps are built just as good. There was a couple of fly by night amp makers that all came and went.(I have most of them) Mac has been around for 64 years well before I was born, lol. It's like Bryston or Krell getting into car audio. Most folks can't afford these amps and dismiss them as they know of something "better".Don't know what the problem is yet... but I know what it's not.

oldspark wrote: I presume bospet40 knows that 2x the volume requires 10x the power. EG - 100W output is only 3dB louder than 50W. Furthermore the human ear is unlikely to hear changes under 1dB. Though bospet40 probably knows that, I am surprised at the number of (car)audio(forum) buffs that don't seem to. Loudness (short duration peaks) is another issue though probably not relevant here.

It's all well and dandy on paper but you can hear and feel the fullness difference between 100 watts vs 50 watts. This is not what my concern was.Don't know what the problem is yet... but I know what it's not.

Why wouldn't I bridge my MC404? Well, first off because I want the highest SQ possible and while the signal distortion numbers you quote are quite low in bridged mode, I am also concerned with noise and heat. Also, the difference in SPL is only +3db so it's not worth stressing the amps for that difference. I'll use my high-end 4-channel amp as a 4-channel amp. If I need a stereo amp, I'll buy one of those.Support the12volt.com

OK... 3dB is all you'll gain, at the expense of heat and overall amplifier efficiency. If *I* had anything with a McIntosh badge on it, I'd NEVER bridge them. Period. Now... From a pure dynamic range POV, more is better. Also period. I am running 1200WRMS to my doors in a three-way system, 300W to the 6.5" Adire woofers, 150W to the Vifa 4" Kevlar mids, and 150W to the JL silk-domes. Seriously speaking, THAT'S dynamic range. I will run some 50WRMS on a regular basis, per door, total... 10dB of dynamic range is a real world, and audible quantity of headroom, even if I rarely touch it. Now that I've completely confused the issue, I'll tell you exactly what I'd do with those amps... Bi-wire/bi-amp the fronts on the 4-channel amplifier. HAY-lo... 4-ohm load, 400WRMS to the doors. You can also use this as an opportunity to set the volume of the woofers to match the highs, and you'll appreciate this ability with those 3-way systems. Too bright in my humble opinion. If you MUST have rears, then put the 302 on them, but keep the gain WAY down. A true audiophile system won't have rears, as far as I am concerned. I'd actually forego the rears altogether and find a really nice 10" woofer (think TCSounds) and run that amp to that. No woofer at all? Run two channels of the 4-channel to the rears, the remaining two channels to the highs of the components and put the 302 to the woofer section of the components. You've still got the bi-wire/bi-amp setup, and you're maximizing the amplifier capabilities, while still using all six channels of them, and staying at 4-ohms, as you desired from the get-go. My two cents.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I am shocked that this thread made two pages. Bridging this amplifier for the intended purpose is not going to net anything significant in terms of enjoyable listening. As others state, this amplifier is already built to drive speakers easily without any bridging of channels.Chronic, late stage optimist.