SMS > McIntosh Cabling

[TRG]

Max the POT! Max the POT!
(Maybe I should make a crytic t-shirt!)

Made a short Mogami/Amphernol cable last night.

Now un-strangled Mc250 is on about 8:00 for garage volume. Love the tone. There is still very minor noise at idle. I'm still wondering about the #1 loop on my GCX. I have way more Uuuumph/noise unit now. Very low. Maybe I need to make a tin-foil hat for the fluorescents in my man-shed.

Thanks Everybody. Help appreciated.
Peace
M

I have an SMS > MC250 combo as well and have been experimenting with the settings. Initially I didn't have the rear attenuator cranked on the pre but did so after reading this thread. Sounds awesome and increases the headroom substantially on the Mac...but, it seems to be messing with the Qtron. It seems the signal is too hot and the Qtron distorts. Has anyone else noticed this with their EF, or is my Qtron flaking out on me?

I have the SMS>250 and have a QTRON and it doesn't distort at all...and that's with the rear trim pot on the SMS maxed. I'm using it with a super 2 split in middle position.

[mgbills]

I haven't seen any changes to effects in the OBEL. Check you're Q-Tron settings against the old threads on the topic. It might not be apples vs apples though, as I'm also running a GCX.

[NSP]

Max the POT! Max the POT!
(Maybe I should make a crytic t-shirt!)

Made a short Mogami/Amphernol cable last night.

Now un-strangled Mc250 is on about 8:00 for garage volume. Love the tone. There is still very minor noise at idle. I'm still wondering about the #1 loop on my GCX. I have way more Uuuumph/noise unit now. Very low. Maybe I need to make a tin-foil hat for the fluorescents in my man-shed.

Thanks Everybody. Help appreciated.
Peace
M

I have an SMS > MC250 combo as well and have been experimenting with the settings. Initially I didn't have the rear attenuator cranked on the pre but did so after reading this thread. Sounds awesome and increases the headroom substantially on the Mac...but, it seems to be messing with the Qtron. It seems the signal is too hot and the Qtron distorts. Has anyone else noticed this with their EF, or is my Qtron flaking out on me?

I have the SMS>250 and have a QTRON and it doesn't distort at all...and that's with the rear trim pot on the SMS maxed. I'm using it with a super 2 split in middle position.

Hmm, interesting. Dialing back the rear pad to around 1 o'clock alleviates the distortion but makes me wonder why I can't run with it wide open. I find the sweet spot on the Qtron running both peak and gain knobs at about 11 o'clock. Dialing the gain a bit clockwise will also reduce distortion but loses some of the thickness in the quack. I suppose with these rigs there are many nuances within each that requires serious fine tuning. Overall, I'm very pleased with my setup...now the hard part of waiting for the last major piece of the puzzle; an AO Wolf that will be done early 2013.

-Tim

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

It's important to understand the nature of the Mac's knob. It's simply a pot at the input. It's totally passive. There are no "electronics" before that pot as you enter the Mac. So whether you turn down the SMS pot and turn up the Mac pot, or vice-versa, it's the same basic idea. Jerry's Fender had not pad-pot, so he came out of the Fender pre full strength and used the Mac pot to attenuate. That's why I say that people with Mac's should crank the SMS rear pot all the way which makes it as if it's not there (like Jerry), and then use the Mac pot to set your master level.

If there is some issue with the Mutron result here, that should simply be a factor of how hard you're driving the actual power or loudness of the rig overall. That dance between the SMS rear pot and the Mac's pot should have zero affect on the Mutron's action. It suggests to me that maybe under one of those conditions, you are driving the Mac louder than with the other.

B

[TRG]

I have an SMS > MC250 combo as well and have been experimenting with the settings. Initially I didn't have the rear attenuator cranked on the pre but did so after reading this thread. Sounds awesome and increases the headroom substantially on the Mac...but, it seems to be messing with the Qtron. It seems the signal is too hot and the Qtron distorts. Has anyone else noticed this with their EF, or is my Qtron flaking out on me?

I have the SMS>250 and have a QTRON and it doesn't distort at all...and that's with the rear trim pot on the SMS maxed. I'm using it with a super 2 split in middle position.

Hmm, interesting. Dialing back the rear pad to around 1 o'clock alleviates the distortion but makes me wonder why I can't run with it wide open. I find the sweet spot on the Qtron running both peak and gain knobs at about 11 o'clock. Dialing the gain a bit clockwise will also reduce distortion but loses some of the thickness in the quack. I suppose with these rigs there are many nuances within each that requires serious fine tuning. Overall, I'm very pleased with my setup...now the hard part of waiting for the last major piece of the puzzle; an AO Wolf that will be done early 2013.

-Tim

Maybe try using these settings that Waldo suggested in the thread below. They work great for me (just had to dial the gain up one notch). See if that helps at all.

viewtopic.php?f=309&t=9803&hilit=qtron+settings

Nice! Good luck with the wolf...I got one last winter from Troy Post and love it!

[hippieguy1954]

Have you tried running the Qtron through a different amp such as a combo for comparison just to make sure it's not the Qtron?

[NSP]

Thanks for the education and input guys. I'll continue to tweak and report back at some point.

Peace,

-Tim

[NSP]

Well, I think I've isolated the problem to the left channel on my Mc250, as when plugging into the right channel everything functions very nicely and as expected. In researching the symptoms I was experiencing I came across this thread (McIntosh MC2100 Repair Brief ) where JohnnyBoy was having the same thing happen. You may have seen I responded to him in that thread and he never did figure out the solution....except for moving to an Mc100.

Anyway, can anyone shed any light on what may need to be repaired on the Mac that may be causing this distortion and excessive speaker cone flutter? It's really only when the Qtron is engaged that this happens. Although it seems I need to turn up the suspected faulty channel a bit more to achieve the same volume as the good channel.

Thanks guys!

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

One quick thought. Maybe make sure that ALL the wiper/contacts in the mono/stereo switch are perfectly clean. Use high% isopropyl or some other good non-residue contact cleaner (NOT Caig DeOxit!).


B

[mgbills]

Hey Brad...I just got a wave of fear....

Why not DeOxit? I used it to de-glubify my Mutron & it seemed like magic sprinkles. Please expand that thought.

M

[NSP]

One quick thought. Maybe make sure that ALL the wiper/contacts in the mono/stereo switch are perfectly clean. Use high% isopropyl or some other good non-residue contact cleaner (NOT Caig DeOxit!).


B

Thanks for the tip Brad.

Actually I found a guy here in Madison that specializes in vintage audio equipment and he's very familiar with these Mac's, so I'm going to have him take a look at it. Although his business caters to home audio systems. When I told him I use it as a guitar amplifier he was a bit taken aback and didn't think it would work very well in that capacity. He's an old timer, been working in audio electronics since 1973 so maybe when I tell him Les Paul swore by them with his guitar rig he may reconsider.

[TI4-1009]

Hey Brad...I just got a wave of fear....

Why not DeOxit? I used it to de-glubify my Mutron & it seemed like magic sprinkles. Please expand that thought.

M

Yeah- wha's wit dat? I just got my Fulltone wah and Mike Fuller says in the manual that you never spray anything in there EXCEPT DeOxit????