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Sub Woofer hook up with McIntosh MC 501

I'm currently thinking about purchasing a pair of subwoofers and run in stereo. I own a pair of McIntosh MC-501 monoblocks. The Mac's have 8,4,and 2 ohm connections, I run my speakers on the 4ohm taps, can I run a powered sub off the 2ohm taps without doing any harm. I would very much appreciate some help with this issue. Thanks
mmitch7711

Showing 2 responses by aball

aball
2,016 posts
 
Active subwoofers accept line-level inputs so you could run the connections from your preamp instead of your amps. If you insist on passive subs, you may need another amp just for them.

I have also heard of people running a sub off the speakers. I am not sure what that would do to the amplifier load however...not that 501s would really notice if the connection is in parallel but... Personally, I wouldn't go with this option.

Arthur
aball
2,016 posts
 
Yes Mitch, I think it "could" do damage in certain circumstances. It is all a matter of parallel or series circuits. In the former, you get a big drop in load impedance for the amp. In the latter, you get current sharing issues which can be quite complicated.

I forget where I read about doing it that way - I think it was a thread right here on Agon some time back. Maybe someone who has done it can chime in.
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