McIntosh MC901's internal active crossover & speaker's internal passive crossover

If you want to replace your internal passive crossover with an external crossover, then you need separate wires to your tweeters, midrange, and woofer from the crossover.

I looked up the Mc901.  It is a hybrid amp that wants to drive your woofers with solid state and your mids and tweeter with tube.  To do this your speakers have to be set up for biwiring.

If you speakers are set up for biwiring then you could remove the internal crossover from your woofer if you want.   I don't think this is the intention, but it probably would be good to have the amp crossover set about the same frequency as the internal crossover.

You still need to upper crossover to separate the mid frequencies from the tweeters.

If your speakers aren't set up for bi-amping, I don't know if the mc901 will accommodate that or not.

Jerry  

carlsbad2

... the Mc901.  It is a hybrid amp that wants to drive your woofers with solid state and your mids and tweeter with tube.  To do this your speakers have to be set up for biwiring ...

No, the speakers need to be made for biamplifying. Biwiring and biamping are two different things. If you connect both MC901 outputs to a biwired speaker, you'll blow the amp.

@cleeds Biamping is technically correct.  Biamping is what I meant to say.

However, a speaker truly set up for biwiring should be the same as one set up for biamping. Some speaker manufacturers have the biwires connected on the inside, so they are really just a placebo.  

thanks for the correction.

Jerry

If you connect both MC901 outputs to a biwired speaker, you'll blow the amp.

Usually not.  Sometimes yes. Depends on exactly how the speaker inputs were wired and whether or not your amp outs are balanced or not.

A properly wired speaker for bi-wiring separates out the crossover sections entirely internally.  Some however short the grounds together, by design or by oversight.

It is not ideal to use both an active and passive crossover, but it is still workable.

erik_squires

A properly wired speaker for bi-wiring separates out the crossover sections entirely internally.

This is mistaken. What you have described is a speaker designed for biamplification. Biamplifying and biwiring are two different things.

If you connect both outputs of a Mac901 amplifier to a speaker not intended for biamplfication, you’re going to have problems. Big time.