Technical Description, con’t
feedback designs.
The fully Balanced
While conventional designs only take output from the plate, the Patented Unity Coupled Power Amplifier Circuitry takes the Power Output from both the plate and cathode of the Power Output Tubes. This allows for only one half of the turns ratio in the Output Transformer used in conventional designs. The result is much lower distor- tion, wider bandwidth and increased loudspeaker damping factor. Refer to figure 13.
Figure 13
The output signals of the two matched Patented Unity Coupled Circuit Power Amplifiers operate in a
and manu- facturing of trans- formers is legendary in the high fidelity industry.
Preci- sion metal film resis- tors and low dielec- tric absorp- tion film capacitors
are used in all critical circuit locations. The circuit design of the MC2301 contributes to low operating temperatures using convection cooling. No fans are needed.
Power Output Meter
The McIntosh MC2301 has a large Output Watt Meter that responds 95% full scale to a single cycle tone burst at 2kHz. Refer to figure 15. The voltage outputs are electroni- cally measured and fed to a special circuit that accelerates the pointer
movement in the upward direction. When the pointer reaches
its peak it pauses only long enough for the hu- man eye to perceive its position, then drops.
It is almost 10 times faster than a professional VU meter. A front panel switch is provided to change the meter to
the Watts Hold Mode of operation. This allows fast upward movement of the pointer but greatly increases Hold Time at the peak of its travel. The highest power output of the source material is thus recorded.
Sentry Monitor Protection Circuit
The MC2301 incorporates the newly designed Sentry Monitor Tube Protection Circuitry. Refer to figure 16. This circuit provides protection to the Power Amplifier in the event of an improper load (mismatched impedance), shorted loudspeaker cable or if a Power Output Tube
Figure 16
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