McIntosh MC2KW Owner's Manual

20
Technical Description
quencies is less than 0.002%. The true distortion readings
on the MC2KW Power Amplifier are so low, it takes special
measuring techniques to make accurate readings. The
MC2KW Power Amplifier can deliver the best possible per-
formance from any type of high quality Loudspeaker Sys-
tem.
Creating an amplifier with this level of performance did
not come easily. Many months of design, testing and mea-
suring were required. Extensive controlled listening tests,
the ultimate form of measuring, were made before the final
design was accepted.
Design Philosophy
The design philosophy incorporated in the MC2KW Power
Amplifier involved several different techniques, all based on
sound scientific logic. Every stage of voltage or current am-
plification must be as linear as possible prior to the use of
negative feedback. McIntosh Engineers know how to prop-
erly design negative feedback circuits so they contribute to
the extremely low distortion performance expected from a
McIntosh Amplifier. The typical McIntosh owner would
never accept the approximately 100 times higher distortion
of many non-feedback designs.
All transistors are selected to have nearly constant cur-
rent gain over the entire current range they must cover. The
48 Power Transistors used in each MC2KW Power Module
Output Circuitry, have matched uniform cur-
rent gain, high current bandwidth product and
a large active region safe operating area.
These Power Transistors are the very latest in
semiconductor technology and incorporate a
new design known as ThermalTrak
1
. Refer to
figure 17. This allows for the instantaneous
and accurate monitoring of the Power Transis-
tor Temperature. Each of the MC2KW Power
Modules has a specially designed bias circuit
to take full advantage of the ThermalTrak
™
Power Transis-
tors and thus precisely controls the power amplifier opera-
tion over a wide range of music conditions with the benefits
of lower distortion and cooler operation. Precision metal
film resistors and low dielectric absorption film capacitors
are used in all critical circuit locations.
Each of the two MC2KW Power Modules utilizes a
Double Balanced Push-Pull design used from input to out-
put. Each half of the amplifier contains complimentary bal-
anced circuitry. Refer to figure 18. The resulting double bal-
anced configuration cancels even order distortion. The out-
put signals from the two MC2KW Power Modules are
coupled together in the unique McIntosh MC2KW Power
Amplifier Output Autoformer. It provides low distortion
power transfer at frequencies from below 20Hz to well be-
yond 20,000Hz with optimum impedance points of two
ohms, four ohms and eight ohms. The unequaled expertise
of McIntosh in the design and manufacturing of
autoformers is legendary in the high fidelity industry.
The high efficiency circuit design of the MC2KW Power
Amplifier contributes to low operating temperatures. More
than 2,800 square inches of heat sink area for each
MC2KW Power Module keep the Power Amplifier operat-
ing safely with convection cooling. No fans are needed. Re-
fer to figure 19.
Figure 18
Figure 17
1
ThermalTrak
™
and ON Semiconductor are trademarks
of Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC
Figure 19

McIntosh MC2KW Specifications

General

Brand	McIntosh
Model	MC2KW
Category	Amplifier
Language	English