CLX Art and McIntosh MC601
 

As part of a trouble-shooting process, I had to do a Factory Reset on my MX150 and that cost me my Room Perfect settings and I was planning a rerun next week.

However, today I saw a post about the correct taps to be used on a MC452 and that got me off my lazy butt to do a test between the 8ohm (current configuration suggested by M-L) and the 4ohm taps from my MC601's.

I set the MX150 to "Pure Stereo" to send a full range, no subwoofer, signal to the CLX's and changed the taps to 4ohms. WOW, the bass was incredible and the sometimes annoying overly-bright highs were less so. I am still not sure about the mid-range, but the listening I did, so far, did not leave me wanting.

I know there a a few out there with this combination and would like to hear about your impressions.

It never hurts to experiment. Keep us updated. I am glad the system sound better this way.

John,

That is really cool how bass firmed up. I run my Magnepan 3.7's off the 4 ohm tap on the MC601's also but that is where they have always been so I can't give you any input. That is a nice tweak with no $$'s attached. :yes:

~Mike

John the same was found on another site & most if not all agreed that the 4 was better than the 8

With the CLX having a nominal impedance of 6ohms it puts it in the middle of the MC601 2-4-8ohm autoformers. With a low impedance of .07ohms, the 4ohm taps seem to be the logical first choice. However, the M-L people seem pretty strong about using the 8ohm taps. I ran 40-20k sweeps and charted the speakers using the 4ohm taps, I will run sweeps with the 8ohm taps to compare any differences. It may be a few days until I can find the time.

Here are the sweep graphs. Signal was sent directly to the MC601's, no processor, no subwoofer.

The patterns for the 4ohm and 8ohm taps show little difference, most probably, as a result of the autoformers in the MC601.

My subjective conclusion based on the listening test is that there is a more robust bass and more mellow high end at 4ohms.