[PStamler]

On Nov 22, 6:52*pm, Tobiah wrote:
On 11/22/2011 2:30 PM, William Sommerwerck wrote:

"Arny *wrote in message
...

In my book $100 is just about mad money. If it works, you have
a deal, and if it does not, then you aren't out that much money.

Seconded.

I turned out to be $150, but I picked it up, and hooked it up.
It's hard to A/B amps, but I believe that I'm hearing individual
instruments with better separation, and the bass seems as they say,
"controlled", albeit plentiful. *I actually think I'm now better able
to pinpoint some of the things that I don't like as being in the
source material. *I was using a JVC receiver earlier.

Or maybe I'm just optimistic, but my old receiver died, and I needed to
scratch and itch. *I was worried that the old capacitors, should they
have changed over the years, would gradually modify the sound from
the amps new state. *I'm not sure what the actual concern about the
caps is, whether its quality, or simply working or not.

I assume that I should turn the input gain controls down as far as
I can, while achieving my desired loudest volume with the Mackie
at unity. *Does that sound sane?

No; consider that most output amplifiers have higher distortion when
the output level is higher. That goes double for Mackie gear, which
often has decent mic preamps but low-grade opamps in later stages,
including the outputs.

I'd set the Mackie's output faders at their nominal level (probably
about 14dB down from maximum -- there'll d a mark) and use the
channel faders (or, if you're listening to an external source, the
control for that source) to set the level so that the highest peaks
very occasionally light up the bottom yellow LED in the Mackie's level
meters. Don't let the other yellow lights light up, and don't let any
of the red lights light up ever.

Once you've done that, use the level control(s) on your new amplifier
to set the volume to what you want to hear.

Turning the power amp controls way down and driving the Mackie's
outputs hard is a sure recipe for high distortion.

Peace,
Paul