McIntosh MC500 Owner's Manual page 15

TRUE POWER OUTPUT WATT METERS
Two illuminated 5-1/2 inch WATT meters are provided on the MC500 front panel. The meters
are peak responding and their circuits are constantly reading both voltage and current
delivered to the loudspeaker loads. The load impedance of a loudspeaker may differ at various
parts of the audio frequency range, resulting in a change of output current requirements.
The MC500 meters react to these changing current and voltage conditions and indicate the
true amplifier power output of each channel at all times.
in the METER WATTS position, the meters respond to the musical information and read
the amplifier output of each channel on a continuous basis. In the METER HOLD position
the meters will lock to the highest power peak in a sequence of peaks. If no higher power
peaks are reached the meter pointers will slowly return to the lower power level. If the music
stops, the meter pointers will return to the rest position. The meter pointer decay rate is ap-
proximately 6dB per minute. The MC500 output meters are extremely accurate, and will res-
pond to 95% of full scale, with only a single cycle of a 2,000Hz tone burst.
The upper scale on the meters is calibrated in average watts power, and the lower scale
in decibels. The meter calibration lines reading from right to left, starting at the 500 watt
indication are as follows:
500 (Indicated)
200
100
50 (Indicated)
20
10
5 (Indicated)
2
1
Two additional calibration marks above 500 watts are on the meters. The first mark is 1000
watts (+ 3dB), and the second mark is 2000 watts (+ 6dB) The amplifier cannot produce
a continuous 2000 watts of power, but can produce well above 500 watts on program peaks,
especially into lower impedance loads.
In MONO operation, the two meters will read identical power levels. The total mono power
output of the amplifier will be the sum of these readings.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Heavy duty high current gold plated output terminals will accept speaker cables up to 0.204
inches (5.18mm) in diameter. It is easy to connect speakers using any of the currently popular
speaker cables
Both Balanced as well as an Unbalanced input jacks are provided for complete flexibility
in any installation.
0.5 (Indicated)
0.2
0.1
0.05 (Indicated)
0.02
0.01
0.005 (Indicated)
0.002
0.001
TECHNICAL
DESCRIPTION
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