Can I use my Beomaster 5000 receiver's preamp to run a McIntosh amp as the power?

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Michael Posted: Sat, Aug 17 2019 4:23 AM

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I bought a Beomaster 5000 (type 2323) and master control panel and just play vinyl with it 2.0 style. I have always wanted to try a McIntosh system or in this case amp, and I have a pal that had one sitting around not being used and offered to let me take it for a test drive. But he discovered it was a "MC300 Power Amplifier" only and as we know is of the component design and needs to use a pre-amp to deliver the power to my speakers to play. I don't currently own one but he did some exploring on the web of the back panal of my B&O  receiver model,  because we live in different cities, and he noticed there were a couple pairs of "jumpers" on the panel and he assumed that was some external pre-amp wiring and that the amp built into my B&O could probably be bypassed by unplugging and routing into the McIntosh therefore using it as the power amp only while still using the B&O receiver as the pre-amp/tuner etc....  

Sooo, question is,

1) is he correct about this? Can I simply unplug the pre-amp RCA's from the back of my B&O receiver and plug the appropriate leads from the Mc into the same in the receiver and will just plug & play delivering the power coming from the McIntosh?

2) If the jumpers are indeed RCA plugs and the Mc connections are just screws for bare wires, how do I bridge that issue?

3) are there any more details I need to be aware of so I don't damage either unit? My speakers are some 90's vintage rebuilt Norman Lab Mod 10's and I know aren't capable of surviving all the amp has to give, but I'll manage that gingerly.

Thank you for any and all input!

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Bill Briscoe replied on Sat, Aug 17 2019 1:08 PM

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Hi Michael,

The Beomaster 5000 has pre-outputs, they are located next to the in/out pair with jumpers.  You should leave the jumpers in as that set is for an equalizer or other piece of equipment that you want to loop in, but it will not have any volume control - it's always at line level (full volume at line level).  The pre-outs are marked as such.

The McIntosh amp has RCA inputs so it's a simple connection between the two components using a single stereo RCA cable.  The screw terminals on the MC300 are for the speaker wires.

The Beomaster 5000 is rated 50W per channel, the MC300 is rated 300W per channel.  That's quite a big difference, especially since the MC300 will have much more dynamic headroom and punch. You would want to be very careful.  I don't know what the Model 10s were rated, but I doubt it was 300W.

Good luck!

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Michael replied on Wed, Aug 21 2019 12:11 AM

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Great help Bill, thanks much. Yes, the Model 10's are not able to handle that much so I do intend to be very gentle with the volume button. Wish me luck. Thanks again.

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putekrigeren replied on Wed, Sep 25 2019 9:56 AM

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From using the Beomaster 5000 2323 on Revel high-end speakers

I was quite perplexed by what a great amp it actually is,

and would anticipate excellent results from you using it as a preamp.

How did it fare?