Denon AVR, McIntosh passthru trigger confusion

J

Jopixi

Audiophyte
Hello. Hope you all are well. First time posting in the forum's. I have run into a small snag.

I recently purchased a McIntosh ma5300 as an amplifier for my home theatre/music room. It is To be used as an HT amp when watching movies and as an integrated using its DAC in for music.

However I have found that the Mc passthru feature for HT bypass requires a 12V trigger.

So my issue is. Denon x3800h manual states that it can output a 12V trigger out via an monaural 3.5mm trigger cable, specifically asked not to use stereo.

Conversely. The McIntosh specifically requires a Stereo 12V trigger in. I have explored the options of a mono to stereo 3.5mm aux adapter, as well as different Y cables to split a mono signal into stereo RCA and then a separate Y cable that converts stereo RCA back into a stereo 3.5mm

I am hesitant to attempt any of these methods until I can gain a bit of knowledge in case I damage anything and a few hours of googling didn't give me any concrete results.. So my question is

Has anyone successfully found a way to activate the McIntosh passthru feature using the triggers from a mono out trigger into the stereo in trigger of the McIntosh

Thank you in advance!
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Hello. Hope you all are well. First time posting in the forum's. I have run into a small snag.

I recently purchased a McIntosh ma5300 as an amplifier for my home theatre/music room. It is To be used as an HT amp when watching movies and as an integrated using its DAC in for music.

However I have found that the Mc passthru feature for HT bypass requires a 12V trigger.

So my issue is. Denon x3800h manual states that it can output a 12V trigger out via an monaural 3.5mm trigger cable, specifically asked not to use stereo.

Conversely. The McIntosh specifically requires a Stereo 12V trigger in. I have explored the options of a mono to stereo 3.5mm aux adapter, as well as different Y cables to split a mono signal into stereo RCA and then a separate Y cable that converts stereo RCA back into a stereo 3.5mm

I am hesitant to attempt any of these methods until I can gain a bit of knowledge in case I damage anything and a few hours of googling didn't give me any concrete results.. So my question is

Has anyone successfully found a way to activate the McIntosh passthru feature using the triggers from a mono out trigger into the stereo in trigger of the McIntosh

Thank you in advance!
The answer should be in the Owner's manual. I'll downliad the manual later and take a look.
 
J

Jopixi

Audiophyte
Thank you! I appreciate it! I've read the thicccc Denon manual and the McIntosh 5300 back to back but couldn't find much but I could've also missed something. Any info would be much appreciated :)
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Thank you! I appreciate it! I've read the thicccc Denon manual and the McIntosh MA5300 back to back but couldn't find much but I could've also missed something. Any info would be much appreciated :)
Manuals are often poorly written, I read the manual. I think you don't need to use the trigger cable to put the unit in pass through, you can just follow the instructions on page 19.

The trigger, is, as usual, used to remotely turn on a second device, in this case, the MC5300.

On page 3:

So, I think it mentions "stereo" because of the Meter illumination, not because of the pass through function. In that case, use a stereo cable and it should work. The Denon's wired as mono so it may not have the meter control function, depending on how the MA5300 is wired. The manual is not clear about this but you can contact McIntosh for more information. For now, I would bet either mono or stereo cable will work, but it is better to try a stereo one first.

1696438632434.png
 
J

Jopixi

Audiophyte
I'll give it a try. Thank you! Ya I've come to find that the ma5300 has this minor flaw in its design where passthru cannot be turned on manually and can only be turned up via a trigger signal. As once I assign a channel as passthru. It completely removes it from source selection and only a trigger signal can turn it on. But for now I shall try to use the stereo cable and hopefully nothing catches on fire haha. Thanks again!
 

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