[andyr]

If you aren't getting the sound you want with 50 or 100 watts then a 600 watt bruiser won't help either.
cityjim

There are people who wander around thinking they're Jesus Christ ... but that doesn't mean they are.  The rest of us just think they're sadly deluded. 

You are quite free to believe that 100w is more than enough but puhleeze - have the clarity to make it clear that this is just your opinion.  Not fact.

And if you are clipping your amps you're most likely driving the speakers too hard.

Don't lecture people as to how loud they should be listening.

You can buy some 1000 watt monos all you want. Truth is you'll never use 80% of the amp.

Not never.  The truth is - IMO - that for 99% of the time, you won't be using more than 10w.  IE. only 1%!    But to faithfully deliver the leading edge of some transients, you may need 100 times that, for a millisecond.  The "1,000w monos" give you this headroom; a 100w tube amp does not.

I agree quallity is best. That's why I use full class A tubes on mine. I've tried many a brand of solid state amps. Tried three highly hyped class D amps. My experience was anytime I moved away from class A and especially tubes the sound degraded.

I can understand where you're coming from and have no problem with your liking for Class A and tubes.  But some of us don't want to put up with the wasted energy that Class A implies (ie. heat).  And when we find an ss amp designer like Hugh ("Mr AKSA") Dean, we find very nice-sounding amps.

And in terms of "sound degrading" ... I am positive that my 100w Soraya Class AB ss amp will deliver better sound from Maggie bass panels than your Class A tube amp.  And bass control is one thing which is particularly important to me! 

Let's revisit amplifiers. The more watts an amp has the more amplification stages that amp has.

Not as I understand it.  What they do have is more parallel output devices.

Regards,

Andy

[SteveFord]

Play nice, gentlemen. 
There's more than one way to audio happiness, after all.
I think that's something that we can all agree on.
I've recently rediscovered my Stax headphones through a SS integrated amp and spend a tremendous amount of time listening to Beyerdynamic headphones through an SET amp - both sound great but in different ways.

AndyR and cityjim have gone about their version of audio happiness in two entirely different ways but I'm pretty darned sure that each system sounds tremendous, too.
Of course, only my system sounds right everything else is just, well, let's not even go there.
Sorry for the temporary derailment...

[SteveFord]

It seems that everyone is pretty much in agreement that the stock fuse holders are less than a state of the art device and bypassing the things improves the sound.
Who here has replaced the fuse holders with something a bit more upscale and if so, did you notice and improvement and what did you use?

[jk@home]

For a while I was running the Acme fuse holder, mounted on a diy bracket. Installed it with some other mods, so can't pin down any individual improvement, but it is a nice alternative to going fuse less.

http://www.acmeaudiolabs.com/products.htm

Now I'm fuse less with an external x-over.

[berni]

I will change the fuses on my MG 20.1 with the new hifi tuning supreme 3fuses.This should bring a lot.Will post some photos when done.

[cityjim]

There are people who wander around thinking they're Jesus Christ ... but that doesn't mean they are.  The rest of us just think they're sadly deluded.  Please keep on topic here Andyr.

 You are quite free to believe that 100w is more than enough but puhleeze - have the clarity to make it clear that this is just your opinion.  Not fact. As it's your opinion you need 900 watts just to hear "your" speakers in "your" house. Simple fact is my Yamamoto  A-08 with its whopping 2 watts per gets pretty loud. Even running my 20.1R's. This is with a sub of course. You don't need 800 watt amps if you run a sub like I do. And lets face it, maggies don't do bass.

Don't lecture people as to how loud they should be listening.
 I wasn't.

Not never.  The truth is - IMO - that for 99% of the time, you won't be using more than 10w.  IE. only 1%!    But to faithfully deliver the leading edge of some transients, you may need 100 times that, for a millisecond.  The "1,000w monos" give you this headroom; a 100w tube amp does not. Here we go again, your full of buzz terms today Andyr. Now we've moved onto headroom. You were on Jesus a bit ago.

I can understand where you're coming from and have no problem with your liking for Class A and tubes.  But some of us don't want to put up with the wasted energy that Class A implies (ie. heat).  And when we find an ss amp designer like Hugh ("Mr AKSA") Dean, we find very nice-sounding amps. OK    Jokes aside, if you can afford $12,000 like me for 20.1R's then running the air conditioner is not even an afterthought.

And in terms of "sound degrading" ... I am positive that my 100w Soraya Class AB ss amp will deliver better sound from Maggie bass panels than your Class A tube amp.  And bass control is one thing which is particularly important to me!    Good one Andyr. Again maggies don't do bass. You can talk bass control all you wish. Never seen any Magnepan anything shake windows or move your clothing. Even when I borrowed a pair of Krell Evolution 600 watt monos my 20.1R's never shook the room. So your obtuse wattage opinion deflates itself. BTW, that was 1200 watts per channel of Krell power into 4 ohms. Simply would eat a soraya amp for lunch.

Not as I understand it.  What they do have is more parallel output devices. Depending on the amp of course. Keep reading Andyr.

Regards,

Andy

[pelliott321]

cityim:
  Please keep on topic here

[cityjim]

cityim:
  Please keep on topic here

 agreed.

[SteveFord]

Thank you.
The question is Whether or not it's nobler to remove the fuses or maybe just chuck a better holder in there.
No squabbling, gentlemen - you have been warned.

[andyr]

I will change the fuses on my MG 20.1 with the new hifi tuning supreme 3fuses.This should bring a lot.Will post some photos when done.

Yes, changing the fuse - but keeping the stock fuse holders - is a small improvement.  Replacing the stock fuse holders with, say, an Acme Audio fuse holder is IMO a big improvement ... even with the original fuses. 

Regards,

Andy

[SteveFord]

AndyR,
You're inspiring me to semi-greatness as I happen to have a whole bunch of unused Acme fuse holders.
That and jk's photo are going to make me actually do something.

[andyr]

AndyR,
You're inspiring me to semi-greatness as I happen to have a whole bunch of unused Acme fuse holders.
That and jk's photo are going to make me actually do something.

Yes, his way of mounting them was simpler and more attractive than mine - see here (3rd pic along):
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;album=487

And BTW, as you're the moderator, I certainly won't argue with you about your system sounding the best!! 

Get to it!

Regards,

Andy

[pelliott321]

come on Steve, I know you are a big gambler, you ride hot bikes on city streets no less.
Solder a wire across the fuse blocks and be done with it. you can always take it out if you sell

[SteveFord]

Well, there IS that...

[pelliott321]

What I am a bit nervous about is that if I go fully active, I will have nothing between amp and driver.   To tell the truth if I go active I will probably put a fast blow fuse in first and play at low levels for a while before I get to a comfort level if can live with.
 

[Letitroll98]

What I am a bit nervous about is that if I go fully active, I will have nothing between amp and driver.   To tell the truth if I go active I will probably put a fast blow fuse in first and play at low levels for a while before I get to a comfort level if can live with.
 

There is a fast blow fuse in there now.  And most speakers nowadays have nothing between the amp and driver.  With the caveat to be careful when first matching levels, you have little to worry about, no one has yet posted and answer to "Has anyone here blown a fuse in their Maggies?".

[BrassEar]

You fuseless audiophiles DO realize that most of the great minds in audio find this concept comical, including the inventor of said unfused speaker? Does that bother anyone doing it at all. Do audiophiles believe they can hear better than the best minds in speaker design such as Linkwitz, Winey, and others?

First rule of tweaking - DO NO HARM.

[pelliott321]

Whats between amp and driver on a passive system is the passive xover.  In an active system the xover is before the amp.  That was the point.
On my rebuilt biamped IIIa's as it stands now is there are inductors, caps, resistors in the passive xover between amp and driver, no fuses.
When I go active all the passive stuff goes away, drivers are naked, and I may put some fuses back until I get a comfort level that all is stable

[pelliott321]

My Vandersteens did not have fuses

[Rocket_Ronny]

I removed the fuses on a nice pair of Maggy IIBs, a long time ago when the earth was green. Can't say it made any large difference, but we are talking IIBs and not 3.7s.

I was just getting into recording and for some reason I had a mike going into my Electro Research EK1 preamp. I was being careful with the volume so as not to get feedback.

Later, I decided to play some tunes and forgot about the omni directional mike and hit the wrong source button. F E E D B A C K - AS LOUD AS YOU COULD STAND IT AS THE EAGLE 7A PUMPED AT LEAST 500 WATTS INTO THE NOW SMOKING IIBs. Wish I had a fuse then.

Sent back the speakers to Magnepan and they put new panels on and even gave me a new fuse holder installed. How nice.

Rocket_Ronny