Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?

Robin Hood · « **Reply #40 on:** 30 Sep 2011, 07:49 pm »

As a relatively new user I didn’t even know about this Questions for the Magnepan Factory thread or that a Magnepan Chat Room existed (not that I know how a chat room differs from this thread or how to participate in a chat room), but based on the suggestion of josh358 I decided to post my questions here though I see some folks were discussing biamping on the Magnepan Chat Room.

Quote from: josh358 on 30 Sep 2011, 04:19 pm

Suggest you ask these questions on the questions for the ask the factory thread at the top, I think most of us are as curious as you are. About all I know is that the crossover is located in the woofer, I imagine you can bypass it but I don't know how easy it is or what values you'd need. I do know that the Mini Maggies were shown at CES with a huge Bryston amp, 1000 watts/ch or something, and that they were running it hot.

So can you bi-amp the Mini Maggies like the big ones? I believe some people are even tri-amping their larger Maggies.

Are there any power levels that could damage the Mini Maggies? Is a 300B set amp too little and a 1000wpc Class D amp too much for the Mini Maggies? Is any speaker damage due to underpowered or overpowered amps covered under Magnepan's warranty?

Are there any estimates as to the relative power requirements for the woofer panel versus the tweeter/midrange panels?

SteveFord · « **Reply #41 on:** 30 Sep 2011, 11:20 pm »

I forwarded your questions to Wendall last night when I saw them in the Mini Maggie thread but no response as of yet.
He may be out and about, hob knobbing with the hoi polloi, so give it some time.

SteveFord · « **Reply #42 on:** 3 Oct 2011, 11:19 pm »

From Wendell:

Trying to hotrod the Mini Maggie System by biamping etc. will not only mess up the phase response, but, is a waste of money since it performs best as a near-field speaker.

From me:
Power requirements are one of those things that is really difficult to get an answer that isn't found on the Magnepan web site. I've managed to do it but it's like pulling teeth simply because they have no way of knowing just how loud you'll be listening to things, where you'll be sitting, room size, etc.
I would say to be realistic with your power requirements; I normally use anywhere from 5-100WPC on MMGs.
My VTLs don't have meters or LEDs but I would think I see around 200WPC on the big ones when they're really cranked.
Clipping will blow anything up and ribbon damage is not covered under Warranty on my 3.7s. I would imagine it would be the same deal with the little guys.

Robin Hood · « **Reply #43 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 06:51 pm »

Thanks for getting some response from Magnepan. I was hoping to determine in advance what are the best amps for the Mini Maggies without being limited to the amp brands my dealer carries.

From scouring the websites I feel that there are two different themes for amps with Maggies. The first theme is that Maggies love high current and you can never give Maggies too much power. As a side note I seem to recall reading something about speakers being damaged by not enough power, whereas most people may believe that it is high power that may damage speakers. Thus I was trying to determine, all other things being equal, if a 500wpc amp is better for the Mini Maggies than a 1000wpc amp or should I step down further to a 200wpc amp?

The second theme from many people seems to be that Maggies love tube amps. I really don’t know if this is true or if people who convince themselves that solid state amps are better are deluding themselves to believe that a lower cost solid state amp sounds better when the reality is that many of these people cannot afford powerful tube amps.

Thus my interest in biamping comes from recommendations from other websites where someone is using moderately priced tube amps for the tweeters and midrange and very affordable solid state amps for the bass. I didn’t think I was trying to hotrod the Mini Maggies by biamping but now I can’t get it out of my mind that I am putting a 427 big block engine into a sexy Corvette Stingray instead of a stock 327 engine.

Perhaps Wendell’s response is a typical response from Magnepan that speaker mods are not recommended. But in all the Magnepan forums I see nothing but many users trying to mod, tweak and hotrod their Maggies, whether it is modding the frames, removing or changing fuses and biamping or triamping speakers.

SteveFord · « **Reply #44 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 11:58 pm »

You've just opened up multiple cans of worms with that one!
Let's copy your last post and tackle that over on the Mini Maggie section.

hemholtz · « **Reply #45 on:** 18 Oct 2011, 12:24 am »

Has Magnepan ever considered powered speakers? A three way active 20.1 with deqx correction would put magnepan a cut above. Ice power seems well suited for magnepans from my experience. I think both of those guys are always looking for partners (deqx and B & O Ice power). That's the impression I get from their websites at least. Then again, I'm not really in the business.

powered maggies with a mains power plug, spdif in, usb, and maybe a mic for the "deluxe room calibration package"

SteveFord · « **Reply #46 on:** 18 Oct 2011, 11:01 pm »

From Wendell:

We've found that most of our customers have very strong preferences in regards to amplification - be it OTL, tubes, high power solid state or a combination of tubes and solid state - and they would not appreciate our dictating the type of amplification.

We give general guidelines on our website regarding set up which the owners can take from there. Calibration tools are useful but certainly not necessary.

hemholtz · « **Reply #47 on:** 19 Oct 2011, 01:15 am »

I know, building your system is half the fun.
It was just a thought. If you could team up with companies like that they could probably help with engineering and marketing.
Those icepower modules are so small, yet powerful. It's almost like magic.

If you had a super top of the line model like that it would no doubt get a lot of attention from reviewers and such. The real audiophiles would still buy the lower end models and try to make them sound like the top of the line. Buying products from everyone involved in the process. It just raises the bar and one ups the competition.

"Calibration tools are useful but certainly not necessary"

Have you heard deqx correction? It's night and day to the passive crossovers. Fixing group delay is the key. I highly recommend checking them out. They have done projects with speaker manufacturers.

hemholtz · « **Reply #48 on:** 19 Oct 2011, 01:49 am »

http://www.deqx.com/oem.php

Robin Hood · « **Reply #49 on:** 19 Oct 2011, 05:15 am »

How about adding a second DWM woofer to the Mini Maggies? Is stereo separated bass be more desirable than centered combined bass? I'm not sure if this is an accurate description, but I assume that the DWM does not provide any stereo separation by itself but may tend to blend the sound from the separated tweeter/midrange panels together?

Since the DWM woofer has inputs for both L+R channels, does that mean that you have to feed signal to both L+R inputs for the DWM woofer to be fully energized? In otherwords, is there any reason to feed a mono signal to the L+R amp inputs on the DWM since nothing is being blended?

How would you suggest using the DWM woofer or two DWM woofers for any of the other Maggie speakers? Do you suggest: 1. running the DWM woofer and Maggie speaker with full range input from the amp; 2.connecting the DWM woofer to the amp and the Maggie speaker to the DWM using the internal DWM crossover, or; 3. using an external crossover (passive or active) to connect the DWM and Maggie speaker to the amp (passive) or preamp (active).

rw@cn · « **Reply #50 on:** 19 Oct 2011, 11:15 am »

I have a laminate floor with padding (over concrete) and wish to mitigate the ill effects of this type of flooring in an effort to get the best sound from my 1.7s.

I think my two stage plan will work well. I ordered Mye stands which will be installed and evaluated. Then I want to place Mapleshade plinthes under the 1.7s. This second step bothers me a bit since that will result in raising the speakers anywhere from 4 to 6 inches (The ceiling is 8'). Will this be a problem or a benefit?

Since these will be in my home, I want something that looks as well as it performs (so concrete blocks, etc are out

). There are similar stands and devices which have similar costs and I have tried some (with other speakers) and they seem to work well.

I do remember when I purchased my first Maggies I chose the shorter version rather than the taller and only noticed some difference when standing.

SteveFord · « **Reply #51 on:** 21 Oct 2011, 04:53 pm »

I'll paraphrase the conversation:

rw@cn,
As long as you don't raise them too high you shouldn't have a problem.
They did try stacked MMGs with good results, by the way. That gives me some more ideas.

Robin Hood,
Two DMWs will certainly move more air.
Wendell says to give him a call so he can get a clearer idea as to what you're looking to do so he can give you a better answer.

rw@cn · « **Reply #52 on:** 21 Oct 2011, 04:58 pm »

Steve, is 5 inches too high?

SteveFord · « **Reply #53 on:** 21 Oct 2011, 05:07 pm »

For Ricardo Monteblan's late sidekick, Tattoo, maybe...

Wendell did say that the ideal is a floor to cieling line source which is why the stacked MMGs worked out so well.

rw@cn · « **Reply #54 on:** 21 Oct 2011, 05:09 pm »

Thanks. If I do this, it looks like it will be more like 7". At any rate, there is a good return policy.

Robin Hood · « **Reply #55 on:** 22 Oct 2011, 12:08 am »

Quote from: SteveFord on 21 Oct 2011, 04:53 pm

I'll paraphrase the conversation:

rw@cn,
As long as you don't raise them too high you shouldn't have a problem.
They did try stacked MMGs with good results, by the way. That gives me some more ideas.

Robin Hood,
Two DMWs will certainly move more air.
Wendell says to give him a call so he can get a clearer idea as to what you're looking to do so he can give you a better answer.

Thanks, I will give Wendell a call once I know what I'm doing or what I want to do. Right now I just having fun with Magnepan's newest speakers and exploring the possibilities of using them for a satellite/woofer system. Now stacked Mini Maggies, that gives me some more ideas.

jmac7 · « **Reply #56 on:** 27 Oct 2011, 10:30 pm »

Hi, Steve. My question is about the size of my room and Maggie 3.7's. My room is 12ft.wide,16ft. long with 8ft ceilings. Are Maggie 3.7's too large for this room. I am currently using LFT8B's which are smaller than the 3.7's. There are no Maggie dealers anywhere near me, so I would have to buy them unheard so to speak and I don't want to make any obvious mistakes. Thanks

SteveFord · « **Reply #57 on:** 29 Oct 2011, 10:04 am »

I tried to get Wendell to elaborate a bit more but he just steered you to

http://www.magnepan.com/faq#best_magneplanar_for_my_room

as he feels that's the best answer he can give without being there.

I think that we should kick it over to here:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=99906.0

klao · « **Reply #58 on:** 13 Nov 2011, 08:23 pm »

Thanks to you Steve for setting up the communiction link with Wendell.

My question is about single center channel speaker placement (CC5 or CCR if budget permits): I planned to put the main speakers (MG3.7 on Mye stands) about 1.70m (5.58ft) from the front wall. Since I'm more serious with 2-channel than HT, I've been advised to install the center speaker (about 1.07m or 3.5ft above the top edge of my plasma screen) on the soffit/coffering with 3.15m (10.33ft) height and about 1.1m (3.61ft) into the room. Therefore, the center speaker will be about 60cm or 2 feet behind the main spakers, and about 1.3m (4.27ft) above top edge of the 3.7's. Is the placement too high / too far from both tv screen and main speakers for believable dialogue? Or it's quite ok to adjust the angle of the center speaker for acceptable result with this setup?

The new room I'm about to build has planned dimensions of 5.95m (19.52ft) wide; 8.40m (27.56ft) long; 3.65m (11.97ft) high. I'll be sitting about 3.9m (12.8ft) from the main speakers.

SteveFord · « **Reply #59 on:** 16 Nov 2011, 01:03 am »

The peripatetic Mr. Diller is off and about (something about a UFO convention in New Mexico) so the official answer will have to wait for a little bit.
In the meantime, I'll copy your post over onto the home theater section as perhaps someone can give you some first hand observations.