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Post by craftsmansky on Apr 16, 2019 21:52:44 GMT -5
i recently purchased a cambridge audio sr20 receiver to drive my maggies but have been very disappointed with the outcome. on quieter stuff like jazz and chamber music it seems ok. on orchestra, the high are very harsh. i was hoping it would smooth out after a breakin period but hasn't. i have played with speaker placement but nothing seems to help. i got return authorization today. so, i am back in the market for an amp. i have two choices, the pt100/a300 pair and the discontinued outlaw audio rr2150 b stock. any comments, insights or advice is greatly appreciated.
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Post by martindktm on Apr 16, 2019 22:47:11 GMT -5
What amp size do the maggies mfg recommend? That would be a good start. I run my pt-100 with an vintage Bose 1081 amp on Focal aria 926. Focal calls for a 40 to 250W amp. Witch my 1801 is spot on for them (2x250W at 8 ohm). But I heard people telling the rule of 1.5. Don't know if it's true but that say that an amp should be 1 or 1.5 times the max recommended watt the speakers can take for best results. On my part I have nothing smaller than my 1801 to do a sound test to see what kind of change it would do with a smaller amp.
I was also interested in the A-300 to replace my 1801 for the time to do a small restoration on it. Wrote Emotiva about my planning and they suggested me to go more toward the Xpa-2 gen 3 instead of the A-300 to have the full potential of my Focal. They told me the a-300 will be ok cause they are in the range recommended by Focal but in a bigger rooms it might lack some... So I'm now saving penny's for an Xp-a, 2 gen 3 secretly from my wife...
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Post by creimes on Apr 17, 2019 0:27:36 GMT -5
i recently purchased a cambridge audio sr20 receiver to drive my maggies but have been very disappointed with the outcome. on quieter stuff like jazz and chamber music it seems ok. on orchestra, the high are very harsh. i was hoping it would smooth out after a breakin period but hasn't. i have played with speaker placement but nothing seems to help. i got return authorization today. so, i am back in the market for an amp. i have two choices, the pt100/a300 pair and the discontinued outlaw audio rr2150 b stock. any comments, insights or advice is greatly appreciated. Look around for a used XPA-2 Gen1 or Gen2 as well, or some UPA-1 or XPA-100 monoblocks as well, any of those amps would be great for the power hungry Maggies without having to spend too much. Chad |
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Post by FTBoomer on May 5, 2019 9:19:57 GMT -5
I run the A-300 with a set of Martin Logan aeries i speakers and they sound amazing.
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Post by vcautokid on May 5, 2019 9:28:59 GMT -5
Maggies love current. Once they have that. You are golden.
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Post by donh50 on May 5, 2019 9:42:48 GMT -5
What amp size do the maggies mfg recommend? That would be a good start. I run my pt-100 with an vintage Bose 1081 amp on Focal aria 926. Focal calls for a 40 to 250W amp. Witch my 1801 is spot on for them (2x250W at 8 ohm). But I heard people telling the rule of 1.5. Don't know if it's true but that say that an amp should be 1 or 1.5 times the max recommended watt the speakers can take for best results. On my part I have nothing smaller than my 1801 to do a sound test to see what kind of change it would do with a smaller amp. I was also interested in the A-300 to replace my 1801 for the time to do a small restoration on it. Wrote Emotiva about my planning and they suggested me to go more toward the Xpa-2 gen 3 instead of the A-300 to have the full potential of my Focal. They told me the a-300 will be ok cause they are in the range recommended by Focal but in a bigger rooms it might lack some... So I'm now saving penny's for an Xp-a, 2 gen 3 secretly from my wife... Magnepan does not really recommend amp wattage. Too many variables... But the 1801 is plenty for any of the Magnepan models. I personally did not care for that amp when I heard it but that was ages ago (when a friend bought a new one). Regardless, that amp is more than enough to drive MMGs to destruction. The size of the amplifier needed depends on the speakers' sensitivity (dB/W/m), your distance from them, and how loudly you listen along with the type of music, with the room being the next significant player. That is true for any speaker. If you sit eight feet away from the speakers in the middle of an auditorium you may want more power because there are no boundaries nearby to provide reflected sound compared to a room in a house. The biggest difference in a bigger room is that folk usually sit further away. A simple SPL calculator can provide a rough guide, e.g. myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html Sizing the amplifier depends upon all those variables plus the amount of power your speakers can tolerate. Power ratings are tricky; they are not usually long-term power ratings but rather for short-term bursts, and do not reflect the frequency range of that power. If you put 500W at 100 Hz for a few seconds into a speaker rated at 500 W it will probably be fine; put 50 W at 10 kHz into it for a few seconds and you may be replacing a tweeter. There are all kinds of rules of thumb for amplifier power based upon speaker power ratings. Just IME/IMO most of them are misleading if not flat-out wrong. There are, or were (have not looked recently), IHF and FTC guidelines for speaker power handling, but they seem to be all over the map in terms of how they are rated these days. Even when I was in the biz (ca. 1980's) the ratings had to be taken with a large block of salt -- some rated at 100 W would run all day at that level, others would die in less than a minute. I tend to use them as a very rough guide to keep from blowing them up. If you are clipping constantly then you need a bigger amplifier and/or different speakers. Otherwise you have enough power to do the job. IME/IMO/FWIWFM/YMMV/etc. - Don |
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Post by jmasterj on May 5, 2019 10:38:31 GMT -5
Hi craftsmansky and welcome to the lounge. Back in 2008 I put together my first system after I arrived here in Las Vegas it consisted of Maggie MMG's, and a outlaw RR-2150 I was very satisfied with this combo. I actually kept the MMG's thru the trial period and then upgraded to a pair of MGQR-12's. I wasn't able to enjoy that paring for long because some one decided to relieve me of it. Yes I was burglarized, so after I regrouped, and moved to a new apartment I decided to replace the MMG's and not to go with the MGQR-12's. I still have and enjoy those MMG's today however, I did not replace the RR-2150 not that I had any complaints I simply decided to venture into the world of tube equipment and purchased my BADA DC-222 Hybrid Tube integrated amp. I've been into tubes every since. Recently my brother decided to purchase a new system and the RR-2160 was being considered. He actually became a member of the Emotiva family and purchased the PT-100, A-300 combination and is very happy. I suggested he go with Emotiva, I suggest the same to you. Hope you found this helpful good luck with your decision.j
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Post by Jean Genie on May 5, 2019 11:25:02 GMT -5
i recently purchased a cambridge audio sr20 receiver to drive my maggies but have been very disappointed with the outcome. on quieter stuff like jazz and chamber music it seems ok. on orchestra, the high are very harsh. i was hoping it would smooth out after a breakin period but hasn't. i have played with speaker placement but nothing seems to help. i got return authorization today. so, i am back in the market for an amp. i have two choices, the pt100/a300 pair and the discontinued outlaw audio rr2150 b stock. any comments, insights or advice is greatly appreciated. Just an idea... emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/54965/xpa-3-gen-1Plenty of grunt and a bonus channel. |
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