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Could bright, glaring, etched sound on female vocals and high/nasally male vocals (Neil Young) be the result of my amplifier, MF A308 integrated, not having enough juice for magnepan 3.6Rs? Or should I look elsewhere?
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I don't think it's your amp .Moving the tweeters to the outside (i.e. swapping speakers left for right ) will bring up the bass and help with the highs . Treat your room at the 1st reflection point . If You have a lot of windows , add drapes . The attenuator resistor is a good Idea also , if you still have the problem . Adjusting toe in can help . I use about 1 inch of toe in . Power conditioning can help the whole sound of your system . adding a jon risch digital filter in front of your CD player can be amazing . Mye stands will help with dynamics and focus . If You still have a problem after all that repost .
For $20 buy some good quality 10W resistors from 0.1 to 1.2 Ohm rating, in 0.1 ohm increments.
I have a very reflective room with 3.6's with a Cary CDP and Rogue tube front end.
It's amazing how you can dial out just a little bit of glare that's "uncomfortable" to listen to after awhile with a little resistance. And my ear can hear the difference between them quite clearly.
This is a whole lot cheaper than trying to play with cables or amps,and I have found it to be very effective with no real downside.
Just FYI, the stock ribbon resistor is 1.5 ohms, which I found to be too high for my system. I have settled on a .82 resistor which takes out the glare but leaves the shine : )
Hope this helps...it's a cheap and easy fix and worth a try.
Jerry
You need more than that at least the minimum of 7'. 9' is the ideal distance if you can afford it. Otherwise they'll sound thinny, harsh and too sibilant.
I have had my 2.6's too far apart in the past and followed Magnepan 's suggestion of half distance apart as you sit from them and found the dynamics and soundstage to be much better.
Your experience may differ but I have learned that the size of the soundstage depends more on the recording than the distance between the speakers.
however; in my experience, having the speakers set at a minimum of 7’ apart is consistent with my findings of having a wider and deeper soundstage coupled with natural sounding overall. Having said that, all of the speakers that have been playing in my dedicated listening room such as the ML Quest, Maggie MGII, Thiel 3.6, Acoustat 1+1 all have the same attribute. BTW, the AE-1 monitor speakers that are presently gracing in my dedicated listening room at 9’ apart are doing the same thing quite a feat for such a small speakers right now I am quite pleased with their excellent disappearance act.I supposed all of these settings are possible due to my dedicated listening room’s dimension which is roughly around 12’X16’X8’ with chamfered corners to minimized the standing waves effect. As usual YMMV.
Speaker placement, room setup, equipment support, AC power, RF noise, all come to mind before we get into cable character or amplifier output impedance.Do you have video gear in or near the system? Things like DVRs contain switching power supplies and are very bad for the sound because of the electrical noise they make.
I would doubt that the amp is the problem if the MF A308 integrated is voiced similar to the MF TriVista Integrated. I used this more powerful integrated (350w/8ohm, 600w/4) with my 3.6s when I first got them. Though I do not have it now, it was the best sounding amp with my 3.6s over Mac 402s (800w/4) and Cal Audio 2500 (1000w/4). I was very smooth and transparent with great soundstaging, strong bass and well balanced.Now whether it has enough juice is a different question. If you have a large room and like to listen loud (90 dbls or little more) then it is probably not enough power. I like to listen loud and I have a pretty big room 23 x 18.5 x 11.5 peaked ceiling. I blew a few fuses till I learned the limit of the amp and speakers. Ultimately I listened right at the threshold of its limits so I moved up to more juice.
One issue with MF Trivista that was annoying - is apparently inherent to all Trivista's per one of their dealers -- the IR sensor on amp is too deep and it has significant trouble getting the signal from the remote, you have to be dead on center and even then has issues at times - very annoying for the price of the unit !! Otherwise a great unit -- sound and looks !!
I would look at your room and source as reasons for the brightness before you start changing the amp -- it should be a good one.
Nordost Blue Heaven + Audioquest King CobraHaving MF equipment myself (although lesser models), I did not find either of the above good match.
Try Harmonic Technology Truth Link for IC, can't say about speaker since mine are voltage not current driven and speaker cables usually show different personality than one you would expect.
I am borrowing a pair of Audioquest CV-4 speaker cables from my dealer. Helps a little, but doesn't solve the problem. Thanks for the tip, I will check out the harmonic tech ICs.
Thanks,
Ethan
n.t.
My room is an L shaped room. It is 21 feet long by 23 feet wide and 8 feet down the length the room is 15 feet wide. My system is set up to fire length wise. The speakers are on the wider end of the room, 4 feet from the back wall. The left speaker is about 3' from the side wall and the right speaker is about 10 feet from the side wall down the width of the room. The speakers are about 5 feet apart. The ceiling is 8 feet high.
other highly reflective surfaces in the room? Fake ficus trees can be a cheap, effective remedy before possibly getting rid of that fine amp.
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I agree with GL- 300 into 4 should suffice well, especially with a quality amp like yours. But I wouldn't totally rule it out. How loud are your listening levels when this happens? Are you listening to vinyl- tracking error?I've had a similar sound such as you are describing happen to me when I switched from MMGs to IIIAs. The true ribbon will let you know when it doesn't like something upstream. I had been using an Adcom GFA-555II, and it worked fine with the MMGs but not the 3s. This amp pushes 325 watts into 4 ohms, so I didn't suspect it as being the cause for the distortion. It definitely was. I installed a Hafler DH-200 amp into the system, and the etchy glaring ceased completely. The Hafler is rated for half the wattage of the Adcom- go figure. Quality, high current power as matters. I have an amp now that will not clip short of blowing my ears off.
Borrow another amp (does the MF have pre-outs?) and try this out if at all possible. Do some brainstorming, and try to figure out the exact conditions when this is happening.
especially if your room is reflective and/or small.
300 watts into 4ohms is sufficient IMO. Could it be the Magnepan's are not broken in yet? How old are they?
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My speakers are about 8 months old. They get a lot of use. If not an amplifier issue, may be a problem upstream. Thanks, E
Not sure about the female vocals, but it sounds like your amp is right on with the male vocals :)
He already got enough guff from Lynyrd Skynyrd, didn't he? :)
but here is my experience....Bought their A3CR preamp back in 01. Always had that 'glare' (with Maggie 2.7QR's and 3.6R's) Did a complete room evaluation and installed sound diffusers, bass traps, etc, played with various cables, this all helped but that 'glare' even though softened, was still present...Last month I replaced the A3CR with ARC's new LS-17...The 'glare' is gone. A much quieter backround as well. I'm hearing things that I've never heard before on familiar recordings. The dynamics have drastically improved. I can feel the swing and the power of the music, which never was like this with the old preamp. Now for the very first time, I feel like I'm listening to that fantastic ribbon tweeter and hearing what it is capable of.
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