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In Reply to: RE: Planar speakers that can do rock !!! posted by Plinius_Fan on June 29, 2009 at 05:05:00
hey plinius
well powered 3.x series maggies can definitely play rock, but not quite to live-event sound pressure.
bi- or triamped maggies with current delivering amps in the +500watt size can indeed bring out brachial slam enough to satisfy the most of the neighborhood. especially when used with a competent subwoofer.
-but then we´re beyond your price point !
I have read that Maggies need a lot of space...I can keep the maggies only 3ft away from the rear wall...do you think they will work ?
That is enough room for a 3.x
I always suggest people get one size up from the consensus recommendation for their room. Getting less out of your speaker is easy, getting more is hard.
3 ft is more than enough if your room is not walled in masonry. If it is, a couple of full size bookcases loaded with records CDs books, part empty boxes and bric-brac will do the job. Then 2 feet should do.
The big improvement in dynamics comes from taking out the bass crossover and biamping with an active crossover. An Arc welding type amp from the pro audio realm will do well on the bass panel without hurting your midrange magic.
Eventually, a wood frame project is reportedly goes a good long way to improve bass and overall dynamics even further.
Finally, for good old 70s rock, there is the ...gasp... EXPANDER. You can get one from most pro audio shops or get a venerable dbx unit off of ebay. When used conservatively, they sound very good - as good as dolby C recorded tapes do relative to non dolby C. Many of these recordings were heavily compressed when the bands made it big and signed up with a record label that marketed them like cheap toothpaste. It had to sound "good" on the boombox. Fortunately, post Walkman/Discman recordings were not that badly treated.
Dipole bass is sensitive to room wall and ceiling distances. See the simple formulas on the Cardas room setup page to calculate the most likely optimum locations for speakers in your room (separate formulas for box and Magnepan speakers). The predicted locations are good starting points for finding the optimum setup. It takes a lot of listening and moving the speakers (as little as a quarter of an inch!) to find the best blend of sound-stage and tonal balance.
If the calculated locations are not even close to being practical, then I would pass on speakers with dipole bass, such as Magnepans.
The 14 X 14 dimensions also worry me. The equal width and depth will cause overlapping resonance modes and make smooth bass difficult to achieve with any speakers. You may need to look into bass traps.
Buying MMGs for $650 and a Behringer amp like the A500 ($185 and fanless) or the EP1500 ($250 with noisy fan) from B&H will save you from feeling like a fool for spending $4K when you don’t need to.
Your room’s small so big Maggies are wrong and why would you need anything other than an amp with lots of grunt for rock ‘n roll where distortion's the name of the game?
I have MMG's with a studio amp-Alesis $360 no fan, big fins. I've never heard the A500 but with mixers I haven't been impressed with Behringer's quality. Keep in mind, the MMG's need alot of break-in before they yield decent bass.
Maggie MMG's bring me back to my beloved BES dipole sound
Jim:
Which Alesis amp do you have? I have used Crown amps to great effect, but had to mess with silencing the cooling fans... Alesis; big fins, you say? I'd love to try it!
Oh, in re: to Behringer stuff: I have used several of their products in my home studio and found them to be good value for money. I've never gigged out with their equipment, so I can't say how it would hold up under those conditions. :-)
At the risk of raising someone's bloodpressure (they make pills for that), I have the Alesis RA500. Big fins might be an exaggeration but I push it and it stays fairly mild heat-wise. Nice traps by the way. I have a 5-pc. Pearl Session set with Zildjians.
Maggie MMG's bring me back to my beloved BES dipole sound
He's buying speakers and an amp so what do mixing boards have to so with it?
I was commenting on my experience with Behringer. I'm sure the level of Q.C. pertains to the entire line.
Maggie MMG's bring me back to my beloved BES dipole sound
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17004
I own three Behringers including the EP1500 amp and have never had a problem with them.
I don't think it's fair to damn a whole product line just because you had problems with a mixing board.
The nice thing about Behringer amps is it's easy to get a 15 (B&H) or 45 day (Musician's Friend) home trials to see if you like them.
Behringer gear seem to attract a great deal of bias, some of it deserved among the pro audio crowd. They have reputation of reliability issues on some product lines and copying other companies designs.
I have used their DCX2496 crossover in a few installations, and found it to be a really good product at the price point.
The Behringer amplifier line is really more of a consumer level product, rather then a professional amplifier. For professional amplifiers I would strongly suggest either the QSC or Crown products.
Jim
So if we're not consumers, what are we? :O)
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