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In Reply to: RE: Jumper Cables Assistance on Maggie 3.3R posted by plschlesinger@aol.com on July 31, 2014 at 12:23:39
Just saw your photo and post here. This setup without the external crossover boxes is a sonic disaster. Funnily enough the shop I bought my 3.3rs from second hand had the speakers wired like this as they also didn't realise the speakers were supposed to have external crossover boxes.. Wired like this the bass panel will be given a full range signal meaning you will get zero bass and top end as a massively out of proportion midrange will swap everything else. Also feeding the mid/ tweeter section a full range signal is a bad idea so I would stop using the speakers like this immediately if I were you. They will sound dreadful anyway.Believe me any external crossover added to this (either a passive speaker level one or an active one) to give you a half decent full crossover setup (even if it is not perfectly tuned or using cheap parts) will sound a million times better than this.
What sort of amp are you using? Integrated or pre/power setup? Do you have more than one power amp?
Edits: 08/08/14 08/08/14Follow Ups:
I am looking to buy an amp - scouring ebay and craigslist. any recommendations?
We'll you need two things, an amp and a crossover. Do you have no amp at all to try the speakers with now? If not you need to get one than think about the crossover problem.
As for amp recommendations for use with Maggies, there are a lot of amps that will work quite well, but also many that work but won't be so good as they won't drive the speakers well. In general you want a higher current design capable of constant stability into a 4 ohm load, and preferably one with a lot of power. Anything under 100 watts a channel is not going to be too great unless you are in a small room or don't listen too loud. , 200 watts + is more like it, but I suppose 100-200 would be ok for a starter amp until you can upgrade.
Rather than give any specific recommendations, have a look at some amps and read up on the specs. Look into whether the amp will be happy into a 4 ohm load and look at the power rating.
There are plenty of pre/ power combinations and integrated amps that will work ok. If you get an integrated amp it would be preferable to get one with pre outs so you can biamp in the future so look for that. There are also quite a few heftier AV receivers that would be capable into 4 ohm loads and have reasonable power output and you might be able to find one very cheap. That market moves very fast meaning older stuff loses value fast, much faster than hifi amps. The sound quality of an AV receiver might not be as good as a hifi amp setup but could do as a stopgap as something that will drive the speakers ok and get you up and running. Most receivers have pre outs so that's good. Beware there are also plenty of weedier receivers out there that won't work well into 4 ohm so look at the specs and blurb carefully for each one you seen. In general bigger Denons and Yamahas and Onkyos should be fine driving one pair of 4 ohm speakers any many will actually says it's ok in the specs or the manual. I would avoid Pioneers receivers with Maggies as the Pioneer sound is renowned for being overly bright.
Have at lot at specs of amps and feel free to ask me here or by pm if an amp you see for sale would work ok. If you shop around you could probably find something that will work fine for very cheap. Then you could upgrade to something that sounds better in the future as funds allow. I am quite familiar with Denon and Yamaha AV receivers of the past 15 years so let me know if you are interested in the AV receiver route and I'll make a list of models that should work ok.
When you get the amp don't use it until you put an external crossover in place on the speaker though...
I have a Pioneer VSX 1121. Just not sure if that will be powerful enough for my Maggie's.
That Pioneer is a reasonably recent mid range model. I think it would do ok as a stop gap until you can get something better. Will it drive the speakers optimally? - likely not, but it should sound ok within a sensible volume level and do better than many other more weedy amps. It's rated into 6 ohms into 7 speakers so I think you should be ok with 4 ohms speakers running on two channels. All these modern av amps have good protection circuitry and if the amp gets too hot it will just cut out until it cools down. There is an impedance selector for 6 or 8 ohms but some people suggest leaving it at 8 ohms as the lower setting just limits the rail voltage. Keep the amp well ventilated and you should be fine.
See how it sounds. Like I say Pioneer receivers have a reputation for being bright (and that might not be ideal with a speaker equipped with a ribbon tweeter). If the Pioneer is too bright or lacking grunt you could potentially sell it and maybe get a slightly older more potent av amp from another manufacturer for no price difference. I would usually recommend Yamaha receivers as they are quite neutral and usually sound quite good in stereo. Maybe an older z7 or 3067, 3000 or 3010. Older Denons are ok but might be a bit too warm and soft sounding.
In the longer term I would look at proper hifi pre/power amp combos. For the power amp you really want something with a decent power rating, low impedance drive and good current capability (i.e rated on paper into 4 ohms) and having at least 4 output transistors a channel. 8 or more is better, especially for single amp drive. Beware of buying amps more than 10-15 years old as if they have not had a service they will probably need all the electrolytic caps replacing, so the cost of doing that would need to be factored in when buying.
So if I were you I would now just concentrate on getting an external crossover sorted out for the speakers so you can at least try them with the Pioneer and get a proper idea of how the speakers are supposed to sound. I think your simplest option for a coherent and well matched crossover for the speaker would be to get someone to build the stock external crossover for you using stock quality parts. (Iron core inductors throughout, bipolar electrolytics on the bass low pass and (at least) polyester caps on the mid/tweeter high pass. You could then think about changing the crossover values, upgrading components or going for active biamping later on.
Though I am not overly keen on it due to the midrange dip If you get copies of the stock crossover built then it's just a simple plug and play issue of hooking it up between the speaker and amp (which is good if you are not a techie.).
You could potentially save money getting the external crossovers built using the MGIII crossover values or my similar crossover ( there are less inductors and lower value caps in those than in the 3.3r crossover so it's cheaper to build) but the internal crossovers inside the speakers would need also to be altered too (in terms of cap and inductor values) and if you can't solder that's not an option. Unless you learn?
Hope this helps.
thanks
You're welcome. Good luck, let us know how you get on sorting out your crossover issues.
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