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Which of the 3 series maggies are bi-ampable?
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I finally found magic at a reasonable price biamping with a Paraaound P5 pre-amp, which has a built in bass mgt circuit... and a great dac
My amp is a W4S MC 250/500
I used the 3.5R bass panels with the mid/tweeters from Swan Diva IIs out front, and it was good. While I plan to switch this and use the 3.5R ribbons out front with the 4 Diva woofers, running the Divas full range (but biamped + P 5 bass magt) sounds so amazing I haven't gotten around to it
You can probably pick up a pair of 3.5s a lot cheaper than the maggie bass panels PLUS get~ 3Xs the surface area
Just to extend neo's comment a bit ... prior models to the 3.7 have an external XO box which contains the bass LP / mid HP passive XO. So this can easily be replaced by an active 2-way XO, using 2x stereo amps.
The 3.7 / 3.7i, in contrast, has an integrated series XO ... you can certainly rip it out (or bypass it) if you want to actively bi-amp. But you'd have to keep the ribbon HP filter components.
If you meant passive bi-amping on the previous models (still using the passive XOs) ... I suggest this is not worth the price of the 2nd amp.
Regards,
Andy
I'm passivly biamping my 1.6s and it IS worth the price of the 2nd amp. I have roughtly the same power as a Parasound A21, but use a PAIR of A23.
And I'm set for the next step which is a passive LL crossover. at that point, I'll get about another 3db effective power AND all the other benefits.
for someone intending to go to the next step, I'd say go ahead with the passive setup but know that better things await. And the cost of a passive crossover? Peanuts, even using premium parts.
You can make a crossover in an Altoids tin, for that matter.
Too much is never enough
I agree. I got about 1/2 or more of the benefits of active biamping by passively biamping my 3.3s. Mainly I gained dynamics by doing it passively, as I recall, and active added a little more dynamics and transparency.
Before I cry 'UNCLE' and ask for schematic help, i'm trying to figure it out by myself.
I have a recommended configuration but need to figure the capacitor values for both a first order HIGH pass and a 2nd order LOW pass for my 1.6s
After that? I'm thinking a 4'x6' sheet of 3/4" PlyBoo will be enough for a pair of reframes.
Too much is never enough
Seems to work pretty well. It looks to be intended for speaker-level applications but should still work at line-level values; someone please correct me if mistaken.Mark in NC
"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains" -Paul Simon
Edits: 06/24/15
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.
The crossover I'm interested in is a LINE LEVEL meant to go between the PREAMP and a PAIR of amps for each speaker. The speaker crossover is to be DELETED and either saved for eventual resale OR parted out.
Such passive line level crossovers are sensitive and designed around the INPUT impedance of the amp and the OUTPUT impedance of the preamp.
Such a crossover as I imagine, should be easily fabricated on a circuit board which will fit inside an Altoid tin. One for EACH side, since I've gone to 3' speaker cables.
Too much is never enough
I think the calculator will still give the correct values, you'll just be putting in your amp input impedances instead of the speaker impedances. Again, someone please correct if I'm wrong. The values seem to come out as they should.
Mark in NC
"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains" -Paul Simon
The PLLXO schematic I've see has NO inductors, let alone the 3.5mh monster used in the low-pass element of the 1.6
Buried in the link is the line-level schematic from DAVEY, to whom i credit with letting me think I could pull this off.
The circuit shown is for 39k input impedance. Cap values are VERY small and setup / layout are important.
Too much is never enough
The cap values should simply be adjustable in proportion to the input impedance of the tweeter power amp - Cnew= Cold * 39k / Ri
I would drop the resistor L pad in favor of a good quality 10K cermet or wirewound pot used as a variable resistor so you can tune the XO to the subjective balance that suits your system room and taste.
The low pass section should stand on its own unless the output impedance of your preamp is unusually high.
Thanks: Good answer.
I was thinking just that, at least in part. A speaker with 8 ohms needs (say) 22uf while the listing for Davey's schematic shows NF for a 39k impedance. So, for my 33k, the caps should be a little larger. I'll sit down later and 'do the math'. If I think the answer makes sense, I'll run it by here.
As for a variable resistor? I'm not in love with 'em. They all end up noisy and unless all the way CW or CCW, difficult to repeat settings. I'm inclined to try a 3 or 4 way SWITCH and resistor net, if that's feasible.
Still Noodling.
Too much is never enough
You are right and a switched resistor will give a better result, you need at least a 5-6 position switch to give you + / - 3 to 6 db range at good intervals, but you can also get a rotary scale that can allow repeated settings on a pot.
And I can't get it straight?
Use a 'make before break' or 'break before make' switch?
Too much is never enough
If you get a discrete resistor vol control you will have a quiet switch having been chosen for the role. There are decent dact knockoffs on Ebay though I don't remember which vendors are any good, you need to look it up.
Thanks for the clarification Andy. I currently actively biamp my IIIA's which I've heavily modded and have toyed with the idea of doing the same with newer 3 series models. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble however and will likely hold out for a 20 series.
Trying to clarify our terminology. If you do biamping with passive components at the speaker level, it may not be worth much, like Andy (I think it was) mentioned.
OTOH if it is passive (PLLXO) or active (ALLXO) at the LINE-LEVEL, things should get mighty sweet and impressive. So, if your current Maggies don't have line-level XO's, you may want to try that first and "awaken the Kraken".
I had cheese and kraken last night as a snack.
Too much is never enough
I am making Minotaur stew tomorrow...
OR, how about BBQ PIZZA?
I BBQ'd a traditional sausage pie last week. The local German Meat Market makes the BEST Spicey and Sweet Sausage in SoCal.
And
you simply can't beat a Ceramic Charcoal dome cooker. Without difficulty I can get a dome temp exceeding 600f which is almost as hot as a commercial pizza oven.
Too much is never enough
Go for a 20.x or a Tympani if you have the space.
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