Atma-Sphere OTL & Magnepan?

RE: Atma-Sphere OTL & Magnepan?, posted on January 5, 2017 at 10:40:39
Lew Audiophile Posts: 10911 Location: Bethesda, Maryland Joined: December 11, 2000	Magneplanars are akin to ribbon speakers, and ribbon speakers tend to be low in impedance. It's just the nature of the beast. Are your Maggies 2-way or 3-way speakers? If so, you might explore series connection of the tweeter and woofer sections as a way of achieving your goal. That would require the design skills of someone who is knowledgable. Otherwise, Zero autoformers are the best solution.

I would absolutely consider ZeroFormers FIRST, posted on January 5, 2017 at 14:53:48

jeffreybehr
Audiophile

Posts: 5707
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Joined: December 10, 2004
Contributor
Since: December 13, 2004

See the linked page.

http://anticables.com/

RE: Atma-Sphere OTL & Magnepan?, posted on January 5, 2017 at 15:15:52

baileyler
Audiophile

Posts: 359
Location: Chadds Ford, PA
Joined: January 17, 2007

Which Atma-Sphere, and which Magnepan?

Most AS amps want at least 8 ohms, and most Magnepan are 4 ohm nominal (although the old Tympani are apparently 8 ohm nominal).

I have run an old pair of M-60s with a pair of MG10.1 and MG-IIIa using the old Atma-Sphere Z-Music transformers (which are tricky to use, there is an old thread on this), and they worked fine and sounded great.

Unless everything is a little outside the norm, the ZEROs are you best option.

He runs MA-2s. In a case like this, posted on January 6, 2017 at 09:44:06

Ralph
Manufacturer

Posts: 4769
Location: Minnesota
Joined: April 24, 2002

for best results the amp should be placed behind the speaker and the speaker cables be kept under a foot in length.

We had a guy use dual Ocos (a cable marketed by Sumiko that was a sort of coaxial speaker cable) and he ran 20 feet of cable to his Tympanis. Plenty of volume, but no bass! I had him move his amps (MA-2s) to the rear of the speakers (with the rear of the amp facing the rear of the speaker) and had him install some 6" speaker jumpers made of 8 Gauge copper. The bass came back in spades.

Making sure the connections are tight helps too!

RE: Atma-Sphere OTL & Magnepan?, posted on January 7, 2017 at 18:58:22
Tri-Planar Manufacturer Posts: 2 Location: Minneapolis, MN USA Joined: August 24, 2011	Thank you all for reply. Regarding Atma-Sphere and Magnepan, I hate to add Zero between amp and speaker. Trying to stay true to OTL. I might need to bring back my Quad 63 that had been in storage for 15 years (hope still work?) or build speaker box for University 315c since concentric drivers are coming back. Tri-Planar

RE: Atma-Sphere OTL & Magnepan?, posted on January 8, 2017 at 10:11:27
mcdonald43 Audiophile Posts: 212 Joined: November 21, 2009	The Atma-sphere MA-1's are the best match I have ever heard with the Quad's. The combination sounds more like music than any combination I can recall. The Atma's bring out the low frequencies in the Quads. My $0.02

RE: Atma-Sphere OTL & Magnepan?, posted on January 15, 2017 at 06:38:21
Ogh Audiophile Posts: 26 Location: Oslo Joined: November 5, 2004	I can confirm that speaker matching is centrally important to get the best of the MA-1 amps. I tested speakers and although many sounded OK they didn't sound optimal. I ended up buying Audiokinesis Dream Makers, tuned to OTL amps, and later also their LCS effect speakers. Very glad I did.

OTL Asylum

Atma-Sphere OTL & Magnepan?

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