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In Reply to: RE: Mainstream knowledge says Bose is No. 1 in sound posted by Mechans on September 9, 2012 at 12:57:45:
"The use of lower powered tube amps, SETs in particular, working poorly with Maggiess is mainstream audio-phile knowledge"
Unfortunately it is also only conditionally correct. I am sure that there are many SETs that don't work well but many that do.
Let's look at the facts:
Impedance is nearly ideal for a SET as it is pretty flat and mostly resistive.
Sensitivity is somewhat lower than normal; however, it has the benefit of being a line source so the drop in SPL with distance is greatly reduced compared to a box point source speaker (particularly true for the larger Maggies, which should be even EASIER to drive than the smaller ones).
The bass has a pretty strong resonance that will likely help an amp that is perhaps a bit bass shy into a 4 ohm load. However, this is also the most likely area where a SET will fail with a Maggie if the distortion from the output transformer is too high in the bass it will make the Maggie sound bloated.
No offense, but I am quite sure that I have tried SET amps on more different types of planars than just about anyone on this forum. I also know that the ones which work are generally expensive because they have the proper iron on the output.
BTW, I also had a pair of Cary CAD572se monos that gave an honest 20 watts and they sounded fantastic on my Caliper signatures and on my Acoustat 1+1s.
I also had a friend with the Maggie 1.5qr and later the 1.6. We got fantastic sound from a pair of Audio Note (UK) P4SE monos that delivered about 18 watts from parallel 300Bs. Now that was in a small room and peaked in the lower 90s but it sounded the best I have heard Maggies sound. It was about the lower limit I would say powerwise.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Mainstream knowledge says Bose is No. 1 in sound - morricab 10:38:30 09/10/12 (0)