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In Reply to: RE: 3.x model option posted by Satie on May 03, 2017 at 23:51:47
When using the stock crossovers, or stock xo points, Magnepan recommends amps of equal power when biamping the 3 series. At least they do for my MGIII's.
Regards,
Steve
Follow Ups:
I have looked at that but I think the current demands for bass can only be met when you have a higher power rating than that of the top end amp. The ratio would be at least double. If you were doing deep bass with a subwoofer then I would agree. While the energy content in the signal might split evenly over time at a midline of 3-400 Hz, the peak momentary energy draws on your amp in most music are in the midbass and deep bass. Choral music is the exception where peak sustained power is in the midrange.
In short, statistics are not physics.
I believe aggressively hit (hard!) acoustic piano notes require a lot of power too. "Shattered" piano notes, from mis-tracking cartridges, power amps clipping, and even recording microphone capsules being overloaded, are not unheard of.
Well, pianos can do real forte. I can say that one of the things I got from swapping the mids for a line of Neo8 was the jump factor from well recorded piano transient. Particularly with amps having ample transient peak power. One of my favorites on the mids is the modified NuForce Ref. 8 as it has only a 100W rating but can swing 600W for a few milisec. Which is what the piano calls for. Despite the low 90s db sensitivity of the line array, about 6db and change more than the maggie original I did run the little switching amp hot, But the 60W mod. Dyna III do just fine.
Before that the piano did not come off right. it was rather obviously compressed on loud transients. But then I only expect a piano come through with full power on large horn systems like the laScala or Altec VOT models. Despite their steep price tag I was surprised to hear how close to that the Focal Nova Utopia managed to get.
Yeah Satie, piano is one of the hardest instruments for a system to make sound real, their transient nature one major reason. The same is true for drums, and for the same reason. One of the most startling things about Direct-To-Disc LP's is their transient response---it makes percussive instruments like piano and drums sound much more alive than does a recording made on a tape machine. Digital I won't even mention!
Yes, I wish direct to disc was cheaper, but it just produces limited runs. So any sought after recording would never be cheap.
Based on my experience biamping with a pair of 200W amps using the crossover settings recommended by Magnepan, I would say a 100W amp for the mid/highs is too low. And I don't listen at a high sound level.
Regards,
Steve
Well, there are 100W amps that are spec'd above what they can deliver, and then there are those that deliver more.
A high current design spec'd at 100W, e.g. Classe DR9 will output 200W into 4 ohms and have better than 3db dynamic headroom. That is what I had in mind.
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