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In Reply to: MMGs - Better Base With More Power? posted by JimOfOakCreek on March 22, 2007 at 08:35:37:
The best way to increase bass performance of any speaker IMO is to reduce the Rg (the sum of the resistance in the crossover, speaker wiring and amplifier output impedance). This increases the damping power and gives better control of the amp. The most obvious thing with Magnepans is to lose the steel input jacks and upgrade the inductor with one with lower DCR. Better yet, get rid of the crossover all together and actively biamp, placing the crossover before the amplifiers. With regards to biamping, it's not the increase power of two amps that makes the difference, it's the elimination of the passive crossover.I may be an egoist but at least I don't talk about other people.
Follow Ups:
Hey Neo,
Well what I like about Maggies is the tightness of the bass, fast and not muddy. A lot of amplifier manufacturers will boast of the damping power of their amps (SS) with the idea that this converts to better control of the bass response (quicker and cleaner). In fact the damping factor of the amp is significantly reduce to numbers in the low teens or less by Rg which is why tube amps can give good bass performance even though their damping factors are often 10 or less.
I may be an egoist but at least I don't talk about other people.
Neo,I have done things to increase the resistance, like re-wire things with tiny wire, and I am pretty certain that the inductors I used had a higher DCR than the stock ones they replaced.
Yet, as you define improved bass (totally agree with your definition) increasing the resistance produced quicker tighter bass.
Your results are opposite of my experience and contradict the generally accepted concepts about damping factor. However in this hobby one should never let "facts" get in the way of one's perception of their audio experience. I can't explain why you have benefited from an apparent increased extraneous resistance but if it works for you so be it. Perhaps changing from the Magnepan connectors makes enough improvement to overcome the slight resistance change caused by using smaller but better quality wire. Also I doubt that your replacement inductors have a higher DCR then the original. What inductor are you using?
I may be an egoist but at least I don't talk about other people.
Hey Neo, I too have a bit of a time explaining it, except that in Allen wrights cookbook, he talks about thick wire (lower than 24g) smearing the sound particularly in the bass region. It does seem to work the way he says when you put in thin wire (I did this internally on my sub too, and had similiar results...things were much quicker and articulate).One day I will get around to making some cables that are aggregates of thin wire to see if lowering the resistance and still keeping the conductors thin and seperated, helps even more.
I remember getting either 14g or 16 g alpha cores, and at the time thinking that the dcr was higher...but that was a long long time ago, so i could be of a bit.
That is something that makes a lot of sense to me. Doing all that comes first.
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