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In Reply to: I知 in love with Maggie! posted by osuhog on April 4, 2007 at 08:01:04:
You just expressed why they are the largest selling audiophile speaker of all time. They do things no other speaker can, and your brain likes it... :^ ) Congrats.Those are some funkadelic stands too :^ )
One note on your amp: Maggies cannot be given too powerful an amp, regardless of model. They will find a way to use all the current you can give them. Behringer amps were made for D-Jays to give people tinittus at weddings, and YES, they are low cost alternatives to audiophile amps but as you found they have a sharp ceiling when driving low ohm loads and when they run out of gas it happens fast, and they can clip without warning. I would not remove your fuses while you are using this amp, and when you can, replace it with something better which will take your enjoyment even higher.
Thanks for sharing.
Follow Ups:
...about the amp, sort of. That EP2500 might not be enough. I'd sell it real quick and get TWO EP1500's & run them as mono-blocks ;^) .Don't worry about which component to upgrade next. There'll be plenty of thime for that. Just keep on enjoying what you've got.
The great thing (one of 'em) about MMG's is that they don't require you to spend big bucks to get good sound. The bad thing is that they'll entice you drive 'em with better gear just to see where their performance ceiling is.BTW, it you just have to replace something, one Asylum member recommends 14 AWG silver-plated stranded copper wire for speakers. That you can get on Ebay for cheap. Solder on some banana plugs and you're there.
What you're thinking to yourself: " WOW, who knew my electronics and my music sounded so good =) ."
Thanks for the input Peter. I am curious as to what difference another amp would make. I can definitely see how these speakers could be more picky than others with amplification.As far as the clipping, I will never play music at that level. That was just while I was doing some testing. Although, I imagine some movie soundtracks might have some dynamic scenes that get up there.
These MMG's have been modded and the fuses have been completely removed, so placing them back is a no go for me. I will take your advice and be very careful though.
Here is a pic of the back of the speakers and the mod that was done by the person I bought them from. I believe he is "jiminredbank" on here.
Maggies can actually be driven with any piece of crap. Maybe not well, but even junky receivers will play them. However, high current (not high wattage) amps have an effect people refer to as "lighting them up". It's the difference between hearing something being played back, and swearing to god it's the real thing in the room. It's more than just an increase in detail, and it's hard to explain until you hear it.My advice would be to look for a used CJ Sonographe SA250. They can be had for around $500 used and are incredible for the money. (and they and maggies love each other)
The problem with clipping is ANY product that has a light built into it to show that it actually can, will and or is clipping is a problem waiting to happen. And musical spikes can happen in any recorded music where a passage 3 minutes in suddenly surges more than the general level of the rest of the recording, and then it's all over but the crying if the amp spikes. I'd go easy until you replace it, and highs are the culprit much more so than loud bass.
Never heard of "jiminredbank". Never saw anything like that either. Where do the speaker cables attach into it?
Peter, thanks again for the suggestions. In the meantime, do you think I should enable the clip limiters on my amp? I'm sure it could affect the sound quality a bit, but if it kept my Maggies safe until I get something different, it would be worth it.
You can try it and see how much (if at all) that effects it's sound. If it's disagreeable you can probably turn it back off because you seem to be prudent enough to know when you're pushing things. As I said, sharp highs are the biggest danger, or rock music with wails and /or feedback. When I was young and rash :^ ) I used to play hell with my maggies with the Jesus & Mary Chain. Nothing but feedback, I must have blown the fuses on my MG-Ic's a dozen times because of their first record. I was also using an amp at the time (an Adcom GFA-555) which was not too unlike the one you are using in many respects. (it had a clip light too, and in time I came to realize just how awful it sounded, even though at first I loved it) That's why I say be careful as there were times I was sure I wasn't pushing things at all and suddenly it didn't sound right and sure enough another fuse had blown.It should also be noted that without a fuse it doesn't mean the wire will go from a bad clip, but such an incident will stress it, and after enough such incidents what would seem a trivial incident could be enough to push it over the edge and melt the tweeter.
Strap that to your vest, walk into a bank, and without question they will hand you a bag of money : )
Jerry
And you think he can buy better speakers with the money?:)
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