A friend of mine, just because he likes to experiment, put a single-ended 45 amp on his 3.6 maggies. That amp puts out about 1.5 watts and was, of course, WAY underpowered for these speakers. However, he has also run them with a Wyetech SET that uses a 211 tube and puts out something like 18 watts. That combination sounded quite good to me, so long as the volume was not pushed much. It is possible to be satisfied with high-powered SET/Maggie combination, but one does have to forego some of the really good sounding directly heated triodes (e.g., 45s & 2a3s).
A 9 watts SET for the Maggies, Heavenly marriage
For the heading, I need to start a new thread; this is because the last thread does not do the Audio Note the justice.
The comparison among all those EAR, Pass labs, YBA and the little, David, Audio Note kit one, does illustrate that if we can relate our live musical experience, the SET certainly rules.
For whatever reasons, I like to have advice on higher powered SET amplifiers for the Maggies
Please advice
Robert
The comparison among all those EAR, Pass labs, YBA and the little, David, Audio Note kit one, does illustrate that if we can relate our live musical experience, the SET certainly rules.
For whatever reasons, I like to have advice on higher powered SET amplifiers for the Maggies
Please advice
Robert
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When I was selling my 2a3 I auditioned it for a prospective buyer on my MG 12's. It worked, but just barely - even at low volumes it just wasn't the amp for those speakers in a smallish room. Subseqently, I heard a guy's maggies with 300b's in a , very very small room and that made him happy for quite awhile, but eventually he kept the 300b's and moved on to a large full range fostex set-up which was just a way better match(IMO). Personally I don't think you get all the set magic without going to a much more efficient speaker. If you are a maggie guy, then a higher power amp with more grip is what brings out their best. Different strokes of course.... |
for several years, i was running my MGLR1s with the Musical Fidelity XA-200 monoblocks and they were happy. 2 years ago, I tried the Cayin 845/300B monos (27W SET) and found they worked, but to a very limited extent only: volume cannot be raised beyond 8'o clock... yet the SQ of the SET vs the brute XA-200s is much to my liking. i kept the SETs, sold the Maggies, and settled for the Vollas... but i still missed the maggies even today. i now have a beefier tube amp (SF Power 2) that can handle the maggies and i am on the hunt for a 1.6... my only limit is room size :-( i, too, would be happy to go back to SETs coupled to maggies, but the high-powered ones are not only rare here on this side of the pond, they are very expensive. i saw the Kronzillas in HK and the tubes were LARGE! i thought the 845s were big, but they seem like 6DJ8-types sitting side-by-side with the KR tubes... These Kronzillas are monsters, pretty monsters, and their prize is off-the-roof and burns my bank account... i wish... we can dream, good buddy :-) and until a SET-made-in-audio-heaven comes along, my quest for the 1.6QRs will have to wait... cheers! egay |
A different perspective.I owned Maggies for years and I believe that planar speakers are like a beautiful woman,or a fine vintage wine,once you go there you can never have anything less.Having said that,I moved on to Innersound EROS 3's,simply because I wanted to audition a "Stat". Never looked back,and I still have the Innersounds,provides all the good things that a Maggie does but reproduces the full spectrum of music down to 25Hz.And it's sensitivity is 90db.The downside is the small sweetspot,12 to 15". So if you're hooked on SET's and you're a solo listener it's something you may want to consider. |
Who cares about the only sweet spot if that is being occupied by oneself. Listening to the Maggies is the best experience one can ask for given that the rest of the box speakers are colored to begin with. We come to this world alone and we will go back to whereever we are from alone; who cares about the 12" to 15" wide of listening sweet spot, right? Maggies is my life and SET is my soul; live music is my destiny, right? Long live the SET |
The reason why I mentioned XA is because Robert wants the sound of SET, XA is much better candidate than X-150. About the power, I'm not sure since my Dunlavy is more sensitive and XA-160 can do very good job. OTOH, XA sould be not be worse than the rest of SETs he mentioned. BTW, XA .5 version probably are better for difficult load. |
Robert, since you like the kit 1, you may want to look at the Audionote Kit 2. Although only rated at 12wpc, it is significantly more capable than any 300B I have heard, and IMHO somically better in some respects. It seems to have the edge in dynamics and bass and treble response. It is not a SET, as it is wired in pentode (or tetrode), but it is single ended. Regards Paul |
Not sure on your price range,but as suggested in another thread. You may want to take a look at the KR Audio amplifiers. If some these amplifiers can drive Acoustats. They'll have no problems driving your maggies. Here's a review of them doing that very thing Kronzilla. |
I have owned the AudioNote Meishu 300B integrated but it was a real pain having to service it every now and again - transformers failing, it even went up in smoke one time! Yes, its got a very sweet midrange but unless you are prepared to spend time and money cradling it, your best off with SS. The YBA Passion has some tube-like qualities and is above all, a very musical amplifier. Much cheaper to run the YBA in the long run! |
Just in case you(or any other interested party) failed to click on that URL: The CAD 805 Anniversary Edition offers 50 watts per channel, Pure Class A Single Ended Triode Mono Blocks with dual 6SN7 input stage, 300B driver stage tube, includes both 845 and 211 output tubes. User selector switch for output tube. Jaguar Anthracite black chassis and top plate with clear coat finish, anodized aluminum front panel. ZERO feedback design. (That first spec makes other pure SETs anemic in comparison, as they all "SOUND" much bigger than they are) |
I currently have a Dared 845 SET running my MG20's At reasonable volume its fine. As long as you don't plat tecno, or turn it up way too loud it doesn't clip. I've also run them on a set of Decware SV83 monoblocks. Some have told me you can't run Maggies on tube, but that may be some sort of impedance mismatch on their end |
Its not that a low power SET wont drive a maggie or most any speaker, hook a SET up to any loudspeaker and it will work. Its just a sub optimal way of putting together a system. When you use a SET on a 3.6 it will sound good just you are not hearing all the 3.6 can do or all the SET can do for youve ham strung both. If you love maggies and you love SET go for it. But to get the best out of a SET you need hi-eff designs. To get the best out of 3.6 you need power. Once one properly builds a SET based system with proper loudspeakers you will understand why so many folks who have been arround the audio block have settled in with SETs. If you just throw a SET at any loudspeaker you will not get the best out of it or the connected loudspeaker. And hi-eff ribbon hybrid systems do exist if you love the sound of ribbons,hi-eff ribbon equiped loudspeakers are available that work great with SET. Many SETs have very high distortion when pushed to near full power the SET magic is with the 1st watt or so not the last watt. And a 3.6 will just eat this up anda SET amp will be running into distortion with most any peak in level. But maybe happy 3.6 SET owners are grovin to this distortion. |
I have tried my little $39 T-amp with my Maggies. They sound "good". But not what happens when I use my 600 watt amps. One of my sons hooked up an old KLH 5 (low efficiency 4 ohm speaker) to his clock radio, good for perhaps, 200 milliwatts. Was I ever surprised! It sounded "good" compared with the clock radio's own speaker. |