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Any tricks to firing up a pair of Maggie IIa's?

A good friend offered me a pair of Maggie IIa speakers that he bought new in 1980. He had the tweeters replaced in 1988, and said they were last played in 2010 at which point they were working fine. However, they haven't been played regularly for about twenty years.

I am curious to hear how they sound. I've always read good things about Maggies but have never had occasion to listen to a pair. I understand they can be a bit temperamental as well as difficult to drive. Anything specific that I need to be aware of? It was a very generous offer and I don't want to fry them on start up.

Also, any thoughts on tubes with these speakers? I have a Cary V12r running in UL with 6550 tubes - that's about 100 watts. A lot of people seem to think they thrive with big solid state, but it also seems that they were quite popular with ARC tubes when they were new. I also have some solid state amps handy to try, but nothing more than about 150 w.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
grimace

Showing 2 responses by raymonda

raymonda
855 posts
 
I owned a pair of mama's from 1986 through 2000 and you have described them perfectly. I found that upgrading the caps in the crossovers and internal wire to have a tremendous effect and greatly improves their positive attributes.

I ran them with Adcoms 5555 and Classe' amps...The Seventy, 101 and 150. I much preferred the Classe ' s over the Adcom. Even the Seventy sounded better than the 555. Since 2000 I've been running the 3a's, which fills in what the 2a's lack. I also use subs and find it is not hard to blend them in.

Adding a super tweeter would go a long way. It would give you more up top and provide some air.

Buy some Moloxyn from Magnepan and you have a totally self maintaining speaker. Have fun.
raymonda
855 posts
 
Don't you just love spell correction.
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