2. speakers
  3. 1302475822

HELP-Maggie IIIa's are crackling at high frequency

I have newly refurbished IIIa's. The refurbishing was done by a trusted third party tech. I noticed the high frequency once before when using my Nuera 3300pp integrated but only on ONE record so I chocked it up as a flaw in the record. But just this weekend I went up to a AR V70 power amp and an AR SP-6b pre and its more prevalent than ever. I am not a "loud" listener and I here this "crackling" on the high end of classical female vocalists the most. I have read that people push the maggies as far as to blow the fuses before they get any distortion. This amp combo sounds like it would blow me away but I can't hear past the distortion! Any advice would be awesome and much appreciated, Thank you.
sonorous1

Showing 4 responses by sonorous1

sonorous1 OP
11 posts
 
Thanks for the reply David. When I hear the distortion it's during both CD and LP playback. Though I notice it more with a particular classical CD of various artists ironically. It could have been the amp/pre except it happened once before with another set up I had that included these speakers. The highs are pretty coarse distortion or not though. With the volume very low or with a mid tempo rock band it sounds perfect. I am using a broken in ultech audio CD player by the way
sonorous1 OP
11 posts
 
Thanks for all the responses, the more research I do I find that it must be poorly mixed recordings or mixes that don't mesh well with my particular set up. I don't think I could be clipping the amp because I don't hear it when I listen to other recordings at the same fundamental volume. Everything ARC in my set up has been gone through by ARC as of last month. Plus I know the general consensus is that magnepan would like to be mainlined to nuclear power plant if that were possible; but either way it comes down to listening volume and I don't crank. Thoughts?
sonorous1 OP
11 posts
 
Thanks for all the responses. I am going to go back to the drawing board with speakers. I value my amp and pre amp combo over the magnapan IIIa's.
sonorous1 OP
11 posts
 
Bifwynne,
The amp is definitely clipping. The speakers are in beautiful shape. So now I am trying to find a speaker that will best compliment my amp and preamp. I would really hate to change them at this stage. I went through a lot of trouble finding them and having them professionally gone through, let alone the time and money spent selecting tubes. The issue I am having is with the 10% percent of my music collection that is classical/opera with wide dynamic range and sustained high frequencies that easily make the amp clip. The Jazz sounds wonderful.

So now I posted a new thread to pick even more brains as to what speakers I can fuse with my amp combo and not clip the amp (if any at all) or anything else I can do to my large listening room that will make it so I needn't ask the amp for more power.

Maybe I am asking too much from one system?

Thanks for the advice thus far, learning as I go!
More to discover