How Much Push/Pull Tube Power for Maggies

It depends on how loud you like to listen, and the size of your room. Some people are not happy with anything less than hundreds of watts on maggies...others report great results with 50 or so watts of tube power....go figure.

I'm running 120 watt Rogue Audio monos on my Apogee panels (4 ohm...87db, about the same as Maggies)...another guy at the Maggie forum is also running the same Rogues on his Maggies with reported great results.

Yet, Someone at this forum tried the same Rogue Amps on his Maggies and said they "did not" work at all?

So, who's right and who's wrong?....I suspect no one, (see paragraph #1)

Dave

55dok

"full dynamics of large orchestral music"?....from a pair of MMGs?...they'll fly apart long before they get there!

Dave

soda1@ix.netcom.com

It would take 18 watts to get 86db at 3 meters allowing 3db of headroom...1,796 watts to get 106db at 3 meters allowing 3db of headroom.

Dave

Well, you probably hit peaks only into the upper 80's...I think you will be very happy with your amp and the MMG's.

Dave

Yes, stands of your choice will help a lot. Also, check out the CARDAS planer setup guide at the CARDAS Audio web site...it works well in most rooms, (not all).

Warrenh

Playback levels which exceed those that a speaker was designed for cause "early" repair. MMG's are not designed to play loud...anyone buying them for high SPL playback has bought the wrong set of speakers if that is the intended use.

Maggies, Soundlabs, Apogees..ect,... none of these speakers are designed for extream playback levels, thus...adding more and more power, is not the answer...or the fix.

Hybrid systems are the better answer for those wanting punch and pow....something dipole bass does not do.

Dave

Cooch

The first part was intended for you...stands and setup. The second part was intended as an "I don't agree" with Warrenh.

My point on the loud thing was that simply adding more and more power to the MMG's (or dipole panels speakers in general) is not always the answer to better sound, ie...if 100 watts is good then 200 watts will be better...and on and on. (never buy a used pair that have been run hard)

The small Maggies will play fairly loud, they will not play as loud as many other speakers, (conventional box, hybrid designs, horn designs)...adding more power will not get them there either...it "will" get them an early trip in for rebuild however.

In the end...your speaker system only needs to play as loud as you like to play it...your amp will need enough power supply to do this without clipping, you speakers will need to be able to do this without distorting...for "some" people, lower powered amps are fine with planers, others not... as confirmed by the above replies.

Some people move on from dipole planer designs when they have had enough of "the amp game" even though, they do like the speaker...it's just the wrong speaker, ie...no amount of power will transform a dipole into a monopole....which better fills their needs for bass slam.

Dave

Eldartford

I guess I can understand that, I know that some music can have 25db peaks...trying to play back this music at loud average levels can no doubt cause problems when these peaks come along. If your average listening level is much over 75db or so, your going to need a good amount (or even a lot!) of power...depending on room size, listening distance, room acoustics, ect.

If I recall, you listen to mostly classical music where some of these huge peaks hang out.

Of course, listening at high average levels (85db and above) requires the speakers to be able to handle those peaks without damage or distortion as much as it does the amps...something more power will not fix.

In my room I get by "very well" with 120 watts a side (tube amps)...and a pair of large subwoofers. Without the subs, not as well. I do still have my old Krell Ksa-250 but have not used it for a long while...around a year!

Dave