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Magnepan, How Low Can You Go...power-wise

Hi Guys,

I have used a pair of Maggie 1.6s with a little Naim Nait5i (50wpc) and they sounded ok. I hear a lot of people saying you really need 250wpc to make them sing. I have the opportunity to buy a pair of Maggie 3.6s very cheap in another country where I spend some months each year. I was hoping my Simaudio i7 at 150wpc would be enough power for these. Magnepan won't answer this question firmly - what do you think ?
thomastrouble
nick778
147 posts
 
Electrostatic speakers generally sound better with more power but also that power has to be stable down to 2 ohms at least as these speakers usuallyu have pretty good impedence dips regardless of what they are nominally rated at, imo.

You can always look at some class D amps like the Bel Canto REF11 1000 or Spectron MK2 depending on your budget.
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,939 posts
 
Nick778,

Magnepans are not electrostatic speakers. They are planar magnetic and thus do not suffer from the ultra low impedence problems. I agree that more power is better.

http://www.magnepan.com/magneplanar_technology
kichoi
79 posts
 
If you have the means...you should try quality tube amps. By a chance, I tried mere 34w/ch Marantz 8B to my 20.1s and it is still driving them in my 26D x 29W x 8H room in reasonable listening level. I've been searching for a tube amp with similar sonic virtues as the 8B but more power...
dusty
60 posts
 
How low is your listening level? I have 3.6r's and have used as little as 75 watts and as much as 300. Biamping helps, as does a small room. If maggies broke with anything over, say 100 watts of drive, the issues regarding power would be moot. If they were more efficient, discussions of how much power needed wouldn't come up too much either.
But they are rugged and can soak up a lot of juice so this issue regarding power will remain (forever?)
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
More is better, my experience with Maggie 3.6R's was that they woke up at about 400 W, started to sing at about 600, and came completely alive at 1000w (into 4 ohms that is).

My fav amps for them; Cary CAD 500 MB, Innersound (now Sanders Sound) all the ESL amps, and I have not had them, but I too hear the Wyred4Sound amps are sublime with the Maggies.
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