Upgrading to Totem Mani 2's

ok, this is a cheap tactic to keep this thread in the current list . . . .
I'm a little surprised the isn't more participation. I assume there are many Mani-2 owner's (or former owners) out there. Can more of you weigh in? I would like to hear more too.

congrat's! what stands are you using with them?

one clarification on the biamping. I asked Totem about vertical vs horizontal biamping. Below is their reply. Also notice their reply to my question about driving them with one CJ MF2100. The primary consideration if you biamp with your Plinius is wheather the sensitivity of the outboard amp matches that of the inboard. I would think you'll want to set up in horizontal biamp in any event. If the sensitivity isn't identical, you may be able to attenuate using pots.

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Hi Brad,

you have mentioned bi-amping your units

would this be done with 2 identical amplifiers ?

external amplifiers are not necessary as the internal crossover supports
this format

(on all our products)

It is important to remove the jumpers if you wish to experiment with
bi-amping

generally we have found the best results to be:

1) the more powerful amplifier of the two to power both speakers woofer
portion
(the bottom two terminal on each speaker)

2) the smaller amplifier to power the tweeter section
(the top two terminals)

we generally we don't recommend "vertical" bi amping due to the fact that
most amplifiers are not "identical" and will cause small discrepancies
between the two channels (even if they are the same model) different
production dates can yield slightly different variants

the Cj unit in question should yield very good results with strong power
delivery and very stable current into low impedance

take care,

TOTEM
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I use them on my Sttafs, not on my Mani-2's (don't have any for them). I don't notice a material degradation in sonics, and it gives me peace of mind when the house cleaner is around.

from what I've read about the MF2500, you'll have plenty of power.

congrat's Steve - did you have a chance to compare the Sig's to the standard Mani's? I've had my Mani's for over a year now. Every upgrade and tweak I do to my rig just shows how great these are. I bought mine used, and they are an earlier vintage, so I'm now thinking about upgrading to the Sig's.

Is anyone else out there familiar with the improvements the Sig's bring?

Hey...I am amazed that any tube amp can do them justice, because of the enormous power needed to drive the deadly combination of 3-4 ohm/83db efficiency issue.

I thought this too until I plugged my Manis into my Tad 60 tube amp. In addition, I had it switched to Triode mode (27 w/c). While it won't blow the doors down with Rock music, it sounds amazing and wonderful with any music that has a lot of mids-highs.

As far as loading your room - try a subwoofer with your Manis. I use a Rel Storm III with mine. Crossover is set at 30hz and it integrates beautifully. You don't know the sub is in the room, but the room is fully "loaded".

.

I just bought a pair of Mani-2's and have been experimenting with amps to drive them. I started with a single Conrad Johnson MF2100 (100 w/c @ 8 ohms, don't know the 4 ohm rating). They sounded really nice with the 100 w/c, but when I added a second MF2100 in biamp mode they really opened up. I also am trying them with B&K M200 Sonatas (bi-wired, not biamped) which are rated at 400 w/c @ 4 ohms. They sound much better than with a single MF2100, and a little better than biamp MF2100s. I don't know if this is because of the higher power/current of the B&K, or it's just a better combination.

I'm not at all familiar with the 9100 . . . but hope this gives you a baseline.

ok, I have an update to my "experiment". The results would say that Baroque speaks truth. As I mentioned above, I started with one Conrad Johnson MF2100. The MF2100 sounded great. Then I added a MF2100. That is, vertically biamped using with 2 identical CJ MF2100's. This sounds really wonderful. Third, I removed the CJ's, and installed a pair of B&K M200 Sonota mono-blocks. That is, bi-wired with one 400 w/c amp on each speaker. That resulted in a very slightly better result than biamps MF2100s. Today I finally installed a second set of B&K M200s. So now I'm driving them in biamped mode with a single 400 w/c amp on each channel Bass, and M/T separately. Yes 800 w/c effectively.

Whoa!! This is really, really wonderful!

I think I'm still sub-optimized on speaker cables. I'm running Audioquest Slates, which I think may be too light guage. Also, I'm running them with a little Dared 2000A preamp which sounds great, but not as good as my Rega Hal.

My weekend project to tune these things up and see how much better they can run. It may be tough to actually peel myself away from actually listening to them in order to do the tweaking.

Sorry Jaffeassc, Let me address your original question with respect to my paragraphs above, and also try to answer your last question.

First - when driving the Mani-2 with 100 w/c, they sounded great. Would I buy them based on what I heard? yes. I was very happy with the results on one MF2100. Incidentally, I had driven them with an old Bedini 100/100 that I have in my other room too. It's pure class A and IMO did a little better job of controlling the bass. One Key point about the Watt rating - the CJ MF2100 is rated at 100 w/c at 8 ohms. I don't know what it's current capabilities are or its power rating at 4 ohms. Same for the Bedini.

As for the B&K M200s - they are rated 200 w/c at 8 ohms, and are current generators. 150 amps p/p, so you get the full 400 watts at 4 ohms. That's the power rating I referred to, and I assume Baroque also referred to.

So, I think the message for you is this, I think the 9100 will give you nice results, actually excellent results for now. When you're ready to upgrade to a new power amp, you effectively get a new set of speakers without having bought any. Finally - the Mani-2 just begs for Bi-amping. A nice upgrade path would be to get an outboard power amp to drive the bass, and drive the M/T with you inboard amps.

As for what I hear now - keeping in mind that what I heard before was pretty phenomenal compared to other speakers I have or have had, including - Totem Sttaf, and GMA Europas, Von Schweikert VR3s.

I hear much more control, precision, and resolution of tones. The bass is tighter than I could imagine. The mids and treble are crystal clear. This opens up the soundstage. Instruments are more pinpointed in 3 dimensions. These are all things I would have said existed previously, but now it's just more.