Choking more SPL's out of Maggie 3.6's


My system sounds fabulous, but I can't get it to rock really hard. Not even close. Live classical performance, jazz performance, acoustic show, etc. no problem. Good and loud on rock, yes. I may have to change something, but I'm hoping not to change my speakers.

My system is as follows:

Maggie 3.6R speakers
REL Storm III sub
Bryston 7B-ST mono amps
Rogue 99 preamp
Linn Ikemi cd player
Nottingham turntable & arm
High output Dynavector cartridge
Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun speaker cables (7 foot)
Transparent Music Wave Ultra interconnects (RCA)
(1 meter all around, except preamp to amps which is 15 foot)

The room is about 18x23 with a 7 foot ceiling.

Is there any way to get the Maggie's to go a little louder? Just a little? The Bryston monoblocs are hefty power, but when I play hard stuff (now and then) and I want to get a little carried away, I hit clipping before I hit the point where I can't hear myself sing. I never used to get to this point with previous dynamic speakers, but all those were flawed in so many ways in which the Maggies rule. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Otherwise I'll listen to most everything at home but go to the car to really rock out.

Thanks in advance.

Rich
rbirke
My tube amps ran out of gas with the 3.6s at around the low 90 dbs, that would be 100 watts per each ribbon/mid and woofer sections. I heard an InnerSound ESL amp driving the EROS MKII. It sounded real open and powerful. I bought one and it works real good, into 4 ohms, 600 WPC. It worked so good that I bought a second one and now run one on the left and one on the right in vertical bi-amp mode with a Marchand XM44-3 that I had when I tried driving the 3.6s with tubes. The woofer panels can be rolled off at 40,50 or 60Hz, depending on the frequency module used. For me, this is the ticket. Of course, I have a large subwoofer for the low stuff. If I want 100db without blowing the ribbons, I GET 100db. Having said that, I would like to quote from the 3.6 manual: "Users that frequently push the 2.5 amp tweeter fuse capacity will be the most likely to experience early failure." Just to keep us grounded, eh?
I's glad to see Travis posting his experiences. I knew he was happy with the InnerSound amps, but didn't know just how loud he was driving his Maggies. I'm an InnerSound dealer, but don't have the experience with the Brystons to make a valid comparison.

If you don't mind doing a little amateur woodworking, you could add self-standing wings on either side of your Maggies to reduce the dipole bass cancellation. This is a technique used by Sound Lab many years ago to get adequate bass response out of the A-1's (and no longer necessary with new models). Just make the wings the same height as the Maggies, and as wide as you can get away with. A foot or so wide should be great. You can fold 'em back behind the Maggies a bit if that would help the asethetics. Military-grade precision isn't necessary - a little air gap between the side of the Maggies and the wings is okay.

Best of luck to you, Rbirk.

Duke
Probably not and not recommended as you will probably damage your speakers.

You need Klispchorns or some type of horn speakers.

As an aside, have your ears checked as you may be suffering from some hearing loss as the 3.6s can play pretty loud.
Nothing wrong with Bryston power...they are one of the best combos to bring out Maggie bass...Maggies simply lack "impact" and dynamics due to their dipole design...which is out of phase as well...that being said...Maggies still sound surprisingly musical with conventional rock...especially compared to older designs...they lack the visceral "live" sound of the best cone designs...but hey...the do that "space" thing so well...good luck...you have a killer system