bpeder
Member
Hi. I own and really enjoy a set of baby Maggies - MMGs. I'm driving them with a McIntosh MC2105. As others have pointed out, they are really nice and quick for acoustic music in the highs and mids and tight in the bass although they do not often venture too much below 60Hz. In a small room at reasonable volume, they can be a pleasure.
I also have a McIntosh SCR-2 speaker relay added onto my McIntosh C28 preamp which allows me to run a second set of speakers switchable from the front panel. The Maggies are not as sensitive as many speakers, so my second set are my trusty old Pioneer C99-As - which don't get a lot of consistent love anywhere near speaker forums - but do well enough to my ear for louder programming. I really ought to have them re-capped someday, but maybe money could be spent better elsewhere?
I appreciate the people who wrote the copy on the Magnepan website. They do their best to give you information. But the somewhat folksy, narrative style they often surrender to can make it difficult to get answers to your questions. And anyway, it's not on them to deal with how their customers are driving their products - even though they do expend a ton of effort describing the Maggie line's need for power and amps that can handle the 4 Ohm loads. So... I'm posting in the AK speaker forum.
What if I added a Magnepan DWM bass panel to my current MMGs? Could I dispense with the C99-As? From what I can tell, a DWM panel can be added to the MMGs, but that the similar and all inclusive Super MMG system is a bit more optimized to work together as three pieces. Not sure I need that Super thang and I'd have to dispose of my MMGs if I went that route. Besides, Magnepan does seem to make it pretty clear that you can run a DWM with plain MMGs. And it looks as if it's possibly cheaper to purchase the DWM and add it to what I already have. Easy too, as I live in the Twin Cities not far from the White Bear Lake factory.
So, according to the website It looks like you can wire the DWM into an existing pair of plain old MMGs by using the patch bay in the back of the DWM? This negates the need for a second amp to power the bass panel. But what if I wanted to run the DWM mono, driven by my McIntosh MC250, bridged mono for 100 Watts? The C28 has a center channel output, that sums L/R and center channel trim controls in the "secret panel" above the front control panel. And of course, like any Maggies, the bass panel placement could be played with to get balance and phasing corrected
Regardless of the fully-restored-vintage-MC2105-MC250-C28-McIntosh-o-blah-blah-blah, has anyone had any experience with bypassing the patch bay in the DWM panel, leaving a plain set of MMGs wired to their two channel amp as is, and adding the DWM as a mono, center channel bass panel, (don't say sub-woofer), driven by a mono-bridged amp? True, the signal from the center channel of a C28 is a full range L/R sum, but the DWM only reproduces 40-200Hz anyway. I'm wondering if I could add more power I already own, and get the vaunted "tighter - not necessarily deeper" bass response that Magnepan and many reviewers have spoken of? Some reviewers have stated that the DWM brings response down to 40Hz that sounds more like 20Hz while remaining tight as a gnat's arse when matched with the Super MMG. I wonder if the same holds true when matched with the plain MMG - and if it gets any better when separately amped?
Anyone care to tackle this question? Thanks in advance for replies. Maggie people are an odd breed and I say that with the best intentions! I bet someone will dive in.
I also have a McIntosh SCR-2 speaker relay added onto my McIntosh C28 preamp which allows me to run a second set of speakers switchable from the front panel. The Maggies are not as sensitive as many speakers, so my second set are my trusty old Pioneer C99-As - which don't get a lot of consistent love anywhere near speaker forums - but do well enough to my ear for louder programming. I really ought to have them re-capped someday, but maybe money could be spent better elsewhere?
I appreciate the people who wrote the copy on the Magnepan website. They do their best to give you information. But the somewhat folksy, narrative style they often surrender to can make it difficult to get answers to your questions. And anyway, it's not on them to deal with how their customers are driving their products - even though they do expend a ton of effort describing the Maggie line's need for power and amps that can handle the 4 Ohm loads. So... I'm posting in the AK speaker forum.
What if I added a Magnepan DWM bass panel to my current MMGs? Could I dispense with the C99-As? From what I can tell, a DWM panel can be added to the MMGs, but that the similar and all inclusive Super MMG system is a bit more optimized to work together as three pieces. Not sure I need that Super thang and I'd have to dispose of my MMGs if I went that route. Besides, Magnepan does seem to make it pretty clear that you can run a DWM with plain MMGs. And it looks as if it's possibly cheaper to purchase the DWM and add it to what I already have. Easy too, as I live in the Twin Cities not far from the White Bear Lake factory.
So, according to the website It looks like you can wire the DWM into an existing pair of plain old MMGs by using the patch bay in the back of the DWM? This negates the need for a second amp to power the bass panel. But what if I wanted to run the DWM mono, driven by my McIntosh MC250, bridged mono for 100 Watts? The C28 has a center channel output, that sums L/R and center channel trim controls in the "secret panel" above the front control panel. And of course, like any Maggies, the bass panel placement could be played with to get balance and phasing corrected
Regardless of the fully-restored-vintage-MC2105-MC250-C28-McIntosh-o-blah-blah-blah, has anyone had any experience with bypassing the patch bay in the DWM panel, leaving a plain set of MMGs wired to their two channel amp as is, and adding the DWM as a mono, center channel bass panel, (don't say sub-woofer), driven by a mono-bridged amp? True, the signal from the center channel of a C28 is a full range L/R sum, but the DWM only reproduces 40-200Hz anyway. I'm wondering if I could add more power I already own, and get the vaunted "tighter - not necessarily deeper" bass response that Magnepan and many reviewers have spoken of? Some reviewers have stated that the DWM brings response down to 40Hz that sounds more like 20Hz while remaining tight as a gnat's arse when matched with the Super MMG. I wonder if the same holds true when matched with the plain MMG - and if it gets any better when separately amped?
Anyone care to tackle this question? Thanks in advance for replies. Maggie people are an odd breed and I say that with the best intentions! I bet someone will dive in.
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