A question for Maggie owners

At the stock 600hz crossover and with 250watts to the bass, I'd estimate needing maybe 150 watts to the top-half, so the amps run out of 'steam' at about the same time. That would be about a 60:40 power split...

Keeping in the Threshold scheme of things, if I had VERY deep pockets, I'd biamp with a pair of Pass amps...The INT-30a and the XA30A. I doubt I'd ever even get the meter to flicker out of 'a'.

And given the nature of the Magnepan beast, I'd do a few minor wiring changes, too. Get rid of the fuse and maybe install real binding posts to rid myself of those pesky banana plugs....which I've been putting up with for >30 years!

When I was setting up a biamp rig for MG1.6 I discovered that the high end needed a more powerful amp than I had expected. The trick is that I was looking at the amp's ability to swing instantaneous voltage peaks. not at power. Since voltage capability generally goes along with power you end up with a more powerful amp. You don't need the continuous power: just the voltage. Because of the way amps are designed you have to buy power to get the volts.

Pass amps are the only ones I've seen which call out voltage as a 'spec'.

How much more power? My 'guess' of 60:40 is based on the following link, which makes reasonable sense..

http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm

My guess of 150 watts @ 4 amps (mid/tweet fuse in 1.6) is about 38volts....certainly that should be within reason for any 150 watt amp? No?
The Pass X-150 is rated at about 50 volts.....and stereophile got 200@8 out of it during bench tests.

Magfan... The fuse in the MG 1.6 is for the whole speaker; not just the tweeter.

A "4 amp" fuse will carry a lot more than 4 amps for brief intervals like music peaks. All fuses are, to a degree, "time delay" fuses. Blow time is a function of current. Depending on the fuse type, it will carry its rated current, or a bit more, forever. Near instantaneous blow time is typically twice the rated value.

Sorry, Eld, the Schematic clearly shows the fuse for ONLY the mid/tweet. I have a copy right in the other room......
And yes, it will briefly carry more current than 4 amps. I haven't looked at fuse specs but I know it will carry a bunch more for very short times.
I doubt a panel will be damaged by this behavior. Even my MG-1, with a 1.5 amp fuse did the same. i could pop the fuse with somewhere north of 200 watts, but all that would happen would be the highs would go away.

I understand their is another class of fuse which is REALLY fast and designed to protect the most delicate electronics......in addition to 'sloblo' .

On the DIY front, some people will bridge the fuse out and others will pull the connection panel and do a minor rewire job to the same end. Eliminating all those extra connections / wires while of necessity doing away with the biamp / biwire option is said to have some sonic benefits. If I did that, I'd be tempted to install binding posts at the same time....