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Bi-amping mark-Daniel Maximus: Mind-blowing

It escapes me that these unique speakers are hardly spoken of - admittedly tough loads - 85 db, 4 ohm, dipping to 2.8 - must be bi-amped, by decree of makers - understandably - but when they are, do they rock/sing/pulsate/kick butt/image and grab you relentlessly! Probably the most fun/rowdy-yet-musical, vibrant, yet coherent - system I have heard in my no waf play-room. M-D Maximus, biamped with Moscode hybrid 401 (400 WPC into 4 ohms) for the bottom 950 Hz and TAD-1000 100 WPC pure tubes, driven by 1960 Mullards and Amperex orange logo - and JJ 34 EL Blue glass for the highs. Made my hair stand on end. If there is a more dynamic set-up for a medium sized room, placed 8 ft from walls, I've never heard it. These speakers are a revelation and I urge others to listen to them. I dont work for M-D and only know about them from the 6 Moons review and susequent discussions with owners. Wow! I'm still foot-tapping, an hour after they were turned off to watch Papelbon zap the Rockies............Go hear them, but insist on big, nasty, fun amps, typified by the Moscode 401. D amps didnt do it, nor did pure tubes. But MOSFET low end and tubes for the rest sure made this old tube geezer a dancing man:)
springbok10
chaz801's avatar
chaz801
77 posts
 
I was really wanting to look at Mark and Daniel speakers because of all the hype in forums. But then I started to hear about other speakers and kinda shifted my interest to other brands especially after reading a review online at either stereo mojo or stereo times cant remember which. It was written on i think the rubies from m and k. I truely believe they are a good speaker for the money. I recently attended the RMAF in Denver. I heard a lot of speakers i really liked. For the money there were 3 that blew my mind for the $$. And they were ATI, AZ Adagio, and the tiny speaker that were in the Tri room. WoW! If there is anything better out there..i would love to hear it. I was there for only 2 days and there were a few peices of equipment i wanted to listen to but i either ran out of time or over looked where they were located. All in all..an outstanding show. I just wish i had the opportunity to hear the M and K's.
springbok10 OP
711 posts
 
I have the AZ Adagios - they are indeed awesome. But very different from the M-D Maximus. They are superb speakers and can image close to the walls - coherent, refined, smooth,musical and realistic, whereas the M-Ds are like the Moscode 401 and the Jadis int amp - bold, outrageous and utterly compelling. When driven properly. I couldn't choose betrween them - they are for different places, uses and amps.
plato
1,543 posts
 
I heard the M&D speakers locally and was very impressed with them. The room was very boomy and the electronics were kind of mid-fi, but nonetheless, I could tell that there was something special about the speakers performance. They are very precise and dynamic and handle power very well.

But I have two problems with them. First, they're unbelieveably inefficient and need high-power to sing, and secondly, they need to be far out into the room, which is not always possible.

I'd like to hear them with my nice tube preamp feeding my NuForce 9SE V2 amps sometime. Perhaps I can arrange an in-home demo with the local distributor. Party on guys!
springbok10 OP
711 posts
 
Plato, those are excatly the 2 problems. I have mine 8 feet into the room. and can only have this luxury in my "play-room" - wife excluded - but one cannot do this very often (unfortuntaely)and the difference in sound between driving them single-amped with a TAD-60 and the TAD-1000 and Moscode 401 is striking. Those woofers, by design, demand enormous power, but if you can do it, they sound unique. I did try a D-amp - I will e-mail you privately, if you want details. The Moscode won out easily. But different strokes........you may like the Nuforces on them.
rumadian
152 posts
 
There's also an article on the M&D Topaz at the Affordable Audio review site.
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