Maggie 1.6's and Power. How much is enough?

That should do it, but the Maggies LOVE current. It doesn't seem as if you can have enough power for these things. I tried a Pass X250 and when the bass notes came on heavy it pegged the current meter on the front of the thing. I used to have a pair of VTL MB250's and the speakers went loud and sounded like they could take more. I now have a mosfet power amp at 200WPC that has beer can capacitors with a total of 360,000mfd. The amp has LED V.U. meters and the amp clips at loud volume. Mind you, not head-banger loud, but it could use more. Do yourself a favor and try a high power amp, both tube and S.S. and see what they do.

I had a pair of 1.6's, and they LOVE power. The most noticable improvement with more power is deeper and tighter bass. (That's why Maggies have a bum rap of being weak in the bass region!) Does this receiver give 120 watt per channel with ALL channels driven? Is this rating for 8 ohm speakers or 4 ohm speakers? (The Maggies are 4 ohms, but that's almost a resistive load). Is this amp happy driving a 4 ohm load? Make sure that it is, even though the specs may say so, some amps heat up like a frying pan, and lose bass tightness when trying to do so. Some thing to consider. Happy Tunes!

Wattage ratings alone do not tell the whole story. However, your Marantz at 120 watts is not "way too small" for the Maggie 1.6s. Generally, the Maggies need an amp the will drive a 4 ohm load. The best values would be a solid state amp like the Marsh A-400 or BAT VK200. Tubes will work but you need at least 100 watts.

While the Maggies will work in a H/T setup, they may not be the best choice for a "smaller room." Not only will they visually dominate a smaller room, the speakers sound best when they are at least 3' from the front wall with the listening position at least 6' away. More importantly, is that the Maggies project a small sweet spot and sound best in a high quality 2-channel setup; the Maggies forte' is soundstaging. Consider that there will be a discontinuity between the center channel and the Maggies. Consider, also, that in a H/T setup, a conventional cone speaker will sound more dynamic and will resolve more low level details at lower volume levels.

Does your reciever have amp out jacks?If it does you could add Marantz monoblocks or a stereo amp to power the Maggies.I had the Maggies and i think they need about 200 watts a channel just for themselves.

It should do ok but I have a feeling what ever your using for a center channel is going to JUMP out at you, make it presence very appearent, thus making smooth pans from left to right virtually impossible. Of course more power wouldn't be a problem at all, if you can get a good deal then go for it, try them, if nothing else you could sell them and make some good ole american green.

Tim

Your power will be slightly lacking for demanding HT and music listening. tireguy is correct about the center channel. you'll need to do a fair amount of channel level setting to get an acceptable blend up front. There are Maggie centers but the are fairly large and quite power hungry too. I you do decide to upgrade to another power amp, for minimal cash, try to find an Acurus 200X3 for the front. That amp (as well as other Acurus amps) can handle difficult speakers like the Maggies very well. For the money, they CANNOT be beat. And there resale is excellent if you don't like their sound. good luck!!!!:)

Try a McCormack DNA-1 or 2. I agree with the above poster that mentioned Marsh or BAT. You need a musical amp with great current drive. I never heard the Krells with the maggies but would imagine it would have glorious sound as well. Ditch the Marantz idea.

In a small room you will probably have enough power for most of the time. I think the bigger problem is the smaller room. These speakers sound their best when you get at least 10 feet away, 12-15 feet is better, and they like to be far away from the walls as well. My room is 13 x 20 and just big enough for me.
They are excellent speakers and will sound better and better as you improve your system.

All of the is true.Mine are run on an Adcom 200wpc in a 13x19' room w/ 2 open doorways.With the preamp at the 25% level it sounds great-all over the house ! You will need
the Maggie center speaker which is 35" wide. It fits on my
Sony 36BR but the Maggies have to be over 18" away from it.
Major space problems but definitly worth the it for the
sound. MMG's work well for rear spkrs.You'll find out soon
if you need more amp power and seating concerns- sweet spot
etc.Once spoiled, its hard to go back to box speakers.

Hi RSA,
I owned a pair of Maggie IIIa's for years with a BK 202ST, with similar or somewhat higher power rating as your Marantz. I was never that happy with the set up thought the amps could drive the speakers to very loud levels. At some point I borrowed an Adcom 5802 high current jobber (years ago, so I may have the model wrong), and was amazed at the improvement in dynamics and detail...at the levels I listened, I think I was missing 10-20 percent of the music with the lower powered amp. I am not recommending Adcom since I have never owned any of their gear, but am definetly recommending auditioning different amps with the Maggies or at the very least auditioning the speakers with your Marantz before purchase if you are tied to that amp. The MGIIIa's were much better than I thought when paired with a complementary amp.

C.