Magnepan 1.6 vs Magnepan MG-1

Gmood1...After some study I have settled on the following design.

I will retain (at least for now) the original terminals and fuse holder.

I will remove all the original crossover components.
In the space of the original crossover, I will install the tweeter capacitors: three 7mfd musicaps = 21 mfd. Thus the tweeter will always be connected through its capacitor.

The woofer terminals will be connected directly to the woofer, requiring that the inductor be outboard.

The outboard inductor will be "wired into" the woofer's (biwire) speaker cable. No extra terminals involved.

I have chosen to use 3mH instead of 3.5mH. Note that the tweeter capacitor of 21mfd is changed from the original 22 mfd. This will shift the crossover frequency up slightly, and reduce the gap between tweeter and woofer that causes a dip in the overall frequency response. I am quite sure that the woofer can play a few Hz higher in my application where the Maggies are crossed over to a subwoofer at 90 Hz. The inductor will be a 10AWG air coil from Madisound. (I will try it this way, and tweek as necessary).

By the way, aren't the 2.5R three way? The MG1.6 are 2 way with a very simple crossover which makes upgrade particularly attractive.

Eldartford..no the 2.5R is a two way design. Here's a general spec sheet of the differences in Magnepans former and current models.http://www.integracoustics.com/MUG/MUG/articles/speakers.html

Please keep me informed of what components you find that work the best in the crossover. It would be nice if there was a guide book with different types of upgrades and what each one will do to change the sound in the magnepans. But I understand it will be trial and error.A guide book may save a little money in parts thou.

Gmood1...That is an interesting summary of all the Maggies. I note that the crossover of the MG1.6 is given as 600Hz acoustic. From an electrical point of view, the woofer is 3dB down at 180 Hz and the tweeter is 3dB down at 1800 Hz. The crossover slopes are 12 dB for the woofer and 6 dB for the tweeter and both parts of the mylar screen are still driven in the range between the crossover break frequencies. The acoustic output is reportedly down by 4dB at 600 Hz, and tweeks have been developed to boost output at 600 Hz.

My revised inductor value will raise the woofer crossover to 215 Hz and the capacitor change will raise the tweeter crossover to 1900 Hz. These are small changes (and they save a few $) but I really think that the resulting crossover is better optimzed for use with a subwoofer, where the woofer panel is not trying to pump out 50 Hz.

Eldartford..can you get the same results buy using a Behringer DCX2496 Ultra Drive Pro Digital Crossover System? This only cost around $350.00 new. I am curious if I can use this and do away with the on board crossovers completely. Looks pretty complicated. But it would be faster to dial the settings in than solder and scrap parts on a regular basis. What do you think?http://www.americanmusical.com/st/aspx/i-BEH+DCX2496/en/item.htm

If this will work all I need to do is straight wire my ribbon and bass drivers to separate binding post...I think.

Gmood1...Of course you could biamp the Maggies, but your costs would include another power amp as well as the crossover. I don't know if the particular crossover you referenced is suitable. I would suggest the Audio Control Richter Scale, which gives you a 1/3 octive equalizer, six bands, in the range below 125 Hz, and an analyser, as well as the crossover function, all for about the same money. The crossover is 24dB/octive, which is great for most speakers, but then the Maggie screens are a different animal. Note the shallow crossover slopes that Magnepan uses.

If you were to biamp, that fuse MUST go back in the tweeter circuit. I have been biamping and triamping for forty years, but I never had the guts to hook a full range power amplifier directly to a tweeter.