The Gear to drive Mini Maggies


First, I wanted to say hello to everyone. So, I am at a point where I want to start potentially building a nice desktop speaker system. I don't have a listening room and my pc desk is inside my entertainment room which is probably medium to large in size. For mostly near field listening would the following items be overkill or would you recommend something else?

1.) Amp: Bryston 28bsst2 (1 for each speaker).
2.) Preamp: Bryston BP26
3.) DAC: Asus Essence one (already own it for headphones figured I would use the balanced out to the preamplifier if that works).
4.) Power Conditioner: Bryston BIT20 Power Conditioner.
5.) Speakers: 2 Mini Maggies
6.) Sub Woofer: Martin Logan Descent i

Now I admit I am not really good at any of this and it would be my first real audiophile set up for speakers. Do you guys think I missed anything from a sound stand point? I appreciate any help that you can provide.

Thank you,
-Jim
jkman
Have heard the Minnie Maggies with the Wyred mINT. Sounded great, plenty of power.
08-24-13: Schubert
You can run them with 100 watt SS or 50 watt tube, but they will not do all they can do with less than 500 watts a side at 4 omhs,stable to 2 ohms. Proved many a time, to many people. An EE Professor cum audiophile at U of Wisconsin proved it to me.
Schubert, was that with the Mini's, or with the larger models?

Regards,
-- Al
Almarg thanks for the detailed response I can certainly look at other speakers I just figured mini maggies were the best pc speaker set up(though again I am a noob). Hrmmm their are just so many things to consider that it gets overwhelming.

Schubert so any amp over 500 would be good? Did the professor suggest tube or solid state?

magnumpi205 thanks for sharing your experience.
Jim, so far only wpc channel have been mentioned to drive the Maggies. ie: 50 watts or 1000 wpc. That is only part of the the picture...in your situation an amp with high current is more important than overall power as measured in WPC.
Al or one of the more experienced members can explain it better than me, but this quote from the manual says it all...

"The Mini Maggie System is a 4 ohm speaker and should be used with a HIGH-CURRENT AMP that can safely drive
a 4 ohm speaker.

For example, an amp that can double it's power when driving an 8 ohm speaker vs. a 4 ohm speaker. A High power amp doesn't necessarily have enough current to drive these Maggies to their full potential.
Lowrider makes a good point, essentially that the amplifier has to be in its comfort zone when providing enough current to drive 4 ohms. My impression, though, is that among 4 ohm speakers the Maggies represent relatively benign loads, as the "phase angle" of their impedance, which is a measure of how purely resistive the impedance is, is relatively benign. Non-resistive phase angles, especially if they are capacitive (as opposed to inductive), increase the current requirements that are imposed on the amplifier.

Also, in contrast to the Maggies the impedances of many other speakers that are rated at 4 ohms will drop to significantly less than 4 ohms at some frequencies.

I had noticed that the 28BSST2 achieves its high power capability in part by having "bridged" outputs. More often than not bridged amplifiers are not suitable for use with speakers having 4 ohm or other low impedances, because of the current limitations they usually have. I didn't mention that fact in my earlier post, though, because in this case the 28BSST2's rated 8 ohm power capability is so vast that the fact that it is bridged seems unlikely to matter under any reasonable circumstances. Not that I'm recommending that amplifier for use with the Mini's, though, as my preceding post should make clear. :-)

Jim, concerning your question about tube vs. solid state, very few tube amps can provide both 500 watts and good sound quality. And those that can are likely to cost a small (or perhaps not so small) fortune. Again, though, I'm not suggesting that you need such high power.

Regards,
-- Al