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Active Biamping of Your Dreams for Magneplanars

I have been thinking about upgrading my system a bit and searching the archives for threads on amplifiers to use with my Magneplanar Tympani IVa's.

Most of you seem to suggest that you could never have too much power for Maggies -- not to mention the greater demands of the three panel per side design.

Therefore, I am wondering how I might make a significant upgrade, without spending shocking amounts of money.

One idea is to buy another ML 23.5, use the pair for the low end, and actively crossover to a tube amp for the highs.

Good idea?

Next idea: same thing, but upgrade to a pair of 20.6 monoblocks.

Or a pair of Pass Lab monoblocks?
Aragon Palladiums?

Would like to spend < $10,000 and retain the reliability and slam of solid state in the low end please.
cwlondon
sgr's avatar
sgr
689 posts
 
You're right on target! The Tympani 4s sound awesome biamped. Go for the monoblocks (all your choices sound great, the Tympanis were often demoed by Magnepan with that era of Levinson amps so those might be my first choice. In theory you can have tubes on the highs and solid state on the lows, but you may find that the sound is not cut from the same clothe this way and even with an electronic crossover, may not blend very well. I think it would be better to use the same types of amps throughout the sound spectrum. I know this from my experiences in biamping both Magnepans, (Tympani 4s, MG-IIIs, MG 3.6 and Revel Salons.
Hope this helps,
Steven
thistlehd
4 posts
 
I have tried bi-amping my tympani 4a's without a lot of sucess. The crossover network is critical, I like the mono blocks better. I have a pair of brystons now, so let me know what you have decided and what you have discovered.
zt000
30 posts
 
I've used Carver Silver 7t with very good results about 7 years back. IT was very interesting experience to see Maggie use up all of 600 watts time to time. Not to long ago Jeffssoundvalue sold a pair.
zt000
30 posts
 
In general, active bi-amping is very difficult proposition. Half of the x-over's duty is to split the signal but the other half (or more) is to supress (because its not active) many areas of frequences to smooth out the voice. In general making x-over is the last development cycle. They call it the 'voicing'. When you do active bi-amping you are throwing out the designer's careful voicing effort of the speakers (many hundreds of hours). This is why most of modern speakers give you an option to do vertical bi-amping. You can use two different amps as long as their gains are same. Or use two of the same amp.
gmorris
351 posts
 
I disagree with Zt1000. Have you tried active bi-amping?

I am actively bi-amping my Magnepan 3.5 with a Tube Marchand electronic x-over. The results are spectacular.

See my review at the following site:

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.pl?forum=MUG&n=72187&review=1
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