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

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

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!

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.

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.