Blown Tweeter & midrange fuses Magnepan 3.6r

Hello,

I have had similar experiences with fuses blown with 3.5's. With an ARC VT130 amp, 110wpc, this amp clipped just as the volume started to get very loud but it was a very soft clipping and I think because of this, the fuses failed only a couple times. With ARC Classic 150's (150w monos), these amps have a protection circuit to shutdown the amp when it clips, so this happened frequently rather than blowing fuses. Then I tried a Counterpoint NPS400 (400w into 4 ohms) and only a couple times did tweeter fuses ever blow; this amp was a great match for the Maggies, not just musically, but also in power delivery. And currently I use Wolcott Presence amps (275w monos) which are an outstanding match but when the volume gets loud, mid and tweeter fuses fail. The Wolcotts have a great midrange presense and bloom on vocals and for loud passages, they can run out of steam and clip, not as soft as the ARC VT130. I can only imagine how incredible a pair of Wolcotts with double the power would be!

As for low power amps, I tried a 40wpc stereo tube amp and in no time, the fuses were failing because the amps were clipping. There is just no way 40w is going to work with the Maggie 3.x speakers. I am sure biamping these speakers would reduce the power demands here significantly.

John

" open floor plan " this means your room is even larger than 15'x20'. Another thing to know is that your type of speaker does not sound as loud as you guess it is...a spl meter will show you this.

I don't know your Krell amp but I do own a couple of Krell's. My baby Krell (Kav-500) is rated in the same ball-park as yours at 240 watts/4 ohms. The power supply in these little Krells is not enough for your speakers. I have tried mine with my 4 0hm. Apogee Duetta Signatures, while it will play them and sounds very good...high spl's cause it to run out of steam very quickly.

I use a Krell Ksa-250 with my Apogees in my 25'x23' room, it has over 4 times more reserve for those loud moments (which don't sound that loud).

Dave

400+ watts into 4 ohm, pull the speakers out into the room. If you are watching movies this will happen even more so with this few watts.

I use a spectron Musician II amp that puts out 650 watts per channel. I can still blow fuses in my 3.6's at high volume intervals. I can only crank up to about eleven o'clock on the volume without having to replace fuses. i believe that excesive volume on any amp with cause your Maggies to blow off. I have found that using an amp with more clean power doesn't elliminate the problem that you've outlined here..........

Something isn't right about this picture. I've had over a dozen amps with my 3.6's and never blew a midrange fuse, despite playing quite loud (85db with 95db peaks measured on a RS SPL meter)and despite having a room over twice the size as yours. I suspect your definition of 'somewhat moderate' is compatible with my 'very loud'. You need to get an spl before you do anything else, measure what you think is moderate and go from there. You may find these speakers are not for you, they are not really designed for very high spl's. Incidentally, I used a Krell FPB 200 with 400w into 4 ohms and never blew a fuse in the 3.6