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Upgrading to Totem Mani 2's

I’m considering upgrading from the Model 1’s to Mani 2’s. I’ve read most of the forums here on A’gon regarding the Mani’s and the one thing that they all pretty much have in common is that you need a lot of power (and current) to drive them. I’m currently running a Plinius 9100 for my Model 1’s which is rated at 120 W per side (around 200 W @ 4ohms). I’m also running the Plinius on 220v which has opened it up considerably and gives the bass a lot more punch (something I know I'll need for the Mani's). My room size is approx. 15 x 22 and my listening position is about 16 feet from the speakers. I normally listen at a moderate volume (10 o’clock is loud for me and 12 o’clock pretty much drives me out of the room). I know the old adage that you can always get a bigger amp, but if I’m going to spend several thousand on a speaker upgrade I’d rather not turn around and spend several thousand more on upgrading the amplifier as well (at least not right away). In addition I'm very pleased with the 9100 and like the Plinius sound very much. So what do you think Mani 2 owners? Am I living in a bubble thinking that the 9100 has the juice or based on my room size and listening habits will the 9100 do the job for me?
jaffeassc
jaffeassc OP
166 posts
 
Well I've listened to the Forests, and while they’re very good speakers, they don't measure up to the Mani's IMO. Ever since I first listened to the Mani's over a year ago I've had "Mani on the mind". It is just an exceptional speaker, again IMO. I also owned Threshold gear many moons ago, back when Nelson Pass was designing/making it. Also very good gear, but I’ve really come to like the warm, fluid, and sweet sound that seems to be characteristic of the Plinius gear. So the request for opinions goes on. Come on Mani owners. I know you’re out there!
jsl23
14 posts
 
Used to run Mani-2's with Levinson - a strong combination. A used 23.5 is really what you want.
jaffeassc OP
166 posts
 
Thanks very much for your comments Js123. I haven’t had the pleasure of auditioning Levinson either; however, I’m sure it makes for an exceptionally good combination. It also appears that you are in the 200 W + camp for driving the Mani’s, so another vote for more power. Any more Mani owners out there using less powerful SS amps with satisfactory results? Or for that matter any more Mani owners that are adamant that you need something with at least 200 watts. Please, keep those cards and letters coming.
grakesh
84 posts
 
Hi,

Would Plinius 9200 SS Integrated with 200 atts/ch at 8 Ohms and 300 watts/ch at 4 ohms be good enough to drive Mani-2 ?

Grakesh
bdgregory
1,720 posts
 
ok, I have an update to my "experiment". The results would say that Baroque speaks truth. As I mentioned above, I started with one Conrad Johnson MF2100. The MF2100 sounded great. Then I added a MF2100. That is, vertically biamped using with 2 identical CJ MF2100's. This sounds really wonderful. Third, I removed the CJ's, and installed a pair of B&K M200 Sonota mono-blocks. That is, bi-wired with one 400 w/c amp on each speaker. That resulted in a very slightly better result than biamps MF2100s. Today I finally installed a second set of B&K M200s. So now I'm driving them in biamped mode with a single 400 w/c amp on each channel Bass, and M/T separately. Yes 800 w/c effectively.

Whoa!! This is really, really wonderful!

I think I'm still sub-optimized on speaker cables. I'm running Audioquest Slates, which I think may be too light guage. Also, I'm running them with a little Dared 2000A preamp which sounds great, but not as good as my Rega Hal.

My weekend project to tune these things up and see how much better they can run. It may be tough to actually peel myself away from actually listening to them in order to do the tweaking.
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