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Mini Maggie System hurts to listen to

I went to a local audio dealer to audition different speakers for a home office. I listened to the mini-maggie system extensively, loved it, and brought it home. Unfortunately at home they are causing something I've never experienced before. After listening to them I feel a clogged sensation in my ears and an almost reflexive cringing at higher frequency sounds. I've put in the included tweeter resistor which helped slightly but not enough. Listening levels are low. At the dealer the maggies had a lot more space behind them then they do here. They are being powered by a Peachtree Inova. Some recordings are worse than others but almost all cause this with time. Sources are digital and vinyl. ~80 hours on the speakers. Any thoughts?
jataro
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
from my experience Maggies have a lot of high freq energy

try ficus trees right next to the speakers

keep the speakers away from the walls if possible

try warm wire, AZ copper cables are quite good and of course Cardas are a popular choice

good luck
peter_s
1,335 posts
 
Absorption or diffusion behind the speakers. But most importantly, I'm wondering if you need more power? What were they demo'd on at the dealer. I heard their prototypes several years back demo'd with Bryston 28 amplifiers (very powerful). None of us could believe what was coming out of those tiny speakers!
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,501 posts
 
I'm thinking its the Peachtree. Can you try a high power rig just as a test?
phasecorrect's avatar
phasecorrect
2,013 posts
 
couple things...poor recordings will be just that...secondly..some find maggies and similiar speakers too fatiguing due to too much resolution(compared to their old speakers), phase/coherence issues, etc..really shine on vocals, acoustic, small jazz ensembles, string quartet, etc
jataro OP
2 posts
 
Thank you for all of the responses. In terms of power the dealer (who is willing to take them back and is a class act all the way) is using an arcam mini to power them (25wpc) and they sound great. I also checked with peachtree and their R&D guy told me he knew of a dealer who was doing this (otherwise he said he would've told me it wouldn't work). Just for kicks I tried a proamp that I have (1000WPC stable into 4ohm, needed minimal gain) and there was no change. I will double check the speaker wires. In terms of room acoustics I live in a rental place and major changes will not be live in girlfriend approved. I could try something behind the maggies but I thought they needed space? I'll also try leaving them on all day/night now.
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