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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
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.
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Get some real speakers.
rbstehno
1,431 posts
 
you always want to demo speakers in your environment using your equipment. i would suggest a more powerful amp. the peachtree unit is not that powerful. demo an integrated amp that has 200 watts of power: audio research, mcinstosh, classe, etc.. or a nice powerful tube amp and see if that makes the speakers sing.
grege
47 posts
 
Maggies REQUIRE rear diffusion and space. That little ribbon can be too much of a good thing too. A resistor is an easy fix.
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