Choking more SPL's out of Maggie 3.6's

I thought about that too, Sean, but as I say, I don't have the specific experience with the Brystons to comment, and having to replace the amps that worked well with Rich's previous speakers would be just as much for him to comtemplate as getting different speakers to replace the Maggies. But the one thing I can say is that the Maggies aren't especially difficult loads, at least from the impedance standpoint. They require a lot of power, especially in bigger rooms (where they work best), due to their relative inefficiency, so it's always possible that an optimistically-spec'ed amp could run out of steam at high volumes, but the impedance is purely resistive and dead-flat at 4 ohms over the whole range, except for peaks at the crossover points. Any 4 ohm rated SS amp worth its salt should be unstressed as long as it can supply the desired power, and the Maggies themselves don't have the highest of limits before panel breakup can occur on certain program material. Though the amp scenario is a possibility, it is also true that Maggies in general - both to their credit and occasional detriment, depending on one's listening habits - do not convey the same sort of impact on loud rock material as dynamic speakers can manage. When I used to work in a store that sold the Maggie line, one of the longtime employees used to say wistfully that he would own a pair in a heartbeat, if only they could play heavy rock. Alas, the sound of Marshall stacks and SVT's is the sound of cone speakers in boxes; like everything else in audio, it's tough to be equally great at doing it all...

I have 3.6's in a similar sized room, and I can't hear myself sing- thank god! The amp I am using is a BAT VK-500w/bat pak, it seems to drive the speakers with aplomb. I think the previous posters hit all the technical reasons for whats' happening. But let me add one more thing, if you were to upgrade the external crossover you would gain frequency response in the lower octave(s) and output would be higher as well. One member at MUG, was flat to 36hZ in his room before after he measured flat to 25hZ and only slightly rolled off to 19hZ, though that's only going to make the load on your amp possibly more demanding. But hey at least you wouldn't be able to hear yourself sing :)

Look,

Despite what everyone else says, the Maggies were never designed to go that loud, it about finess, and detail, not shear SPL's.

Personally, I'd hate to see you give the Maggies up, but if you do drop me a line.

What you may try:

For those shear head banger moments, get a second set of speakers, they won't sound like Maggies but then they aren't maggies. Maybe some older Klipsch with a 50 watt tube amp. That should float you shear SPL boat.

Just another way to look at life.

Now turn the Maggies down, please.

jeff

I have the 3.6's actively bi-amped. Tubes top (only 40 watts) and ss for the bottom (classe ca-400) I'm not into shear spl's, but before bi-amping, the classe was more than enough power. (800 watts into 4 ohms) If you are clipping, have you ever blown any of the fuses? If you actively bi-amp with a sub output (you would need a 3-way xover) you might be able to get the efficiency up a bit. I use a xm126 tube 2way from Marchand. They can make what ever you desire.

It isn't those Brystons, I'm sure. The setting of the switch on the back of the amps could be something to look into. I wonder what is the best position for Maggies. Maybe someone with this combo could tell you what they use or you could always experiment with it. Sean has a dislike for Bryston based, if I remember some of his old posts, on a 4B he bought for little money, that had been beaten the hell out of, to the extent the casing was twisted or some such. Nonetheless, Bryston did a bunch of warranty repairs on it, but still in all Sean did not warm up to the amp. That's all right, "degustibus non disputandem". I don't think that 7B STs are somehow too wimpy or poorly designed to tame those Maggies. I think that the practical limit of the Maggies has been reached. They are not designed for high SPL listening. I auditioned them for an hour and half at a local dealer with my own cds and was amazed with some of the 3.6Rs strong points. I found them lacking, however, on rock and also in the bass department with jazz. The rest of the equipment was Classé. I still think, now and then, of getting a pair of 3.6Rs and keeping my Paradigm Reference 100 v2s for high SPL listening. Both these speakers are price leaders. Unfortunately, the openness and airiness of the Maggies is not found in the 100v2s, and the out and out slam and meaty sound of the 100 V2s is not to be found in the 3.6Rs. I remember that quite a few people running Maggies with 7B STs have posted here and that they were quite satisfied by this combo. In closing, what would the downside of having the Maggies at one end of the room and the 100 V2s at the other be? Since most power amps (including the Brystons) do not have switching facilities for two pairs of speakers, is there a high quality switch box of some type that would eliminate the need to change the cables every time one wants to listen to the other speakers? The area of the panel may be impressive, but the excursion simply is not there; that's one of the main reasons you still see those boxes full of dynamic drivers, I guess...