Choking more SPL's out of Maggie 3.6's

Pbb is very close to the truth but i'm not basing my comments on my past experience alone.

I did have a 4B a few years back that was pretty well beat up. Dennis at Bryston USA went through the amp top to bottom, replaced the chassis and put the unit through its' paces on the bench. As it turned out, the only real problem was the fact that the chassis was so twisted that it was shorting out the rail voltage feeding the left channel. Once all of the internal components were transferred into a different chassis, according to what he told me, the unit EASILY met spec and was working better than many of the other amps that he had previously had in for repair that were of similar vintage. As such, he was very satisfied with the results of the repair and the unit over-all.

I wish i could have said the same thing. I found the amp, which was rated at and tested to exceed 250 @ 8 and 400 @ 4, to be less potent into low impedances than a Classe' 70. For sake of clarity, the Classe' 70 was rated at 75 / 150 / 300 with a 3 dB's of dynamic headroom. Even though the "baby" Classe' could drive the low impedance load better than the Bryston, sonically, i did not like either amp. As such, out the door both of them went.

As such, i will say that the Bryston was built like a tank to take that type of abuse / damage and still keep ticking. I will also say that Bryston is a "kick ass" company when it comes to standing behind their product.

With that experience embedded in my mind, i have talked to a few others that have had newer Bryston amps and have run into similar problems. There have also been a few threads pertaining to this subject on AA, so i know that this is not just a "thing of the past" with their older amps. On top of that, the review that i mentioned in Stereophile went out of their way to make it known that the 7B was "crying out in pain" whereas other lower powered amps were simply coasting along on the same load. If we add all of this up, it sure looks like 2 + 2 still equals 4.

Like i said, take my comments for what they are worth. I'm simply calling it as i see it based on past experiences and the feedback that i've gotten from both personal communications and professional reviews. Sean
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PS... I have nothing against Canadians or Canadian companies : )

Interesting thoughts about the Brystons. I had 9b-st and into a lower load(rated 6ohm by manufacture, speakers were reviewed by some rag and dipped just a tich below 4 in reality, huh) and it always ran out of gas and started clipping/thermal shutdown. True it was the smaller of the Brystons. I tried dedicated lines, same results. Different speakers high a higher ohm load it stayed together.

At the time I formed Sean's opinion with out really knowing it. Scary to think of a 7 running out, but anything is possible.

Isn't Brystons background mainly with professional equipment, and does not "most" of that stuff have higher/stable ohm loads?

Hey, listen to the facts. If the amp clips before the speakers give... I tried a Richard Grey Power deal and was able to gain a extra click or two on the volume.

And I bought some other Canadian stuff too....

Marty

My tube amps ran out of gas with the 3.6s at around the low 90 dbs, that would be 100 watts per each ribbon/mid and woofer sections. I heard an InnerSound ESL amp driving the EROS MKII. It sounded real open and powerful. I bought one and it works real good, into 4 ohms, 600 WPC. It worked so good that I bought a second one and now run one on the left and one on the right in vertical bi-amp mode with a Marchand XM44-3 that I had when I tried driving the 3.6s with tubes. The woofer panels can be rolled off at 40,50 or 60Hz, depending on the frequency module used. For me, this is the ticket. Of course, I have a large subwoofer for the low stuff. If I want 100db without blowing the ribbons, I GET 100db. Having said that, I would like to quote from the 3.6 manual: "Users that frequently push the 2.5 amp tweeter fuse capacity will be the most likely to experience early failure." Just to keep us grounded, eh?

I's glad to see Travis posting his experiences. I knew he was happy with the InnerSound amps, but didn't know just how loud he was driving his Maggies. I'm an InnerSound dealer, but don't have the experience with the Brystons to make a valid comparison.

If you don't mind doing a little amateur woodworking, you could add self-standing wings on either side of your Maggies to reduce the dipole bass cancellation. This is a technique used by Sound Lab many years ago to get adequate bass response out of the A-1's (and no longer necessary with new models). Just make the wings the same height as the Maggies, and as wide as you can get away with. A foot or so wide should be great. You can fold 'em back behind the Maggies a bit if that would help the asethetics. Military-grade precision isn't necessary - a little air gap between the side of the Maggies and the wings is okay.

Best of luck to you, Rbirk.

Duke

Probably not and not recommended as you will probably damage your speakers.

You need Klispchorns or some type of horn speakers.

As an aside, have your ears checked as you may be suffering from some hearing loss as the 3.6s can play pretty loud.