Why are these speakers so bright but others not?

Donato,

You can get 10w 1-ohm power resistors at any electronics supply shop or RadioShack. You might even find 2-ohm and 3-ohm resistors. If you can only find 1-ohm resistors, you can always solder 2 in series to have 2 ohms, 3 in series to have 3 ohms, etc. This is not an "audiophile pure technique" here, but it will tame the top end to bring the Maggie sound to a natural state. Start with 1 ohm and go from there until the tonal balance is to your liking. And because these resistors have thick leads, you can bend the leads 1-2 times and just insert these into the attentuator terminals locking them tighly with the hex screws. This process has worked well for me for many years so I have not bothered to find audiophile grade power resistors here.

Concerning speaker cables, this is one area I have tried many different models/brands, and still I have yet to hear significant improvements from swapping like I do in other links of the system. Perhaps with the latest changes in my system, I should try this once again. But my gut feeling is that the Monster cable will be just fine to compare the speakers you have. But of course try to use the same cables. You can get Monster Xterminators which are a double banana with spade lugs on the end. Again, RadioShack has virtually the same product which I think is $4-5. Pickup a couple of these so you can use your spaded speaker cables. Try this and if things start to go in the right direction, then at least with the Maggies, you will be ready to consider an amp upgrade. But first, I still suggest that you borrow a Cardas Golden Cross interconnect and use this between the ModAI and your amp. This will be a huge change in tonality for you.

I find the hybrid Counterpoint NPS400 to be the best value before you pay a lot for Wolcott and VTL amps. High power ARC amps are just too expensive and anything under 200w is simply not going to work with Maggie 3 series speakers. After hearing tube amps with Maggies, there's no going back to solid state. However, I have not heard Plinius nor Pass nor Rowlands which many users claim to have tube-like qualities. But all of these are so expensive too. Just be prepared to pay a lot for an amp if you fall for the Maggies. Somehow I still think Vandys would be a good solution here.

John

John, thanks for the helpful info. I picked up some Xterminators at work and biwired using the Sigma Retro Gold. I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID ABOUT THE BRIGHTNESS! Even without playing around with placement, they sound good. I think it was due to my not making sure all the bananas were screwed in tight with those little hex screws where the bananas go in (Doh! Maggie rookie move on my part. Never had to futz with bananas much before). Mid bass seems much more prominent than with the Odysseys. A bit of sibilance still, but the Xterminator connectors are undoubtedly a compromised connection in comparison to hardwired and my room is not treated. I can see that these would likely be more finicky about room the placement than the MLs appear to be (although I haven't found optimal positions for either) and in their current placement, they sound constrained, like they're begging for more room to breath.

Now for another question: I get plenty of volume out of my CD player connected through AUX port on the AI Mod 3 (AUX port avoids the resistor in the signal path on the CD port), but definitely seemed to hit the ceiling with my DVD player connected to the DAT port. I'm not sure if this is a I-don't-have-enough-power-for-the-Maggies issue (my OCM supposedly is 225W at 8 and almost double that I believe at 4 ohms) or it's some funky gain issue with the DVD player and the preamp. My Arcam puts out a higher than average 2.3V or so.

i would experiment with the following:

the tubes in the audible illusions
change the ic and speaker cable ( i would suggest cardas neutral speaker cable, they will let you know exactly what is happening upstream)
change out the amp ( can sound bright and a little edgy).

your speakers are very revealing and when you have the right combo, you will know it.

good luck,

mike

John, thanks for the helpful info. I picked up some Xterminators at work and biwired using the Sigma Retro Gold. I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID ABOUT THE BRIGHTNESS! Even without playing around with placement, they sound good. I think it was due to my not making sure all the bananas were screwed in tight with those little hex screws where the bananas go in (Doh! Maggie rookie move on my part. Never had to futz with bananas much before). Mid bass seems much more prominent than with the Odysseys. A bit of sibilance still, but the Xterminator connectors are undoubtedly a compromised connection in comparison to hardwired and my room is not treated. I can see that these would likely be more finicky about room the placement than the MLs appear to be (although I haven't found optimal positions for either) and in their current placement, they sound constrained, like they're begging for more room to breath.

Now for another question: I get plenty of volume out of my CD player connected through AUX port on the AI Mod 3 (AUX port avoids the resistor in the signal path on the CD port), but definitely seemed to hit the ceiling with my DVD player connected to the DAT port. I'm not sure if this is a I-don't-have-enough-power-for-the-Maggies issue (my OCM supposedly is 225W at 8 and almost double that I believe at 4 ohms) or it's some funky gain issue with the DVD player and the preamp. My Arcam puts out a higher than average 2.3V or so.