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Current Delivery for Magnepans

Hello all, I was just doing some thinking regarding my Maggies (1.7's) & current delivery. Everyone says that Maggies love current. It's definitely true, however, I think a lot of people may be overstating the actual amount which is realistically necessary.

I hypothesize that there is a degree of diminishing returns after a certain point.

It seems like a lot of amplifiers are rated for 40A current delivery. At a 4 Ohm load, that amounts to 6400W (P=I^2 * R).

With some of these 120A current delivery amplifiers which are available, that works out 57600W!

That seems pretty crazy to me. My main reason for bringing it up is with the slow transition to Class D amplification, it seems like the ICE Power modules which these amps use "cap out" at around 40A current delivery. I question if having more power than this is even noticeable with transients.
dorfma05
markwatkiss
508 posts
 
I've owned several models of Magnepans over the years and I agree wth your observation that current/power requirements for Magnepans have been overstated.
My amp of choice was Bryston,natural synergy between the products.Also,paired a Cary V-12 with 1.6's at 50 wpc in triode which produced abundant bass and delivered a realistic performance.
I'm not so sure about Class D,I believe the technology is not yet fully evolved,but that's just my opinion.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,793 posts
 
IME 100 watts is plenty for the 1.7. Since its a 4 ohm load, that means to make 100 watts the amp has to make 5 amps.

That's a far cry from 40 amps... in the case that you mentioned, the 40 amp spec has nothing to do with amplifier power. Instead, it is the amount of current available if you short the power supply for 10 milliseconds. IOW, its a measure of the power supply capacity.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,179 posts
 
My experience has been they do like power in order to go loud and strong but higher power SS amps with lower current delivery capabilities and tube amps in particular work just fine, unlike as may be the case with many similarly inefficient dynamic designs.
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