Disconnect the woofer

All that's why I replaced my modded Dahlquist DQ-LP1, with a modded TacT RCS 2.2X, after 23 years. It was Linkwitz's writings, in the early eighties, that got me started bi-amping at home. I'd been doing it for years before that, in live venues, but his articles inspired listening room experimentation, and the first LS3/5A's that I built.

Sorry to get back so late. The speakers are Mag 20.1 and I disconnected the woofer by not hooking the wire from the crossover to the woofer inputs on the panels. I am using open baffle subs for 110 Hz and lower and it sounds great. I split the signal from my preamp. One leg to my amp and then to the Mags and the other to a Velodyne SMS1 and then to another amp where the output signal has low pass of 110 Hz at an 18 db/oct filter. This is what Magnepan recommends as a frequency and slope if I choose to bi-amp. As to why I did this, is because the Mag woofer is the worst part of the speaker. The mids and highs are glorious, but the woofer is not very dynamic and need tons of power. WTH, who needs that? This is just an experiment though, but I must admit, it does sound good. Thanks for all the feedback.

The 20.1 crossover is jumpered, and as long as you are removing the LF signal from the input, via an active x-over(with jumpers removed); you shouldn't have any issues. I'm, using a modded TacT 2.2X to actively bi-amp my Maggies, with tubes above 250Hz/SS below w/a 10th order slope and transmission line woofers. Open baffled woofs would(of course) be accurate/fast enough to seamlessly blend with planars also, if driven with amp that can control them, and avoid excessive overhang(amp and woofer have to trace the signal faithfully). An interesting balancing act.

Koestner -- Since the Maggies are designed for both bi-wiring and bi-amping, and you are using their passive crossover to feed the mid/high frequency section, why didn't you just disconnect the low frequency section by removing the jumper from the low frequency crossover input?

Rodman99999: The 20.1 crossover is jumpered, and as long as you are removing the LF signal from the input, via an active x-over(with jumpers removed); you shouldn't have any issues.

It sounds like he is not doing that. He is supplying a full-range signal to the Maggies, which goes through the speaker's passive crossover to the high frequency panels. And he's using an electronic (active) equalizer to provide a low-pass function for the signal which is applied to the separate open baffle subs. I suppose that's within reason, if not ideal.

Regards,
-- Al

I am not familiar with other Maggie crossovers, but the MG1.6 crossover, while simple in concept, has features which many external low level X/O lack. High pass is a simple 6dB filter. Low pass is 12 dB. The break frequencies are not the same, and the highs are connected out of phase. Evidently Magnepan has designed its crossover to accomodate characteristics of the unique drivers. I would have to think twice before biamping a MG1.6. Rather, I rebuilt the passive X/O using high quality parts.