how much power do you need two drive magnpan1.6s

The 'hi current' thing with Maggies may be somewhat of a 'red herring'...........And I have been an owner for 25 years..starting with MG-1s...driven by a 60/side Kenwood KA-7100! I currently own 1.6s
The reason I say that is that the Maggie has a 4-amp fuse on the mid-tweeter. 4amps at even 70volts (a lot) is still 'only' 280 watts....I'll admit to nearly 2x that when adding the low frequency part of the panel.
Given a fuses response time,(pretty quick) I'd be hard pressed to justify an amp with a (claimed) 'instant' current capacity of say 40 or 50 amps. My ICE power of 250x2 at 4 ohms seems way more than enough juice, and I suspect a wattmeter will show my average use as low as a total of less than 20 watts, with an empty house and nobody to annoy with loud music.
That being said, Magnepan uses Bryston for there demos.
A 3b or 4b (SST is latest) should do the trick.

Good experiment with some measures.
Now that I think about it....a speaker with a hi-powered amp can see 2x the voltage I mentioned....an amp typically has 2 power rails....plus / minus so the difference between the rails is what the speaker sees.
My International Rectifier class 'd' (for play) has 2 rails with a max of +/- 55v.

What happened to P=IE? By this method.....the max current to the panel (fuse limited to 4 amps, 600hz and up) is as I wrote in my last post.

My Formula, and yours are both correct...My assumptions couldn't be right.

http://www.the12volt.com/ohm/ohmslaw.asp

So I suspect I made a bad assumption of voltage to the panel.
Fact is, the darn thing has a 4 amp fuse which sets an upper limit on amp current, No? If the panel can sustain double the fuses rating and as know, is pretty flat at 4ohms....with a nasty peak at the 600hz x-over, that should set an upper limit to power. The Panel maxes out at about 18 ohms at 600hz and over 6 ohms from 200 to 2000 hz.

Other than a math problem, What is the problem with the rest of my post?

Also, now that I look at an impedence / phase chart of the 1.6, I realize that even for this speaker (fairly benign), the problem is pretty complicated. If you take the 18ohm at 600hz, and ASSUME a max of 5 amps at that frequency, that is Isq=25 x 18ohms = 450 watts at 600hz. Even 7 amps yields 'only' 882 watts....clearly a deal breaker at that frequency. it gets weird when considering music.

http://stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/595/index6.html

If I had the time/tools ( I am immediately sending away for a Kill-A-Watt.....<20$@newegg) I will measure the entire power needed by my fairly efficient GCC250......than use some kind of fudge factor to determine power to the speaker.
The neighbors have aloud treat instore for them.....!

Thanks, Eldartford for making me rethink this. My conclusion, however, remains the same. It is very likely that Hi-Current is a Magnepan red-herring, given the limits imposed by the fuse and physics....

Eldartford, is this a test? Sorry, but as near as I can determine, a fuse can be used at any voltage below its rating.
In the 'hydraulic' model, volts is pressure and amps is a quantity....somewhat independent.
If your contention were true, the fuse would provide little or no protection, since you could somehow devise an amplifier which would output very low voltage @ very hi current, and still be within your definition of a fuses ratings.
A fuse doesn't dissipate 'watts'...

My bad with my first post was poor choice of numbers.
I still maintain that hi-current to maggies is somewhat of a red-herring.
Please design a scenario where a maggie can receive say...20 amps at whatever voltage you choose. Than, find me an amp that produces such and not 'pop' the fuse.
Also, with the voltage rails at +- a (given) voltage, this represents the maximum voltage the speakers can see. The absolute value of +-50 volts is 100v Without Sign. (absolute value definition)
The only thing left to argue about is 'how large a spike a fuse can take over what time period'
http://www.circuitprotection.ca/fuseology.html#Top
Link has useful chart and definitions. Go to the bottom of the page and look at 'Voltage Ratings'...that a 250v fuse can safely be used in a 125v circuit negates your arguement.

So, what is the bottom line? Are Maggies 'current hogs' or not? Doesn't seem that no matter how the numbers are tortured that you can get more than 6 or 7 amps thru them, adding 4amp mid/tweet and 3 or 4 for the low freq. Based on math we have already agreed to....E=IR gives about 50 volts. I am using 6ohms....and 8 amps. (rounded up)
Than P=E2/R gives just over 400 watts....(round down of <5%)
The reason for 6 ohms, is the 18ohm peak at 600hz and the 6ohms from 200hz to 2khz, where MUCH music power resides.
The actual musical average MAY be higher...'weighted' for frequency. This would result in a higher power requirement at 'red line'.
It appears that a good amp of upper to hi end power rating is more than adequate. Choose your presentation and have fun. Rotel? sure......Mac? no problem.......Krell yep,if you have the coin.....Bryston dream on (pant pant)

One puzzle, though.
You said:: "Also, the 4 amp fuse is at 120 volts. It can yield much greater current at the lower voltage delivered to the speaker via the amplifier."

Could you please elaborate or explain? It SEEMS to say that a fuse running at lower than rated voltage can pass more current...???

Eldartford, please check out the Stereophile review I linked a few posts back. The Maggie is INDEED quite flat at just over 4 ohms. Only fly in the ointment is the 18ohm peak at the 600hz x-over and the fact that it is 6ohms or better from 200hz to 2khz. This is, of course, a very important area for music where much of the energy resides. Phase angles are also highest in and near this range. Let's not go into that! We are dealing primarily with good quality amps here and these numbers should present no problem to the grade of amp a Maggie owner would typically buy.....agreed?

Agreed about fuse and ratings and actual capacity. This is addressed in the other link I provided. There is a 3rd catagory of fuse....a Really fast blow. This element has slightly higher resistence that the std fuse, but I know nothing past that. Maybe for use in very critical applications and 'delicate' circuits?
The fact that a fuse is not a 'brick wall' device probably means 2x power, short term or 3db. And, since R (impedence, in this case) is 'fixed', it's gotta come out of the IE part of the equation...You can only get so much voltage from an amp, limited by the PS, so amps it is!

No wonder my electric bill has skyrocketed.

I threw a dart and chose 6 ohms. YMMV, of course.
I believe you were on to something a few posts ago. MEASURE is the way to figure this out. Since music is very complex, there are no easy answers. A string quartet and pipe organ played at a similar spl should have drastically different power requirements....

But, for Pete's sake, how loud do you want it? I must be getting old, but I give up somewhere south of NoseBleed!

Please post some more measures.............

Eldartford, what upgrade parts did you use? The stock Solons are reasonably well recieved for a total of 25$ worth of caps for the pair. How much do you have to spend for Better?
Also, I have looked up AirCore inductor calculators and it seems to duplicate the stock .4ohm, you need 13ga wire.....
what exactly did you do, or did you purchase pre-wounds?

The Maggie X-over is pretty neat and simple.
The Hi-Pass is a simple 2nd order/6db/octave while the Lo-pass is a 3rd order....and is phase inverted to the tweeter!

I know nothing, not even enough to fake-it about external x-overs. If anyone has any luck....and I have seen some on the MagnePan Users Group pages, that would be deluxe.
The MUG site is a wealth of real info from a real bunch of addicts. The person also known as Peter Gun does some amazing things...including mounding the panels backwards, designing complete frames and extensive x-over mods.
Well worth a viewing.
I couldn't pass the physical.
Good listening.....................
Remember::
Too much is NEVER enough.