limniscatelimniscate, i believe that you came to the conclusion you did because of the following - the Odyssey Kismet is not capable of driving your Maggie 3.7 because it just does not have the output current capability needed for this particular speaker. It was never intended to drive current hungry speakers like the Maggie 3.7 - no flaw in the Kismet amp; just an inappropriate amp-speaker match-up.
18 posts
08-08-2016 3:39pm
In my experience, the amp makes a much bigger impact than the preamp. I was using an Outlaw 975 as my DAC and pre and then switched to an Odyssey Candela and Schiit Bifrost Multibit DAC. There was a difference, but it wasn’t huge. I then "upgraded" my Odyssey Candela to an Aesthetix Calypso Signature, which is 4.6x more expensive than the Candela. I would not say that the Calypso is that much better.
However, when I upgraded my amp to a Sanders Magtech from Odyssey Kismet in Stratos monos, the difference was quite pronounced. I’m running Magnepan 3.7’s. YMMV
The Magtech OTOH is designed to drive ESL speakers + is excellent at driving planar speakers like the Maggie 3.7. The Magtech outputs 400 or 500W/ch compared to the 160W/ch for the Kismet. the Magtech is even higher current output than the Kismet - the Magtech has 10 output transistors for push current & 10 for pull current whereas the Kismet has 3 push & 3 pull, if i remember correctly.
The Maggie 3.7 are very current hungry - there is an Audioasylum member who is driving his Maggie 20.1 bass panel with a 2500W/ch class-D amplifier & he says that amplifier clips sometimes when the volume is turned up! This gives you an idea of what sort of current is required to get the best out of the larger Maggies. Not exactly the same speakers as yours but quite similar.
Now that you have the Magtech in there try swapping preamps to see if you can hear a bigger difference.....