Why do Maggies need a lot of power?


It has been genearally accepted that Maggies (i.e. 1.6s) needs a lot of power. Why?

Mathematically, any 86dB speaker should need only 64W of power to reach optimum listening level (104 dB). Why it's not the case for Maggies? One may say that b/c it has only 4 ohm, but there are tons of low sensibility 4 ohm speakers in the market and they do not seem to have any problems like Maggies. Again, one may say that they need current. I think most of the amp is cappable of 20 Amp and wonder if that 's still not enough? If so how much current are we talking about?

I have seen a few recommendation and review of low power amp to drive maggies (i.e. Cary Rocket amp (40W), or Bel 1001 (50W) and a few more class A amp with range around 50W) sucessfully.

For the one who recommend the high power amp (>200W), how lound do you listen to them? I can't imagine myself sitting next to the speakers that have 200W of power fed into them. It muust be awfully loud to me. On the other hand are we talking about reserve power (head room) that Maggie may need at a cirtain time, not the entire period?

Has anyone really been happy with the low power amp with Maggies, either SS or Tube?

Thanks a lot for the thoughts,

Ake
ake

Showing 2 responses by ake

when we say that the maggies open up and bass extend at high power, how loud are we talking about, over 100 dB at 1 meter?

Ake
Actually I tend to listen to average level. I barely listen to anything at 100dB and over (average level). It's just too loud for me to listen comfortably for a long session (I think I still need good ears for quite some time before I don't need them any more :)

So for average listening level (How many dB?) can maggies benefit from high power amp (aside from what Zaikesman mentioned about better bass and Sean's about the headroom?

Thanks a lot for the input.

Ake