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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 shubertmaniac

shubertmaniac
350 posts
 
Let me see...86db at 1 watt at 1 meter into 2.83volts at 8 ohms or 83 dB at 4ohms. What is the amp rating at 4 ohms???
So a 200/400 watt 8/4 ohms would translate into 93dB SPL with 10 watts , 20watts for 96dB which is concert level sound (not rock!!!) 200watts should give 106dB SPL, continuous, and 2000watts 116dB for dynamic swings. However ifyou sit at 2 meters or 80 inches from the speakers, then
double everything!!! 3 meters double again! This is for an average size room <3000 sf; 6000 sq. ft double it again!!!!
Of course, I do not think Maggies can go over 110dB anyway.
The Maggies are a relatively benign load being resistive rather than Electrostats which are highly reactive (combo resistive and capacitive) with wicked swings in load at different frequencies.
shubertmaniac
350 posts
 
Audiokinesis: you are correct about the line source vs point source. But then there is the tubewatt vs sswatt. I can drive my Spectral amps into a tizzy with the Accoustats and they have 225 watts and 380 watts, respectively into 4ohms. But my 100 watt ARC D-115, it keeps chugging along.
I did make a mistake, those measurements 3000/6000 are cubic feet not square feet. Has anybody heard the rumor about the new Maggie model which will be somewhere in between the 3.6 and the 20.1?????
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