found a speaker to use all those mcintosh mc-2100 watts

[zobsky]

a guy a couple of miles from me posted on audiogon an ad for a pair of magnepan mg-1 improved (from the mid 80's).

.. not like i needed another pair of monster speakers in the apartment, but i had some cash over from the recent sale of some audio equipment, so ....

paid $220 for these, .. all 5 ft x 2 of them, .. they had the tweeters fixed in the late 80's so hopefully i shouldn't have to worry. the panels seem fine too under heavy load . considering what planars of this size cost nowadays, ... i would think the price is about right.

initial impresions are good, .. the mcintosh driven off the output of my CD player (built in volume control) has no problem driving them (82dB efficient). ... no hint of strain whatsoever. still using el-junko interconnects and speaker wire but that will do till i set them up properly. even as they are, .. typical transparant sound of planars mated to the solid mac sound.

funy thing, .. but the guy who sold them to me was using a $6000 class-A theta drednaught amp, .. and the 2100 sounded nearly as good as that, IMHO.

only caveat with these speakers is the treble allegedly rolls off after 16KHz, .. which probably affects a little bit the "airyness" of the speaker. bass is ample down to somewhere in the 40Hz region, .. no sub required unless listening to heavy metal, rap etc , .. i have the paradigms for that anyway.

tweaks in due course, .. bypassing the fuse, .. maybe upgrading the crossover caps, spiking the feet, .. but that;s an item for the speaker thread.


coming up in due course, ... shootout between the mc-2100 (105WPC) , marantz 170DC (85 WPC) and my pilot 903 (10 WPC tube ) on this setup.

....
bottom line, .. any one still debating whether mcintosh does well with planars / electrostatics, .. you owe yourself to check it out.


:uzi:

[grumpy]

I am jealous. Very cool speakers :thmbsp:

[Brian]

A word of caution with Maggies. It is one speaker you don;t want to eliminate the fuse from. These speakers can do some nasty meltdowns. The fuse is the final line of defence for these. The 2100/2105 does wonderfully with maggies. THe speakers themselves present an easy load. The distortion from them is on par with a good electrostatic which is magnatudes less than dynamic drivers have.

[ronflugelguy]

Yep, I always had extra fuses around when i had my Magnaplaners. They eat fuses!!!!!!!!

[zobsky]

Originally posted by Brian
A word of caution with Maggies. It is one speaker you don;t want to eliminate the fuse from. These speakers can do some nasty meltdowns. The fuse is the final line of defence for these. The 2100/2105 does wonderfully with maggies. THe speakers themselves present an easy load. The distortion from them is on par with a good electrostatic which is magnatudes less than dynamic drivers have.

thanks for the tip, Brian.

yup, I'm aware of the importance of the fuse in this speaker, .. it's just that i'm intrigued about all the claims of the folks at the maggie user group at audioasylum about this being one of the weakest links in this speaker.

in any case, i usually don't drive my speakers hard and the fuse bypass will (hopefully) just be a test to verify others claim. i plan to keep the fuses in during normal operation

[shrinkboy]

hey, zob-

i don't remember nothin' about no mcintosh when i was over that day. or, were they hiding, or had you not gotten them yet?

nice job on the planars. i have a friend of mine who wants to sell me the same set of speaks for $500 (cringe!)

shrinkboy

[WhiteSE]

THere is an audio store here in Atlanta that has a pair for 275 bucks,,,,I would use them, but I dont listen sitting in the sweetspot most most of the time, so no use for me...

[zobsky]

Originally posted by shrinkboy
hey, zob-

i don't remember nothin' about no mcintosh when i was over that day. or, were they hiding, or had you not gotten them yet?

nice job on the planars. i have a friend of mine who wants to sell me the same set of speaks for $500 (cringe!)

shrinkboy


the mcintosh was hiding at the bottom of the rack holding the tube amps which we were listening to that day. it was not operable at the time as a couple of caps and transistors on the boards were being replaced. it really has seen better days cosmetically, but has been restored electronically

[mhardy6647]

The notoriously power-hungry Maggies would seem to be a good match for an MC-2100.

I wouldn't hold much hope for the 10wpc Pilot and your speakers :-(, although in fairness I use a pair of the almost-equally notoriously inefficient AR-3's with a ca. 14 wpc EL84PP Magnavox "hi-fi console" amp and I am pleased with the combination.

Anything's worth trying...

[zobsky]

tried this yesterday

Round 1

Pilot 903, 10WPC 6v6GT push pull
vs
Mcintosh 2100 105WPC SS

the pilots actually didn't do bad, .. except that the highs were a bit overemphaszed and the bass was just not there,

the mcintosh 2100 had odles more bass, .. and that relaxed mac sound.

winner: mc2100 by TKO


PS. I also tried the 85WPC marantz 170DC vs. the mac, .. much closer match in terms of sonics, .. I'll have to listen more critically to discern any differences

i'll post with observations

[jt1stcav]

My Magnepan MGLR1 planars mated nicely with my then newly purchased MC7200 power amp (300 WPC @ 4 ohms; no autoformers); this was a very sweet sounding combination indeed! The Maggies had an airy quality all around them...they simply disappeared from view when your favorite music is playing, and the Mac brought out this depth and detail from my classical, organ, and accoustic jazz/blues tunes like no other amplifier I've ever owned (from 3 different Carver models, an SAE, and from a Technics integrated). I did blow 3 pairs of fuses on my Maggies from near-live concert level settings, so you do need to be cautious! I'd rather the fuses blow than to fry the ribbon tweeters though!

Enjoy!;)

[WhiteSE]

Why did you choose at that time the 7200 which doesnt have the autoformers,,any reason in particular?

[jt1stcav]

You've been PM'ed...

No reason in particular. I came across this Mac at a great deal on AudiogoN that I just couldn't pass up. To my untrained ears, the Macs without autoformers sound just as spectacular as the ones with autoformers. The MC7200 blew away every previous SS amp I ever owned beforehand, so that was it for me! I'd love to own a tubed Mac amp someday, but it might not happen for quite some time yet.

[zobsky]

Originally posted by jt1stcav
You've been PM'ed...

No reason in particular. I came across this Mac at a great deal on AudiogoN that I just couldn't pass up. To my untrained ears, the Macs without autoformers sound just as spectacular as the ones with autoformers.

specifically, wrt the old autoformer-based 2100, .. could you offer a comparison?

BTW, continuing on my last post .. if i were to split hairs, i think that my marantz 170DC has a bit stronger lower end and a slightly cleaner character than the MC2100 on the maggies but the mc2100 seems more comfortable driving them at higher volumes. ...

thanks

[aninja]

I'm using my MC2100 to power my MGIIIa'a. There is no problem with volume. I'm very satisfied that this is my best combo yet. My other speakers used over the past 2 years are;

Klipsch Forte II
Klipsch Quartet
Dunlavy SC-1's
KEF C140's
Magnepan SMGa's
Theil CS1.2's

The big Maggies are "by far" the most impressive. Thanks for the post. I've used the 2100 with my C36 and C28 Mcintosh preamplifiers.

[DanTana]

Damn....some of you guys look like you have more audio equipment than what my house costs :)