Macintosh and Magnepan speakers, not a good combo?

geturdone

Active Member
I have read several places that Magnepan speakers do not match up well with Mcintosh amps. I was wondering the technical reasons for this.

I bought some MMGs a month ago and have been driving them with a Mcintosh MC 2500. The speakers are fantastic for all the reasons everyone knows. Maybe a bit bright in my listening room (windows and hardwood flooring) and I miss "feeling" the deepest bass but the pros overcome these cons.

Just for shits and grins I hooked up a vastly lower power amp, a Nakamichi PA-5 (100wpc vs 500wpc in the Mac) and.........

the Nak seems to be more involved and slightly clearer sounding. At this point I'm not sure if it sounds better but there is a definent difference.

Any thoughts on this?
 
I have no idea, but I am very intrigued with the MMGs and wonder what my itty bitty MC225 would sound like through them.
 
I bought MMGs and ran them for three days through an Mc2300, Mc2200, Mc2505, etc. I could not stand how touchy they were with room placement, gettting the 'sweet spot', etc and boxed them up and sold them on Audiogon the first day. I don't like Magnepans, and I don't think I ever will. See the thread on Magnepan MMGs on the Speakers forum where I got something like 40 responses on my thread. I don't think it's as much a mating issue between the Mc amp and Magnepan, but a personal preference for the speakers overall. I will never own them again. They sounded thin and goofy to me.
 
If I had the room to run them I would go with a pair of 3,7Rs and find an MC500 to drive them with. One of the absolute best sounding systems I've had the opportunity to audition. Am sure the MC452 would also do the 3.7Rs justice.
 
"I have read several places that Magnepan speakers do not match up well with Mcintosh amps. I was wondering the technical reasons for this."

There is no technical reason, just misinformation. Some people will like the pairing, some won't.

Over the years I have used MC1000's, MC500, MC2000, even the older 2205 and 2255 Mac amps with my Maggie 3.6's with excellent results.

Coincidently, during that time, I came across a Nak PA7 (and 7II) and know what you mean. Very inviting sound, actually wicked good considering how cheap they were. What's better, Mac or Nak? Your call with your ears.

As an experiment, try the 2 ohm taps on your 2500. I know the Maggies are 4 ohm with no severe dips but try it anyway and report back your findings. You won't hurt your amp at all.
 
For some reason Maggies seem to prefer amps with high current capabilities. The versions that are all ribbon seem to get along with a Mac amp. Others that are combos with electrostatic panels and weird impedances don't like Mac amps unless they can drive below 1 ohm. Thats one reason Mac upgraded their designs after the 7000 series to handle higher current demands and wide impedance swings. I recently heard 1.7 on a Mac and then an Ayre amp, with the same output transistors, and I thought the 302 won, The salesman thought other wise.
 
mmg

I have no idea, but I am very intrigued with the MMGs and wonder what my itty bitty MC225 would sound like through them.

The Magnepans are not very efficient so the Mc-225 will not be enough power to drive them. Also the 225 is a little loose on the bottom end

From my experience Magnepan always seemed to sound best with Audio research or Lamm gear.
 
I bought MMGs and ran them for three days through an Mc2300, Mc2200, Mc2505, etc. I could not stand how touchy they were with room placement, gettting the 'sweet spot', etc and boxed them up and sold them on Audiogon the first day. I don't like Magnepans, and I don't think I ever will. See the thread on Magnepan MMGs on the Speakers forum where I got something like 40 responses on my thread. I don't think it's as much a mating issue between the Mc amp and Magnepan, but a personal preference for the speakers overall. I will never own them again. They sounded thin and goofy to me.

Right there with you, Count. Thin and goofy was my take as well, up to the 20.1 which I thought were great (but should be at $12,000). Then again, I'm not a Mc fan so they're the perfect mate for me- together, somewhere else.
 
The Magnepans are not very efficient so the Mc-225 will not be enough power to drive them. Also the 225 is a little loose on the bottom end

From my experience Magnepan always seemed to sound best with Audio research or Lamm gear.

While I agree that Maggies tend to need power, this is more an issue with room size and how loud the system is run - a personal sort of thing.

I disagree with the contention that an MC-225 is loose on the bottom end. A fully restored version, of which I have 2, does quite nicely. As I write this, I have 2 sets of Magnepans MG-I's and MG-2's I am rebuilding. I will be interested to see if how well they can be run in my 1-car garage/man-cave sized room.

I had a pair of Maggie 1.6Qrs that ran quite nicely with the '225 in the living room but I never attempted to get them up to typical rock music levels - that was my life back in the 70s and the ears just can't take it like they used to.

Agreed, however, that big, strong amps do help them get going when called for.

Cheers,

David
 
My signature will probably say it all.

If you want heavy thump, don't get maggies. If you want unbelievable transparent mids and highs, then you'll love maggies. And yes, changing the room placement can dramatically change the sound. The MMGs I find need to be closer to the wall (~3ft) than the 2.6Rs (about 6 ft). Of course, the room determines this mostly. I can say that my local maggie dealer with 3.7s has them in a less than ideal spot. They sound to me like my 2.6Rs when they're too close to a wall and just don't sound right. Maggies do tend to dictate the room.

All that said, they sound better with the Mc amps I have than others, but the Mc amps are probably much better than the rest of the stuff I have.
 
See, mixed reviews again here on amp/speaker combos. I wanted something different/aesthetically pleasing/good for mids and vocals for my 225 in a second system. Maybe I should stick to a single driver speaker (like Cain Abby) or ...
 
See, mixed reviews again here on amp/speaker combos. I wanted something different/aesthetically pleasing/good for mids and vocals for my 225 in a second system. Maybe I should stick to a single driver speaker (like Cain Abby) or ...

Mixed reviews??? Always have been, always will be.

Ask opinions about fire and you'll get....(a little morning humor).
Fire good (Dr. Frankenstein and many others).
Fire bad (Frankenstein's monster and many others).

Both opinions are right and wrong. Right if you sit next to a fire on a cold night or want to cook something, wrong if you stick your hand in it or your house is on "it".

A little more serious and pertaining to you......

Your 225 "will" work with the MMG's, and work quite nicely, if you listen to music at somewhat moderate levels.
Your 225 "won't" work so well if you like to pound your eardrums.

My personal experience:

I have Maggie 3.6's and have heard a 100 wpc amp take a dump trying to drive them.

I have a 10 wpc SET amp that made magic with them and this was at above your quiet background music levels.

The 100 watt amp was underbuilt, the 10 watt was overbuilt.

Your 225 is overbuilt (good). The Maggies have a pretty flat 4 ohm impedance (tube amps like flat). Your 225 has 4 ohm taps (great). Maggies are a low 80's db eff speaker (non issue if you don't pound, big issue if you pound).

A fact: The sound level of a line source (like the Maggies) will be louder at the listening position than a point source with the same specs. Some say as much as 6 db. That kind of makes them comparable to a 90 db "normal" speaker.

The 225 is my favorite Mac tube amp, just a really sweet sound. You mentioned the Cain Abby's. I owned them (Super Abby) for a few years. My first exposure to them was with MC30's driving them. I ended up using SET's on them. They will give you something special with the "single driver/no x/o" coherency and 95 db eff. It would be a tough choice for me.... probably the 225/MMG. If Magnepan still has the 60 day trial for the MMG's, I'd recommend giving them a try.

Sorry for the long post. I was leaving and coming back. Wanted to end it but thought someone doing a related search might benefit from reading it. Good luck.
 
Another thing to add is that the differences you heard, are differences that those two amps would probably exhibit to a greater or lesser degree on any speakers, Magnepans or otherwise. Mc and Nakamichi sound different.
 
Give the Mc-225 a try cant hurt anything. I own two of them and agree they have some of the sweetest mids and highs compared any tube amp. But with the maggies they will run out of power if you want to listen at better than average listening levels.
 
Onemug-

Thank you for your detailed answer! Obviously, there will be varying opinions on if something is a great combo or not, but I don't have the opportunity to try all the combos I want to in my house. I'll consider the Maggies some more and try to hear some single driver speakers. I have some Bozaks, but wanted something with a smaller footprint.
 
Bought my MMG's from another AK'er and he demo'ed them with a Mac though the model escapes me. It took me about 2 minutes listening to his combo for me to know I liked the MMG's.
 
The dealers that I know who sell McIntosh and Maggies partner the two together. As far as power, current and so on McIntosh has the most so it should sound the best.
The only technical reason to say it is not a match is someone wants to sell you another brand of amplifier.

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
The dealers that I know who sell McIntosh and Maggies partner the two together. As far as power, current and so on McIntosh has the most so it should sound the best.
The only technical reason to say it is not a match is someone wants to sell you another brand of amplifier.

Thanks,
Ron-C


I agree 100%
 

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In regards to the MMG when using Mac prodcuts, the main thing to emphasize is the type of sound you want to hear or what your ears are perciving. We sell Magnepans and McIntosh and from our experiences in there entire line up, the MMG for size of what they are, they are definitely not a bottom low bass response of a speaker, that I agree with. The transparency of the highs and midrange especially for a 800.00 price point is one of the best soundstages you will ever hear. They tend to be a very warm type of a sound where it emphasizes the natural warmth of the midrange and higher frequencies but also to emphasize depth and width because of the dipole design. Tube amplifiers love these speakers is because tubes tend to produce a warm type of sound, most of the McIntosh amplifiers are designed that way to give more of a warmer sound but also being more precise. As you go higher in the Magnepan series, the soundstage gets wider and you get to hear more of the bottom end of the midrange with slight upper bass but with more accuarcy. Even using solid state amplifers like Ayre or Musical Fidelity, all can sound clear and precise, in the end some components will be more directional of the sound or it will be towards the front where it hits you more on the front end than in the back end. Let me know what you think, we demonstrate Magnepans to customers almost on a daily basis where I work and we pretty much get the same consistent answers when it comes to there sound.
 
Here is my experience,
I started to upgrade my system of 30 years about 2 years ago, I started with a C32 pre amp, MC2200 amp, and a set of Dahlquist DQ10's.

I wont go through all the steps but I now have a C2200 pre amp,a MPV 871, a set of 20.1's, Velodyne DD15 subwoofer and a Sanders Sound Magtec amp for power.

I had a set of 3.3's and a MC352 for power at the levels I like to listen to (loud) and having a big room 24x40 The 352 was not enough power, I would blow tweeter fuses due to clipping and the 352 one time went into thermo shut down due to getting too hot. I liked the sound, just not enough power. Everthing I read said that an amp thar doubles in power @4ohms is better with Maggies.

I went to Brystons a pair of 7bst,s 800w@4ohms and they seemed to safely drive the 3.3's nicely, but had a somewhat harsher sound. I had a C42 pre amp and went with a C2200 tube pre amp and got the warm sound back. Going to the 20.1's the Sanders amp also made a nice improvement.

With all that said with the MMG's and an average size room the Mc amp should have no problem.
 
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