Is 1000 wpc too much for Maggie 1.6qr's?

candyliquor35m

Right now I'm running just one 375 wpc carver and on some albums I have to move the volume to 12 o'clock and would even like to go a little louder. I have another identical carver that I could add and go mono at 1000 wpc but I'm wondering if a step up unit would suit my needs better?

I can tell the maggies are a little power hungry because they make the lights on the carver dim with the beat of the music and Polks never did that.

But being that I have the carver already should I try it first?

My tt is a techniques sl-1800 and at440mla cartridge.

Bill Ayotte

Which amps are they? I know that most Carver amps don't like to run bridged at 4 ohms, and the Maggies are 4 ohms right? I guess there is a heat issue....F1NUT has more knowledge about this than I do, but I didn't want you to ruin a pair of amps in the process....Those are expensive fix....

strider

There was a post at Carveraudio.com regarding running (I think) M500's bridged. Let me see if I can dig it up....


Nevermind, it was regarding running a set of 6 ohm speakers with 2 M500's bridged. Didn't seem to come to a solid conclusion, either.

engtaz

What amps are a 1000 watts mono?

engtaz

AndyGwis

I think Carver TFM-45s and Carver M4.0ts are both around that mark.

dkg999

Hmmmm, I have a Parasound HCA-1500 running each Maggie 1.6QR, and they can go as loud as I'm comfortable with, without even breaking a sweat! I think the 1.6's tend to dip down below 4 ohms pretty often from what I have read, so maybe that's the problem?

Bill Ayotte

Yeah, the carver's aren't rated for 4 ohm mono use.......At least none of the one's whose manuals I have.....

candyliquor35m

Good points. I didn't think about the ohm issue. They are a tfm45 and 42, sonically the same amp but one has meters and the other has leds.

Playing cds are not a problem but when I play albums which is mostly what I'm using this system for right now is when I have to turn the volume to 12 o'clock and only on some albums that I'm rocking out to or that have been recorded or mixed differently.

dkg999

Can you use a higher gain phono stage to correct the problem?

candyliquor35m

dkg999 wrote: »

Can you use a higher gain phono stage to correct the problem?

That's what I'm hoping to find out. I don't think my Carver pre- (CT-24) has any adjustments available.

candyliquor35m

I thought my tfm-45's owner manual had a warning about running bridged mono with speakers of less than 8 ohms but I don't see it.

Loudspeaker Load Impedance

The TFM-42/45 is recommended for driving loudspeaker impedances between 4 and 16 ohms. Loads in excess of 16 ohms will cause a reduction in output power. Sustained loads of much less than 4 ohms may cause premature tripping of protection circuits or cause the fuse to blow.

Specifications

Power: 375 watts RMS per channel in 8 ohms both channels driven.
500 watts RMS per channel into 4 ohms both channels driven.
1000 watts RMS mono output into 8 ohm load.

TroyD

Try a higher output cartridge. I'm pretty certain your problem is lack of gain in your phono stage.

They don't like a 4ohm load when bridged, just be careful.

I had a similar issue with a previous TT/Cart.

The TFM 45/42/4.0 bridge to 1000wpc.

BDT

candyliquor35m

TroyD wrote: »

Try a higher output cartridge. I'm pretty certain your problem is lack of gain in your phono stage.

They don't like a 4ohm load when bridged, just be careful.

I had a similar issue with a previous TT/Cart.

The TFM 45/42/4.0 bridge to 1000wpc.

BDT

That's what I'm reading on carveraudio.com

"Yes, if you're running elctrostatics, you are probably better off not running ANY of the Carver stereo amps in bridged mono mode, at least that seems to be the consensus here.

I used to have a pair of Silver 7ts driving my Martin Logan Sequels, and they sounded FANTASTIC. It was quite an upgrade frommy original amp, a Carver M-200t (which just COULD NOT keep up with the low ohm load of the MLs...)

I'v never run a Carver stereo amp brided into the Sequels, but I've been considering it, despite what many here seem to say. Carver demonstrated their own ALS speakers at a CES using a pair of M-500t's bridged mono, and those amps are nowehre near as robust as a pair of M-4.0t's or TFM-45s. If they ca do it with that speaker (which is also notorious for presenting a difficult load) then I can't see why ML's would be any problem.

Of course there are always the Carver "pro" models, which are actually designed to run optimally into 4 ohms, so they should hold up pretty well into 2-ohms and other low-ohm loads that ESLs present...

Hopefully, I can get a pair of such amps soon, and get th MLs set up. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it sounds, and if the Carvrs start smoking."

TroyD

The Silver 7/9t's are different than a bridged TFM amp....

It's not that a bridged amp WON'T work, it's just not designed to. Speaker impedance varies across the range...so it's a moving target.

My experience with it was the extra power made no difference in sound so why take the risk of damaging gear? YMMV though.

BDT

dorokusai

It would be a waste of an amplifier and hopefully it would blow them up.

You'd never see 1000wpc in your lifetime on a Magnepan 1.6, as they don't pull bass transients that hard.

reeltrouble1

The 45's will work bridged with your speakers, however, I suspect you will hear them run out of power and start to sound bad, as in clipping at the gain you appear to want. This is nothing but the same old watts being the magic number, its simply not the case,never has been, never will be, think power. As you said Carver made mono block amps with this issue in mind, stable to two ohms.

The suggestion for a higher output cartridge is excellent. Any chance the phono-pre can be adjusted for higher/lower output cartridges. The cartridge may not be able to give you what you are looking for.

I use "pro" amps with a number of guys for live music, I just do not see them as part of a high-fi home system, just too noisy.

RT1

jdhdiggs

It's got to be a gain issue on the phono pathway that's causing the issue. Lights shouldn't be dimming or anything.

1.6QR's aren't THAT needy that you should pulling brown out conditions. I'll run the counterpoint (170w), knights(35W), and adcoms (450W) at the same time to the highs, mids, and lows and have never come close to a brown out. Why:

The maggies won't even take 1000W. You'll blow the fuses on them at a sustained 100W. If you have bypassed the fuses, you'll blow the wiring at about 200-250W sustained. My guess would be the most a set of maggies can take in a peak would be in the 500W range.

As you can tell, I really REALLY think that your issue isn't enough power.

candyliquor35m

Based on everyone's comments, I agree it's a phono gain issue. I can live with it the way it is but just wanted to explore the possibilities.

Thanks.

dorokusai wrote: »

It would be a waste of an amplifier and hopefully it would blow them up.

roflol