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Can a Magnepan 1.6 be BI AMPED?

Was wondering if anyone who owns the Mag 1.6 speakers knows if the speaker can be BI AMPEDped? I know it can be bi wired, but looking at the rear connection panel has me wondering if both terminals arent hard wired to the top terminal, allowing the two lower terminals to touch internally causing possible issues with bi amping.

Please dont respond the following receiver wont drive them, because I fully know it will. My concern is ONLY on bi amping on the speaker end. Ive bi amped so seriously hard to drive speakers and the Onkyo is more then up to the task. Specially considering I will be crossing the 1.6 over to ease the demands, and I only prefer a sub to do the grunt work. But for reference sake, here is my intentions with the Onkyo:

Im using a Onkyo nr906 right now on a pair off mmg's set to 4ohm, and they sound fantastic with a sub crossed over at 80hz. I have the ability to use the rear channels from the Onkyo in a bi amp configuration to drive a pair of 1.6's in bi amp config in a dual 4 ohm load. Should be 200 watts aprox to top and 200 watts aprox to bottom, and allow me to use the full potential of the nr906 if bi amping works in this speaker.

Thanks to anyone that has knowledge of if the 1.6 accepts bi amp config or just bi wire(which if they in fact touch internally to the top terminal, isnt worth bi wiring anyway, as its one big loop either way).
sthomas12321
hifitime
715 posts
 
I forgot to say,you could see they got a higher output at 4 ohms,but they only did two channels.Driving more channels into
4ohms might kick in the protection like the manual says in a round about way over long periods of time.The Maggies don't tell you when you split them if the highs are 8 ohms,and the lows are 8 ohms.They may be a little different than 8 ohms each half,but still look like they combine to 4 ohms.They wouldn't be 4 ohms each half,(that would make them 2 ohm speakers).
almarg's avatar
almarg
8,673 posts
 
The more channels you drive,the less power is typical.8 ohms is the standard for home theater receivers and systems.That is why a lot of them have a external or internal switch for 4 ohms.A lot of them put a 4 ohm resister in series in the 4 ohm setting.
Wow, that really s**ks!!
The Maggies don't tell you when you split them if the highs are 8 ohms,and the lows are 8 ohms.They may be a little different than 8 ohms each half,but still look like they combine to 4 ohms.They wouldn't be 4 ohms each half,(that would make them 2 ohm speakers).
I don't think that is true, and ElDartford's earlier comment about each section being 4 ohms is correct. Consider the non-biwired, non-biamped situation. At low frequencies, the speaker's crossover causes the high frequency section of the speaker to essentially not be seen by the amplifier (i.e., to be a very high impedance). At high frequencies, the speaker's crossover causes the low frequency section of the speaker to essentially not be seen by the amplifier (i.e., to be a very high impedance). So at any given frequency (apart from the crossover region) the amplifier sees the impedance of only one section of the speaker, not both sections in parallel.

Figure 1 of Stereophile's measurements of the MG1.6/QR shows its impedance characteristics. 4 ohms at low frequencies, 4 ohms at high frequencies, and a rise to over 18 ohms in the crossover region.

Regards,
-- Al
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
2,267 posts
 
Hook them up and play them. Next, start saving for better amplification and cables...they are worthy:O)
douglas_schroeder
1,824 posts
 
When I had the 1.6 I made it a point to passively, vertically biamp them. It was a nice improvement. I am not into DIY or modding speakers, so this was a way to juice the performance. On an MMG I would suspect you will hear differences, of course mainly in the quality of the mids and highs. You should detect more "air", deeper soundstage and better clarity. Not in "boatloads", but maybe in "spades".

Some state that passive biamping is of little effect, while others say it's very worthwhile. There was to my ear a very noticeable change to the speaker's performance in my experience. Having used passive speakers with external Xovers (reviewed the Legacy Audio Helix), I can see where a modded Maggie would be considered even more enhanced.

Over time I experimented with more stout amplification and bi-wiring. I found that having a more robust amp and bi-wiring can yield even better results than using lesser amps and biamping. You owe it to yourself to secure possibly an older, well respected amp with some braun (i.e. doubles down into 4 Ohms, and maybe at least 150wpc at 8 Ohms) and see what you think. My guess is that you would be very surprised at the difference in sound of such an amp bi-wired versus the four channels of a receiver. :)
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Based on my experience the only mod worth doing to the MG1.6 is to replace the internal stock iron core inductor with an air core inductor. This won't fit inside and needs to be mounted externally on the back.

I also replaced the capacitors, but this isn't worth the cost and effort.
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