Disconnect the woofer

The 20.1 crossover is jumpered, and as long as you are removing the LF signal from the input, via an active x-over(with jumpers removed); you shouldn't have any issues. I'm, using a modded TacT 2.2X to actively bi-amp my Maggies, with tubes above 250Hz/SS below w/a 10th order slope and transmission line woofers. Open baffled woofs would(of course) be accurate/fast enough to seamlessly blend with planars also, if driven with amp that can control them, and avoid excessive overhang(amp and woofer have to trace the signal faithfully). An interesting balancing act.

Koestner -- Since the Maggies are designed for both bi-wiring and bi-amping, and you are using their passive crossover to feed the mid/high frequency section, why didn't you just disconnect the low frequency section by removing the jumper from the low frequency crossover input?

Rodman99999: The 20.1 crossover is jumpered, and as long as you are removing the LF signal from the input, via an active x-over(with jumpers removed); you shouldn't have any issues.

It sounds like he is not doing that. He is supplying a full-range signal to the Maggies, which goes through the speaker's passive crossover to the high frequency panels. And he's using an electronic (active) equalizer to provide a low-pass function for the signal which is applied to the separate open baffle subs. I suppose that's within reason, if not ideal.

Regards,
-- Al

I am not familiar with other Maggie crossovers, but the MG1.6 crossover, while simple in concept, has features which many external low level X/O lack. High pass is a simple 6dB filter. Low pass is 12 dB. The break frequencies are not the same, and the highs are connected out of phase. Evidently Magnepan has designed its crossover to accomodate characteristics of the unique drivers. I would have to think twice before biamping a MG1.6. Rather, I rebuilt the passive X/O using high quality parts.

The 20.1 X-over's Hi-Pass section has 120.3uF of capacitance after the jumpers and before the signal is further split into MF/HF. If he's not removing the LF via an active x-over b4 the main amp, he's basically "passively bi-amping". Not the cleanest or best way, but it'll work.

Yes, it seems that I am passivly bi-amping the Mid/high by sending a full range signal through the maggie crossover. I did this because I did not want to mess with the best part of the speaker. I couldn't do a better job at voicing the speaker than the manufacturer could. So all I am doing is cutting off the woofer panel and actively powering the lows (<110 Hz.) through an open baffled bass module. I tried removing the jumpers and hooking to the mid/high of the external crossover but I got no sound at all this way. I don't know why.