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Active bi-amping 2ch and Multi-ch Maggies

This report, dear friends, tells of a journey started six months ago sustained by a passion many of us have in common. Words often betray thought, but it seems to me that written words betray it even more. Here I will make an effort, not only of sincerity, but of precision too. If it was a troubled journey which luckly ended well, I hope it will be less of a trouble to explain it.

Love for music begun many years ago as a way to know the world, to travel through human being's soul. I enjoyed music so much that I started writing about it as a journalist. It was then that, looking for good hi-fi equipment to support my increasing vynil collection, I heard Magnepan speakers for the first time. I couldn't afford it, but it was one of those loves that, although it apparently seems far away, you keep at the back of your heart. You protect it because you perceive its importance and perhaps one day it will come back to you. Yes, there is a sense of destiny when thirty years later I decided to buy a pair of Maggies. It was not like buying a new pair of sneakers. They deserved - and somehow my past feelings demanded it - to be configured properly, to be "kuddled".

Although my finance was "greener" than before, I was not prepared to spend thousands of dollars straight away. In Italy, where I am based, new Maggies cost double than in the US. So I decided to go for the second hand route. At the same time, I really wanted to make it my own by assembling and DIY as much as I could. Furthermore, I had another need/passion to comply with - that is movies. Something I have made a career of and for which I already owned a HT system.

In January I bought a pair of MC1s and of MMG-Ws on Audiogon and a Harman Kardon AVR355 receiver. I thought I could integrate those speakers with my present subwoofer and use them as Front-L/R and Centre. It was my first step, however, in to a new world of learning and sound, not just in terms of quality (my previous HT amplified system costed less than a pair of MC1s), but of audiophile terms, needs and tweaks I quickly had to get accustomed with. Luckly I am a quick learner and I do not mind chanllenges.

Evidently, I could not use my cheap black/red speaker wire, so my first challenge was to provide those speakers with the proper one. I realized that the market offered wires costing thousands of dollars, so I went for a DIY project: http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/ubyte2e.html. By reading on the Asylum I tried to give them a bit more power, so I bought two cheap Behrinher EP1500 power amps (one for each pair of speakers).
My new system, half mixed with the old one, was...well, a mess! The subwoofer was simply wrong and underpowered. Furthermore, the old surround speakers, although less important, were not matching the front Magnepan ones. To top that, my system was spread across the room, too untidy for my precise mind. It was time to rethink everything over. Back to the basics.

In my initial attempt I tried to adapt a HT system to 2ch listening. It was not working, so I tried the other way around, but doing things properly this time and choosing the right components to assemble the chain. I chose: Magneplanar 3.6QR, Mye stands, Rel B1 subwoofer and Innersound 300 ESL power amp. I managed to find all of them second hand in very good conditions. I moved MC1s to front channel and MMG-Ws to surround. I was still using the Harman Kardon receiver as preamplifier and the two Behringers to power the other couple of speakers. I had a feeling that I had swapped things around somehow with little improvement. Instead, I had to believe that I was on the right path.

I kept reading that going active XO for the Maggies was the right thing to do. I was offered another Innersound 300 ESL, so I decided to go all the way with active bi-amping. That was not enough - should I go for an external crossover or employ a digital XO in an audio PC, a cMP like Dawnrazor and Play-mate?! I could not decide quality wise, but I knew I wanted to keep things neat without adding external boxes and I had already gone digital in the past. So I took the challenge to build a cMP look-a-like to be employed for active XO 2ch AND multi-ch listening.
Assembling the "box" was easy. Making it work was not so easy. I here have to thank Dawnrazor, Playmate, Presto and all other contributors on at least a dozen forums spread across the globe. I achieved 2ch active XO through ASIO with Jack -> JRiver Media center -> Allocator -> Lynx. I was hoping that I could employ ASIO for movie playback as well. Unfortunately, I soon realized that there is no such player that can employ ASIO for movies. After a lot of search and trials, for multi-ch I finally managed to have Virtual Audio Cable -> Asio4All -> Console -> Allocator LT -> Lynx. I just have to sort out its volume remote control, otherwise it is fine.

As it can be seen form the pictures I now have:
- a PC acting as preamp and XO for music and movies;
- 2 Innersound 300 ESL amps with Sanders ESL amp faceplate;
- 1 Behringer EP1500 amp (to be replaced with one of the above amps);
- 1 Atacama Equinox XL Pro rack (http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=336);
- 12AWG round magwire with Polyimide-ML insultaion (www.mwswire.com) speaker cable;
- all DIY main cables (http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/ttse.html);
- 1 REL B1 subwoofer with a high level connection to bass power-amp;
- a pair of Magneplanar 3.6 QR;
- a pair of Magneplanar MC1.

Apart from PC most PC components, everything was bought 2nd hand and mostly from the US, which added diffuculty to the whole project.
All cables are suspended, including 15m HDMI cable to projector.
In the near future possibly one of those Innersound amps will replace the Behringer and I will put a Sanders Magtech amp in its place. Perhaps I will try Al's chokes. If you have any question, feel free to ask. I would appreciate suggestions and opinions as well.

I would like to change my HD projector too...but that's another story.

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bibo01/?action=view¤t=IMG_1.jpg
http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bibo01/?action=view¤t=IMG_2.jpg
http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bibo01/?action=view¤t=IMG_3.jpg
http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bibo01/?action=view¤t=IMG_4.jpg


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Topic - Active bi-amping 2ch and Multi-ch Maggies - Bibo01 04:44:56 07/15/09 (2)

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