30-year-old Maggies
February 16, 2006
I am being given a pair of Magnepan speakers that are
almost 30 years old. While this sounds really exciting, what can I expect from a pair of
speakers that old? All I know is that they work, and my wife is willing to buy the
required power amp, but I am reluctant without knowing what I can expect. Any ideas?
Nathan Jaworski
Magnepan is still in business and still servicing what
they have sold for so many years. I’ve heard that the speakers are durable, but have
no firsthand experience with them or how they age. How about giving them a call? Their
phone number is toll free: 1-800-474-1646.
Spades with spring clips
February 14, 2006
I recently acquired a set of hand-me-down speaker cables
that have spade terminals on the ends. They are really nice cables, and I assume were
expensive, but they don’t seem to want to work with my receiver. My receiver does
have binding posts but the spades won’t fit in the openings provided. They’re
too big. Have you run into this before?
Mark
Unfortunately this is all too common. The binding posts
on many receivers will work with banana plugs or bare wire, but simply won’t
accommodate spade lugs. You basically have two options to solve the problem. One, you can
strip the spades from the cables and insert the bare wire into the binding posts. This
will provide a good, secure connection, but it will of course destroy the connectors on
your new cables. Your second option is to buy a set of banana plugs with screw-on adapters
for you to insert your spades into. The bananas will clamp down on the spades, and then
themselves slide right into the binding posts. This works pretty well, too. The only
downside is that you now have two mechanical connections added to the signal chain. Simply
using the bare wire, theoretically, will sound better because it is a more direct
connection and will provide ample contact area for signal flow.
Subwoofer to complete the system
February 10, 2006
I recently purchased the Denon AVR-3806 receiver and am
about to order Axiom M22s, QS4s, and the VP100. I am unsure of the subwoofer to complete
my system (about $400). I will be using it probably equally for music and home theater,
and I haven't really concerned myself with trying to match all this with the current room
because it will change when I move. I would like to find a subwoofer that has as much
"bang for the buck" as the speakers. Can you give me some advice on Axiom’s
smaller subs or other brands?
Tobin
You’ll certainly find a good match with
Axiom’s subwoofers. Not only will something like the EP125 or EP175 be a good
performer overall, it will match well with the M22s when it comes time to listen to music,
where sub integration will play a big role in the system’s performance. Outside of
Axiom’s own subwoofers, the best bang for the buck that I’ve found is from SVS.
They are factory-direct, and you’ll find incredible deals on their subwoofers on the
company's website. Hsu Research is another company that offers a terrific
price-to-performance ratio. Between those three companies I’m sure you can find
exactly what you’re looking for.
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