advertisement


Maggie! Maggie! Maggie!

Dammit, dammit, dammit. In 1978, 1979 or 1980 or so (about the same time as we were thinking about the other Maggie), HFN&RR had a mega-competition (50th anniversary?) in which the prize was a system consisting of an Oracle TT, Maggies, and, I think, Krell amps. There was only one of the 50 questions I didn't know the answer to (something about Disney and Fantasia) so didn't bother sending in the entry. When the results came out NOBODY had got all the questions right - if I had sent the thing I would have won. Gutted then, still gutted 40 years on. At least I got a record voucher for the crossword competition one month.
 
Magneplanar................
The best/worst love/hate/addictive hi-fi product I ever seen and heard...........
Well, I will try to make a long story short :
A friend of mine was a seller in a very hi end hi-fi store so he had the opportunity to bring home a ton of products and then Magnepan was one of them.
Difficult to place and sensitive to any furniture in the room but when "optimized ", really really breathtaking.
Anyway, my friend had a German shepherd dog and all I can say is that from all the speakers he brought home, those panels were the only ones where we saw his dog walking around the speakers to find the musicians and looking at us with the kind of face saying what the heck so you can’t be disappointed.
Hope you won’t become addictive as the cure is a long process.........
And make sure you are in the magical triangle to get all the music because if you move 2 feet on either side, you may lose the nirvana !
 
I used to have a pair of Magneplanar MG2.5Rs. At the time it was the fulfilment of a longe held dream. I drove them with a Michaelson Odysseus amp and then a Conrad Johnson pre/power. They worked best in my "office", which was quite a large rectangular room, firing right down the length. That way their huge image became something that was much more realistic than when I tried to use them in a more normal sized UK room. A few things I didn't like; the covers were horrible and started to fray at the edges after a while. The legs were not the most stable things and I had the local Smithy make some much stronger and stiffer ones. The ribbon tweeters were really, really fragile. I stupidly managed to ripple one when I was making some adjustments to positioning and changing over the legs. I had it lying on it's side edge and accidentally let it fall over. I thought it was all fine until I saw a slight ripple to part of the ribbon. Sounded OK though. Oh yes, the only other thing I didn't like about them was that they were enormous and just dominated any room. They were fine for the office but that could only be temporary. Used in a regular room, they sounded a bit disjointed.

Anyway, that was my experience with them. At their best, still very memorable. I hope you enjoy them Robert.
 
Gervais Cote said:
Magneplanar................
The best/worst love/hate/addictive hi-fi product I ever seen and heard...........
Well, I will try to make a long story short :
A friend of mine was a seller in a very hi end hi-fi store so he had the opportunity to bring home a ton of products and then Magnepan was one of them.
Difficult to place and sensitive to any furniture in the room but when "optimized ", really really breathtaking.
Anyway, my friend had a German shepherd dog and all I can say is that from all the speakers he brought home, those panels were the only ones where we saw his dog walking around the speakers to find the musicians and looking at us with the kind of face saying what the heck so you can’t be disappointed.
Hope you won’t become addictive as the cure is a long process.........
And make sure you are in the magical triangle to get all the music because if you move 2 feet on either side, you may lose the nirvana !
Click to expand...

Nice story :)

I'm used to living with Quads so the prospect of fiddling around to find the sweet spot isn't too daunting.
 
Del monaco said:
I believe you have two subs and if so I’d be keen to hear how they integrate.
Click to expand...

I'll definitely report on how that works out.
Priority will getting them sounding best I can without subs initially.

One interesting and unexpected early finding is that the amp (Rega Elicit R) seems to run a bit cooler driving Maggies compared to KEF LS50.
 
Salamander said:
I found this vid interesting, although I don't have any real experience with Magnepan's, sure many Maggie fans have seen this before, but for any who haven't MAGNEPAN SETUP SECRET REVEALED ! - YouTube
and when he says "and that sounds friggin killer" it certainly does on my headphones @ 14.25mins
Click to expand...

Interesting indeed but it seems the chap in the video is saying that in order to get these speakers to sound right a pair a subs and an active crossover is required? Does that not mean the design is fairly flawed or compromised to start with or am I missing something?
 
Darren L said:
Interesting indeed but it seems the chap in the video is saying that in order to get these speakers to sound right a pair a subs and an active crossover is required? Does that not mean the design is fairly flawed or compromised to start with or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
The key thing is it’s not a box.
 
Darren L said:
Interesting indeed but it seems the chap in the video is saying that in order to get these speakers to sound right a pair a subs and an active crossover is required? Does that not mean the design is fairly flawed or compromised to start with or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
I think it depends what you determine’right’ sounds like. No loudspeaker accurately recreates the original sound, so you have to prioritise the strengths and flaws based on your own needs. Maggies are far better at some things, and worse at others. You pays your money…
 
Del monaco said:
The key thing is it’s not a box.
Click to expand...

I assume you mean you don't hear 'the box' or the
colouration that a box can add?

Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I think it depends what you determine’right’ sounds like. No loudspeaker accurately recreates the original sound, so you have to prioritise the strengths and flaws based on your own needs. Maggies are far better at some things, and worse at others. You pays your money…
Click to expand...

I was only going by what the guy in the video was saying but it was clear to hear some form of distortion when the female vocalist was singing the word 'stars' .
I do realise all speakers are an engineering compromise but this design seems to be flawed from the start.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I think it depends what you determine’right’ sounds like. No loudspeaker accurately recreates the original sound, so you have to prioritise the strengths and flaws based on your own needs. Maggies are far better at some things, and worse at others. You pays your money…
Click to expand...

The whole issue of 'speakers befitting from being high passed depends so much on listening level and room size. LF extension aside, if you aren't unduly stressing a 'full range' 'speaker system the benefits of running a sub fall markedly. In fact you could argue that adding the additional crossovers and/or active electronics brings its own set of detractors.
 
Robert said:
The whole issue of 'speakers befitting from being high passed depends so much on listening level and room size. LF extension aside, if you aren't unduly stressing a 'full range' 'speaker system the benefits of running a sub fall markedly. In fact you could argue that adding the additional crossovers and/or active electronics brings its own set of detractors.
Click to expand...
Have to agree. Tympani, in particular, sounds about a real as it can get on a pair of decent panels, even small ones.

Living over here in the New World, I was fortunate to have had a lot of exposure to the 'big' electrostatics (and those that sounded big) early on. Back in uni, there was what was then a rather rare (at least, in Canada, at the time) 'high-end' hi-fi shop right across the street from campus. The two partners were electrostatic freaks, with plenty of big solid state (and tubes) on hand to drive them with. They offered a veritable smorgasbord of brands, with everything from Dayton-Wright through Quad, and even Beveridge (the first I heard subs with ESL) to wash it all down with. To say that I was hooked would be an understatement; hooked enough to get a job at the first dealership in Canada to sell Acoustat loudspeakers, each pair of which were flown in from Florida to our wee airport (with the first pair of 7' 8" tall Model 2 + 2 that I sold having been crushed in transit!).

Anyway, getting back on topic with politics...er, Maggies; as my budget and rooms didn't stretch to accommodating the likes of a Mark Levinson HQD knock off system (i.e. the coveted Ken Chan* JQD system round these parts back in the day...'J' for Janus subs...something that, once heard, was never forgotten), I tried my best to live with Magneplanars and failed each time. Admittedly, this was back when the construction of same left something to be desired. The MG1, etc. originally had thin pressboard baffles within what can best be described as an artists canvas frame, later these were changed to perforated sheet metal 'trays' with bitumen damping on (within the same chipboard frame). A old friend of mind actually had a pair of MG1 that had one of each baffle type. As either of these aged, a certain frequency would have the neighbours out beating that rug roughly in time to the bass line again. Eventually, Magnepan went over to machined MDF across the board, and things improved greatly. The change to foil conductors also dramatically improved reliability, especially so the HF side where fine aluminium wire had been used originally. Regardless, by then my panel addiction had long since worn off, and I became content having my 'speed' fix via small, simple two-way boxes.

@Robert, I'm very interested in your pending Magnepan journey, especially so, as you are starting from the point of having lived with electrostatics.

* The same Ken Chan who, upon returning to Hong Kong from here in Canada, opened another dealership and began denuding Koetsu cartridges on the side (surely a crime against art, if ever there was one).
 
Last edited:
Craig B said:
Have to agree. Tympani, in particular, sounds about a real as it can get on a pair of decent panels, even small ones.

Living over here in the New World, I was fortunate to have had a lot of exposure to the 'big' electrostatics (and those that sounded big) early on. Back in uni, there was what was then a rather rare (at least, in Canada, at the time) 'high-end' hi-fi shop right across the street from campus. The two partners were electrostatic freaks, with plenty of big solid state (and tubes) on hand to drive them with. They offered a veritable smorgasbord of brands, with everything from Dayton-Wright through Quad, and even Beveridge (the first I heard subs with ESL) to wash it all down with. To say that I was hooked would be an understatement; hooked enough to get a job at the first dealership in Canada to sell Acoustat loudspeakers, each pair of which were flown in from Florida to our wee airport (with the first pair of 7' 8" tall Model 2 + 2 that I sold having been crushed in transit!).

Anyway, getting back on topic with politics...er, Maggies; as my budget and rooms didn't stretch to accommodating the likes of a Mark Levinson HQD knock off system (i.e. the coveted Ken Chan* JQD system round these parts back in the day...'J' for Janus subs...something that, once heard, was never forgotten), I tried my best to live with Magneplanars and failed each time. Admittedly, this was back when the construction of same left something to be desired. The MG1, etc. originally had thin pressboard baffles within what can best be described as an artists canvas frame, later these were changed to perforated sheet metal 'trays' with bitumen damping on (within the same chipboard frame). A old friend of mind actually had a pair of MG1 that had one of each baffle type. As either of these aged, a certain frequency would have the neighbours out beating that rug roughly in time to the bass line again. Eventually, Magnepan went over to machined MDF across the board, and things improved greatly. The change to foil conductors also dramatically improved reliability, especially so the HF side where fine aluminium wire had been used originally. Regardless, by then my panel addiction had long since worn off, and I became content having my 'speed' fix via small, simple two-way boxes.

@Robert, I'm very interested in your pending Magnepan journey, especially so, as you are starting from the point of having lived with electrostatics.

* The same Ken Chan who, upon returning to Hong Kong from here in Canada, opened another dealership and began denuding Koetsu cartridges on the side (surely a crime against art, if ever there was one).
Click to expand...

I shall report in regularly Craig :)

First impressions on day two - many similarities to ESL57s, about the same sensitivity and overall bandwidth, i.e. 50Hz and then a cliff edge. Not as critical in terms of sweet spot.
Amazing image depth, they can place a piano in front of the speaker, vocalist centre stage and percussion way to the back. In comparison the 57s keep things in the plane of the speaker.
I'm hearing plenty to like and nothing to dislike at the moment. They nail vocals on terms of tonality, detail and intimacy and that quality alone propels them ahead of the speaker herd IME.

For giggles I connected the little Rega IO tonight just to understand this whole amp killer thing. They don't' need tons of power, they need an amp that is 4 Ohm capable, i.e. not one that has impedance sensing and shuts down at the merest sniff of a 4 Ohm load, and conditional on the amp being able to handle the extra thermal load.
The IO sounded just fine up to moderate levels, in the same way that 15W Quad IIs work just great with the 57.

Lots more to come :)
 
Robert said:
I shall report in regularly Craig :)

First impressions on day two - many similarities to ESL57s, about the same sensitivity and overall bandwidth, i.e. 50Hz and then a cliff edge. Not as critical in terms of sweet spot.
Amazing image depth, they can place a piano in front of the speaker, vocalist centre stage and percussion way to the back. In comparison the 57s keep things in the plane of the speaker.
I'm hearing plenty to like and nothing to dislike at the moment. They nail vocals on terms of tonality, detail and intimacy and that quality alone propels them ahead of the speaker herd IME.

For giggles I connected the little Rega IO tonight just to understand this whole amp killer thing. They don't' need tons of power, they need an amp that is 4 Ohm capable, i.e. not one that has impedance sensing and shuts down at the merest sniff of a 4 Ohm load, and conditional on the amp being able to handle the extra thermal load.
The IO sounded just fine up to moderate levels, in the same way that 15W Quad IIs work just great with the 57.

Lots more to come :)
Click to expand...
I can set the Yammy at 4 Ohms and it provides good current to more than moderate levels. Not loud but loud enough.
 
Robert said:
I shall report in regularly Craig :)

First impressions on day two - many similarities to ESL57s, about the same sensitivity and overall bandwidth, i.e. 50Hz and then a cliff edge. Not as critical in terms of sweet spot.
Amazing image depth, they can place a piano in front of the speaker, vocalist centre stage and percussion way to the back. In comparison the 57s keep things in the plane of the speaker.
I'm hearing plenty to like and nothing to dislike at the moment. They nail vocals on terms of tonality, detail and intimacy and that quality alone propels them ahead of the speaker herd IME.

For giggles I connected the little Rega IO tonight just to understand this whole amp killer thing. They don't' need tons of power, they need an amp that is 4 Ohm capable, i.e. not one that has impedance sensing and shuts down at the merest sniff of a 4 Ohm load, and conditional on the amp being able to handle the extra thermal load.
The IO sounded just fine up to moderate levels, in the same way that 15W Quad IIs work just great with the 57.

Lots more to come :)
Click to expand...
The SMGc that I had here for a week really sang with the old Cyrus One (Tog). Went plenty loud for my attached condo living here too. Original NAIT didn't fare as well, not so much wrt being able to drive them, more a case of the HF sounding somewhat rough in a 'so that's what the anti-Naimies are talking about' sort of way. It occurs to me now that another way of describing this would have been 'so this is what my old NAIT would sound like with decent headphones - meh!'.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top