Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Magnepan MG1.6

Those interested in my thoughts on the Maggies (and somewhat on Martin Logans) i heard recently, can tune into the following thread.

In brief, i would tend to agree with many comments here.

• Power hungry (and hence a limitation for SPL as Alan mentioned, distortion comes into play).
• Imprecise direction but amazing soundstage.
• Low WAF because although they are flat, they are big, often just black, and cannot be wall mounted (i.e. must be away from the walls).
• Need a subwoofer. No bottom end.
• Diffuse sound is wonderful for music presentation.

Chess, did you get to hear the PL300's you mentioned a while back?

I did not.
I was slated to head back to the store the next weekend and we had a detour and time got too late.
Hopefully in the next few weeks i will take the time to go again. However based on my assessment of the PL100s, i think the tweeter wouldn't work in our house very well. It really has a localized precision that could make it very hard to setup a wide sweet spot without alot of distance from the units.
Beautiful detail though.

OK, listened to the Magnepans for about an hour yesterday, and my friend left them with me for a couple of weeks for further trial. His uncle isn't using them any longer. My friend thinks that the uncle is using smaller Magnepans now. We're not sure if this is WAF-related...

First visual impressions - these things are HUGE! They are 5' 5" tall.

So, I unhooked my M80s and put the Maggies in a stereo configuration for music. I listened to Mark Knopfler, Pink Floyd, and Jenny Lewis.

First impression - they sound pretty good, but they aren't the leap ahead that I was hoping for. The M80s sound very good in comparison. The diffuse sound from the Maggies is actually a little bit off-putting to me after being used to the M80s.

I wonder if my room isn't big enough to show off the sound. I did make sure to give them at least a foot from the wall.

More info as it happens. Maybe later today I can listen to some Blu ray concerts and movies with them.

I certainly don't want to bias your thoughts, but a common recurring opinion i've heard about Maggies is you either love the sound or hate it.

The diffuse sound presents an amazing soundstage and personally i found the sound to be detailed, but it was presented in a recessed manner, again due to the dipole effect with that back wall. Instead of having a singer sound like they are in front of you, the sound is more immersive like you are in a concert hall but a few rows back.

If you want to test an interesting comparison to the M80s, listen wayyyy off to the right or left (off axis) and then see what you think about a magneplanar vs a direct firing driver system.

I think you need a lot more than a foot from the rear wall. Try moving them out into the room more (at least three feet).

It takes a while to find a good placement and the speakers can sound bad until you do.

As a starting point I would recomment 3' from the wall with the speakers pointed directly at the listening spot. If the speakers sound "thin" then try moving them closer together.

Thanks, I'll try those things.

I'm hoping that some adjustments can get me the "Wow factor" that I didn't get in the first go-round.

I love the maggie sound, but just about everyone has captured the key points, both pro and con. For placement, many maggiephiles recommend using the Cardas Placement as a solid place to start.

Once you do the calculation you'll quickly realize why they have low WAF in the end. I did find the recommendation to help tremendously over what you typically start with using a more traditional speaker.

Have fun!
Rich

A new Magnepan thread made me realize I never followed up on my audition. I listened to the Maggies a little more over that next week, but didn't purchase them, as I preferred my M80s for the HT, and I didn't have any other area of the house needing gigantic speakers.

You mean, your wife didn't have any other of the area of the house that needed gigantic speakers. . .