The Official Magnepan Owners Thread - Page 65

They haven't answered the phones since last week. Their website states they are understaffed....You've got to be kidding me

http://www.magnepan.com/contact

Believe I read the person who answered the phone retired, not sure if she's been replaced. It's a small company, and if a couple of people take the week off, they don't have coverage. Not the best answer, nor most business-savvy, but very Magnepan...

I was considering using Magnepans in my Home Theater. My thought was to use 12's or 1.6's up front with a MMGC Center, then MMGW's for the surrounds and rear surrounds?

I'll be running it through a NAD T747 acting as my Pre/Pro and a Sherwood A965 7 Channel for the amp (160W x 7 at 4ohm).

Any suggestions? Should I put treatments behind the fronts? How about the side and rear surrounds, should I angle them forward or backward (wall mounting)?

The room is aprox 16 x 19 and I would mate them with a elemental designs A2-300 sub as well as 2 other 8" side subs in the columns.

Screen is 127" wide so the fronts will be placed far apart.

I know that they are busy with the 3.7's and other products but they do need to answer the phones.

Sound treatments (typically meaning absorbers) is a can of worms around here. I am much in favor of them but where and how many depends heavily upon the room dimensions and listening position. I suggest you go to Ethan's site, www.realtraps.com, and read some of his tutorials first. My guess is sidewall treatments would be good since the mains will likely be near the walls, and corner traps to help smooth the bass, but everyone and every room is different. Maggies can take some effort to set up, though the result is well worth it. You can (should) play with position from walls to the side and behind, toe-in, and which side the tweeter is on. My only real advice is to get the speakers, spend some time setting them up and tweaking them for a few weeks, then see what you think.

My MC1's mount on swivel brackets so you can change their angle. I put them on relatively cheap DIY stands so I could move them around since I wasn't sure where they would ultimately end up and I didn't want more holes in my (floating, insulated) walls. There are pix in this thread, somewhere... There are also some suggested postionings in the owner's manuals (you can download them from the Magnepan web site). I ended up a little different than what they suggested, but again every room/person/system is a little different.

HTH - Don

Some suggest that the distance between the fronts should be 60% of the distance between the speakers and seating position. They also suggest that you can start with 60% and start moving them apart depending on how you like the sound stage.

You may also find that the Maggies sound better (better highs) if they are raised from the floor level and also tilted forward. I built some stands (though not pretty) to raise them about 8". The factory stands are too slanted. I got thick L-Brackets from Lowes that had the holes at the exact same location. The L-Brackets were still not at 90" so I just added some wood shims :-)

You can get panels from realtraps if you have a "Money Plant" in your backyard :-) I use OC 703 panels and the same for corner traps. I dont claim that they are the best but serve the purpose. You can wrap them with acoustically transparent fabric for decor (gilford of maine, spelling may be wrong). I also use separate bass eq Antimode 8033. Putting a panel at the back of the speakerl would help reduce the reflections off the back wall as the MG12/1.6 are pretty much like bipolar speakers. I read that they dont radiate a lot of sound to the sides.

BTW for my asking price of $700 for the MG12's, I will also give those stands and the brackets. You can paint them black and cover the front brackets with a trim to make them look pretty :-)

The 2 front pieces are mainly for safety. In case the MG12 would tilt forward. those posts would prevent the MG12 from tipping forward completely. No the front brackets are not attached to the MG12's. You dont see them in the picture. It is not invasive at all. Just unscrew the factory brackets/stands and put the Lowes L-brackets as the holes match. I took the screws to Lowes to find the brackets with the same hole size.

Note that I suggested reading the articles on the RealTraps site; there are DIY articles on there as well as informational.

Yep. Don't disagree. I meant that most of those commercial panels are a lot more expensive. The OC 703 panels work just as good. Just like the commercial panels, they should be placed at the right place. One suggestion to reduce bass peaks is to place 4" thick OC 703 panels at a distance of 1/4th the wavelength of the most offending frequency, because the waves get reinforced at 1/4th the wavelength after getting reflected.

Also dont buy the 703 panels online. They are twice as expensive as the local insulation companies.

Decided to go MMGW for side and rear surrounds. Already have an MMGC for center. Now its between the MMG (for cost and space....and warranty) and the 1.6's (to reach a bit lower). 1.6's may not fit as the screen + frame is 132" leaving me about 36" on either side of the screen. If I pull them too far forward they'll be half off the stage.

I could pole mount the MMG's so that may work better. I guess I will get less low end with those, but will be filling that with the A2-300 sub and 2 more 8" sealed subs behind the first row.

Now I just have to wait two months for the room to be done so I can listen to them

I think you'll find the difference in sound between the MMG and 1.6 (or 1.7) is pretty significant. I have not heard the MMG, but am basing it on all the other models I have heard over the years and the difference in design, not just specs. Stepping up rom a two-way to three-way design can make quite a difference, and that extra 10 Hz on the low end means you can cover all the strings on a bass guitar. It would be really good if you could hear them both...

Never owned a pair of Maggies or heard the 1.6's but there's a pair used close by for an excellent price and was considering them for a 5.1 theater/2 channel critical listening space. The plan would be to suppliment the bottom end with a pair of 12" subs either under or behind each Maggie on both L/R channels. Just looking for some feedback from 1.6 owners before i bite. This will be quite a change for me as i've always been a box speaker guy. I should mention that placement is limited to 8ft apart and about 2ft out from the rear wall and about a foot from the side walls. Listening distance is about 14ft with carpeted floor, wall treatements and an 8ft ceiling.

I wouldn't advise putting subs facing the maggies' panels. Too much chance of the subs' sound pressure damaging the panels.

Hey Mayhem. I would also avoid having the subs too close to the 1.6s. They certainly shouldn't go behind them, and I'm not sure if you would want to run any speaker (but particularly a planar one) on a vibrating surface. Without seeing a plan of the room, it's hard to say how difficult sub placement might be...

1.6s do have a better base output than many would associate with a planar. You'll likely use a cutoff of around 60 Hz with them, so the subs can be placed well away since below 60 hz is fairly non-directional.

As you probably know, 3 feet from a rear wall is recommended, but 2 is likely to be reasonably good. You may find yourself wanting to put something absorbing behind them which will lower the complications from the sound output from the rear of the speaker, depending on your listening room details.


Paul

How hard is it to change socks on an MMGC?

I grabbed a used grey MMGC, but when I ordered my new MMG's and 4 MMGW's I asked about socks for the C so they are sending a front a rear black one so they match my other six Maggie's.

Call Magnepan or your dealer and they will explain the procedure. I have not changed sox on the newer ones but have many, many times on older models (used to work for a dealer). It is tedious but fairly simple; the biggest thing is to be very careful not to damage a panel during the process. That includes not letting the speaker just drop onto a sheet on the floor to work on it -- that will blow a ribbon tweeter and can damage a panel.

You need to pull out some filler, remove the feet and wood/Al side panels (if present), take out a whole bunch of staples (a puller or wide, then screwdriver and pair of pliers can help), then slide off the old sox. Slide on the new, staple (you'll need a staple gun and I suggest one of the new "easy" models instead of my ancient hand-killing Arrow chrome industrial model), re-attach the trim, and you're done. It sounds harder than it is once you get going.

HTH - Don

p.s. Don't drop the screwdriver or staple gun on the panel. The results may be undesirable. Don't ask how I know this...

I have a question or 2 I’m sure one or more of you will be able to answer. My dad has had a pair of maggies for as long as I can remember. He got them in the late 80s/early 90s. they are MG 1.3’s

Recently he has talked to me about them making a odd sound and I finally got around to hearing it, It’s a loud snapping like crackle sound that comes and goes, does not seem to matter the type of music, however it does seem to happen more at higher volumes. Its only coming out of 1 of the speakers.

I’m assuming the speaker suffered some sort damage over the years moving and such and is now rearing its head. We have tested sources/amps/wiring so we are pretty confident it is the speaker itself. We are curious as to what could be the issue and what the best course of action would be.

At 20+ years old they really don't owe him anything at this point, well out of warranty id imagine and the dealer no longer exists.

A nice little collection awaiting the finishing of the home theater....

Most lilkely delamination, go over to:

http://www.integracoustics.com/MUG/M...aks/index.html

and look under repair.

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/etv.mpl?forum=mug

Is the most active. I am sure you will get lots of opinions there.

Hi Sibuna,


While I'm new enough to Maggies not to need any repairs, I've read a lot of posts. Their support appears to be exceptionally good on even their oldest speakers. Evidently, speakers can be rebuild at the factory for reasonable cost. I'd suggest that you call Magnepan when you get a chance and get an estimate on a rebuild. That could actually get your speakers close to Magnepan's newer models in terms of sound quality at a fraction of the price. I've heard nothing but great things about Magnepans service.


Paul

^^^ +1. The price to rebuild my old MG-IIIa's, bringing them up to about the 3.5/3.6 level, was under $1k, far less than a new pair. It does sound like delamination, and that can be tricky to fix. Not impossible if you are very comfortable working with sticky glue and thin panels, but not something I would suggest to a novice (I am not sure I would do it myself now since it has been years since I last did it). Magenpan would likely put in new panels and make other improvements well beyond what you might do.

Just bought a pair of old 2.5/R a few days ago

an since I……

did post 3 times

I can can now post a picture of it



Does anybody know where I could find the user's manual of info about these?

Contact Magnepan.

http://www.magnepan.com/contact

Very difficult since I'm living in France — I wrote but nobody replied…

This may help....try it.

http://www.hifi-manuals.com/Download....5-R-schematic

thanks!