The Official Magnepan Owners Thread - Page 66

Beautiful speakers.

Bought me a Parasound Halo A 21 AMP (AB, A) today and the magnepans 3.6 sounds like a new pair of speakers!
The question is what preamplifier is a good match now?
I have been listing to McIntosh C50 who have a DAC inside that i also need or Parasound Halo JC 2 BP? I dont wont tubeamp.
What pre amp do you use to your magnepans 3.6 that sounds like heaven?

Desktop Magnepans, Mini Maggies. Look forward to giving these a listen.

Any idea when we normal motals can buy them?

Not sure but this, from Inner Fidelity, says next month (September '11).

Been hearing about these (though not actually hearing them ) for a while now. Honestly, I have a hard time believing the small panels and woofer will integrate well. Wonder what the response of the panels is? I probably would've given up the ribbon tweeter for a larger QR panel with a thinned "tweeter" section like the lower-end designs, but who knows? Hopefully it's a hit! At $1.5k there's a lot of competition... Too pricey for the PC/gamer crowd, tough competition from the more established players in the desktop audio monitor biz, and for another $500 you can get 1.7's. Seems like their target is the small-room audiophile, e.g. bedroom and apartment dwellers, and those with small family or living rooms. Not a bad idea, hope it works!

I'll be looking at them as possible surrounds. I have a spare pair of MMGs that I could use for that purpose but the wife says an adamant no - "too big".

Well, the full page ad in this months _The Absolute Sound_ says they sound like 3.7s, and include a full maggie woofer. $1,495.

I'm gonna replace the PSB's in our bedroom with 'em if they sound half as good as the ad says they do.


-Paul

They include the DWM woofer, I believe (the stand-alone panel, not the coffee-table version; I am still thinking of a speaker-stand for my CC3). They use the QR panel plus a ribbon tweeter so are "baby 3.7's".

Still not up on the Maggie website, but that may take a bit. Paul, you should definitely get them, then let us know how they sound!

Anyone running MC-1's as mains? If so how'd they integrate with subs and how high off the ground do you have them? I'm thinking of 'topping' a pair of bass bin/subwoofers with em.

I have several MC1's but have bigger mains... I did try them alone for grins and they did not have enough bass for me. They were as good as the little Mirage satellites I used for a while (actually, MUCH better sound, but bass was comparable, at least by ear). Specs say 80 Hz; I say "maybe" but did not measure them. I did not really optimize placement for mains and they are on stands so did not get full bass. I have talked with some other folk and they have been happy with them as mains, using a sub.

I placed mine about 22" from floor to bottom of the panel because my couch is a little on the tall side (Magnepan suggests 20" for the average listener position). The idea is to get the center of the panel at roughly ear level. They are tall enough that a few inches either way should not matter.

Enjoy! - Don

Well given the height of the Bass bins, i would be locked into 32" from the floor with an 8' ceiling height. Too much you think? I was considering 'flying' the Mc-1's from the ceiling as to not introduce any resonance from the sub enclosures.

Hmmm... Guess you'll have to see how they work. The MC1's are almost 4' tall so you have room to move up and down. You may want to consider mounting them upside down so more of the panel is at ear level (IIRC, the actual radiating panels are offset up a bit).

Hanging is a cool idea but except in places I have had to do it (e.g. churches, auditoriums) I tend to avoid it. It is a bit of a pain to get the hangers perfectly placed and I do not like "swinging" speakers. As for resonance, you may reduce the wall resonance by suspended, but still hae to deal with sound waves in the air. I wouldn't worry about it and just wall-mount them normally (possibly upside down).

If you have not already, you might want to go to the Magnepan site and download the owner's manual for them.

Question about bi-amp...

I own a pair of 1.5QR's they are running, currently from a pair of Denon POA4400 class A monoblocks fed by an Onkyo TX SR707 running as a pre-amp.
I am conisdering moving the big Denons out of this setup. The Onkyo is capable of Bi-amping and setting the crossover for the two separate channels, and would HAVE to be run this way to get enough power.

I've read much about X/overs and such and have become slightly confused as to a few points, 1) I am uncertain if hooking up the Maggies this way will by-pass the internal passive crossovers or not. 2) If it does not by-pass these, then I will not need to crossover from the receiver, correct? 3) If it DOES by-pass the passive crossovers in the speakers, where is the most appropriate place to set the crossover point from the receiver?

Any input is much appreciated!

The 1.5QRs do have high and low input jacks.

Most AVRs do not actually implement active bi-amping with individual crossover settings for the required high- and low-pass filters to the amps. I do not know if your Onkyo does or not. It needs to set a LPF for the bass input and HPF for the treble, or you need a crossover between the amp and speakers, to eliminate the speaker's crossovers. Without seeing the schematic of the 1.5's I do not know where the high and low jacks connect and thus how much of the internal crossovers are bypassed. If you decide to go that route, your owner's manual will suggest crossover points; from there you will have to measure and listen to optimize them for your room.

There may be more information about your crossover on MUG (the Magnepan user's Group website).

Frankly, I think you'd be much better off keeping the monoblocks and forgetting about using your AVR to biamp. Seems like a step down to me. Why are you considering the change?

Thanx Don. I was under the impression that the planar drivers extended the entire length of the panel. One of the featured HT systems on the Magnepan site even shows the MC-1's offset towards the ceiling as i was intending to do. I think i might just call em at Magnepan and get the honest truth.....as painful as it might be.

The 707 Onkyo does actively cross for individual channels hi and low when set into bi-amp mode. Bench testing put it at just under 100 actual watts per channel, so I assume 200 available should drive them well.

In answer to your question, with my current thoughts, I would be truly surprised if there were actually an audible difference between the Maggies being powered by the big Denons or powered by a high level AVR. If this is true, why not simplify the whole system?

Sounds like a plan, let us know how it works out!

Magnepan usually only gives a general range for the crossover points, depending upon the user to dial it in (not sure why they don't list the actual xovr freqs). Sine the AVR should compensate, you can probably get away with setting the points to the middle of their suggested frequency range. The range should be in your manual (I dont have one and it is not posted on their website).

Thank you, Mr. Jeans

Ah, my old IIIa's use an external box, so the old farts win!

My comments on bi-wiring are already on record so I shan't carry on again...

And a thanks to you Don

One final question....

....Considering we now know how the 1.5QR's are wired, running no pass-filtering from the receiver using Bi-amp mode to get the power needed, will this cause a short in the system due to each channel now getting two amplified signals that now combine again? (I am not completely certain that this statement makes sense beyond my own brain)

Actually, that is a very good question! If the lows and highs were perfectly filtered there would be no interaction between them and you would be fine. In the real world, filters do not drop to zero instantaneously outside their passband, so the two amps would be "talking" to each other in the overlap range.

Now, if they were perfectly synchronized, again it would not matter because the signals (amplifiers' outputs) would move together, no harm no foul. Alas, again the real world means there will be slight differences in each amp channel, and the AVR's filters will introduce phase shift in each channel that may not be perfectly the same. In that case, the two amp channels will fight each other, to the detriment of the sound and quite possibly damaging the amps.

Bottom line: if the speakers are not designed for bi-amping, you should NOT do it!

HTH - Don

p.s. Thank you mrlittlejeans -- I would have assumed high and low inputs were to facilitate bi-amping, and might have had some ineresting times...

Dear All

Does anyone have a picture of a 3.7 in White + Black Alu or Black gloss Alu ?

BR

Black fabric/Al frame is posted on their website and in numerous reviews. I have yet to see any pix other than that and the cherry wood/black fabric version. White sox seem to be out of vogue...

man, i've had it. moving to denver. been house hunting for 3 months, and still can't find what i want. ya know why? nothing i've seen will give me the room i need for the 3.7s i have on order to breathe. ask me how fed up i am...

Should have moved a little further south, some big houses around us for sale...

I used to sell Magneplanars and at one time or another owned SMGb's the Original MG10's, MG2.5's , MMG's and MG1.6's on "extended" loan (4 months).

The MMG's have been boxed up and in the garage for about 3 years. I just dont have room for them right now. Still a fantastic speaker for the money if you have the space for them.

Bud

I noticed there are a few of us on here. If you guys want to get together for a listening session I'm interested. I believe I can benefit from listening to your gear and you may be able to benefit listening to mine. I'd like to experiment with 1.7 placement, sub placement, fuses and power cables. What are you guys interested in???