Magnepan 1.7

Hi Magfan,

You are right about waiting some amount of time for things to settle in...and then test the options as you summarized.

The main listening position that can be incrementally adjusted is as follows:

The speakers are about four feet from the front wall that is 13 feet long and is a three foot deep alcove. The room then opens up to 18 feet wide so that one speaker is about 3 feet from a side wall and the other speaker is about 7 feet from the other sidewall.

The middle of the speakers are about eight feet apart. The main listening position is about seven and a half feet from the line between the speakers. There is approximately 20 feet behind the listening position and the ceilings are ten feet.

The Magnepan instructions did recommend that the speakers should be toed in towards the main listening position. This definitely improved the soundstage and gave a focused center. In my listening space, without the toe in, the speakers did not focus very well.

While it is early, I still am impressed with the bass. It is articulate and I can tell the differences in timbre. I also can feel the bass if it is on the recorded material. This surprised me as that never happened with the 1.2's.

I am also still continuing to hear a lot more detail and it still feels like things are popping out at me and that never happened before either with the 1.2's.

We shall see.

Measure from the edge of the speaker directly BACK to the 'front' wall.
Measure from EACH side of the speaker. On my 1.6s, I use the little trim strip as the index.
My speakers measure EXACTLY 30.5" on the inside edge and 34" to the outside edge....both straight back to the front wall.

Speakers are 61" apart, inside edge to inside edge....from the same place I measure to the wall.

A little trig tells me.......just under 11 degrees of toe. The speakers cross well behind my seating position of about 10 or 11 feet.

Hi Magfan,

I do need to tighten up on my geometry! While being well aware that minute adjustments can make a big difference in sound, I have neglected the record keeping which will become more important as the speakers are broken in and I start to play with tweeters in and out, etc.

By the way, do you have any experience with sound pressure level and frequency response measurements?

Quite often, these items are discussed on various forum threads. I wondered what you thought about this aspect of our hobby and if you spent much time with it.

Nope,
Never measured anything.
In the case of problem rooms or maybe the last 'nth' of performance, it would be wise to measure. Maybe while installing sound treatments and other room modifications.

I'm dedicated, not committed! (or, perhaps, commitable!)
I've simply tried to make what I have as good as possible by ear. My ears? Questionable. Somebody with more experience and maybe a trick idea or 2 could come in here and slackjaw me with good changes.

Their is a role for 'peer review' in case you miss something obvious. But, I'm done messing around until I get to the panel reframe phase late next year. If I survive woodshop.

I have the Magnepan 1.7's plus the other equipment - Bob/Gary Backert modded Canary monblock preamps and CA-160 monblock amplifiers (also modded by Backert), Music Hall MM7 turntable with Goldring Eroica cartridge, Audio Horizons pnonostage, Cambridge 640 CD player, Zentara speaker cables, Enacom speaker filters, Tritium line-level Tri-phazer, and Zentara interconnects, and Dakiom 253 interconnect between my CD player and preamp.

The Maggies sound superb. They sound well integrated, natural, and detailed without etch. I have pleasantly surprised how good they sound with 140 wpc of tube power. They also sound lovely with and Audio Van Alstine FET-Valve 550 250 wpc (heavily Jospeh Chow modded) amplifier. The obviouslyh don't plumb the depths of the low end but they have enough low end heft for me. In my system I have had Talon Khorus, Audio physic Avanti Century III's, Von Schweikert VR5 Anniversary speakers, Von Schweikert VR4 Jr's, and Spica Angelus speakers. The Maggies are the best speakers I have ever had in any of my systems.