Magnepan 2.7QR owners...please.

As a longtime 2.7 owner a few suggestions:

1) Try using short pieces of wire instead of the metal bars. The metal bars sound horrible. I found cardas wire to work well for the jumpers.

2) If you use resistors, get some good quality ones. I tried both the cheap resistors and some high quality resistors and they sounded much better (less conjested).

3) Cables make a big difference. I found Wireworlds worked really well with my 2.7's.

4) Get a big amp. Not sort of big, really big. 500w/ch into 4 ohms is just where these speakers start to get happy.

Mab2112, I now understand that they can not be biamped or biwired. However, John's suggestion to use resistors has made an enormous difference in the sound of these speakers. Today we started using 2 Radio Shack 1-ohm/10W resistors per side and my son and I agree that the top end is much more natural. Before, the sound sometimes was eardrum-splitting with many recordings. With the resistors, there is no apparent compromise in sound but all frequencies are much more balanced.

We ordered better (?) resistors from an online company to replace the Radio Shacks eventually. If all 2.7s suffer from this exaggerated top end (that is, unless you like the feel of blood running down your temples), this solves the problem quite nicely.

Thanks to all once again and best regards,
Santiago

Mab: There are a lot of DIY Maggie owners out there who have bypassed fuses and attentuator connections, replaced internal crossover components, rebuilt external crossover boxes, etc. I am sure that with a little effort, anyone could configure the 2.7's to be biamped. It would just void any remaining warranty.

I didn't see anyone mention, you can NOT bi amp 2.7's. I don't know why, but the dealer asked the maggie rep and he said they could not be bi amped.

John,
Many thanks for your guidance. Will post results in a few days. Also thanks to the other members that have helped clarify the terminology.

Best regards,
Santiago

Vvrinc: Radio Shack sells 1-ohm 10w resistors. They are a dollar or so each. What I suggest you do is buy 4 of these. This would allow you to use 2 per side to try out 0.5, 1 and 2 ohms to find a value that gets the level to your liking. Once you find the value you like, you can find a higher quality "audiograde" resistor to replace the RS parts. There are many online sites that cater to DIY audio hobbyists with high-grade electronic components.

These power resistors have relatively thick leads. You can bend the ends 2 or 3 times and put these directly in the socket currently being occupied by the metal jumpers. There's no need to solder the resistors to banana or other connectors first.

Hope this helps.

John

Jafox, where would I purchase these 10w resistors and how are they attatched to the posts?

Thank you for your time.

Maggie MG1.6 come with 1 ohm resistors (attenuators). The instructions say that the speakers are flat without the resistors, but, because many recordings are equalized with a "hot" high end to compensate for rolled off speakers, it may be desirable to use the resistors. I am not familiar with other Magneplanar crossovers, but in the MG1.6 there is no tweeter padding resistor in the crossover. Most speaker crossovers have tweeter padding resistors in the range of 1 to 3 ohms, so the Maggie attenuators are just tweeter padding resistors, of lower-than-usual value. And, you get to pick the value you like.

I had the 3.3 and then the 3.5. These too had tweeter attentuators. This design allows for component/room matching that is more cost affective and "pure" than a continuous level control that exists on many other models.

The speakers come with metal shorting bars. By removing these bars, and inserting a 1, 2, or even 3-ohm 10-watt resistor here, you can tame what I too found to be too exaggerated of a top end. I have no experience with midrange attentuators but I suspect this would not be needed.

Just throwing tube amps at the Maggies will not resolve the forwardness in the trebles. I had to do this with the Counterpoint hybrid amps as well as ARC, Wolcott and CAT tube amps. Experiment with the resistor value based on the amp you are using. Start with a 1-ohm value and increase in 0.5 increments until you get the tonal coherency to your liking.

I am sure others will say that adding resistors here would take away the ultimate in transparency but this is not really a strength of the Maggies. The attentuation will allow for a greater tonal coherency which removes the otherwise fatiguing sound. And once this is removed, the great midrange and awesome 3-dimensional presentation of these speakers can be more appreciated.

John

Get rid of the metal bar jumpers and use tubes-Quicksilver monos??