2. speakers
  3. 183428-181239

Magnepan 3.5r Owners needed.... No bass

Hello.  Brand new to the site.  I have been into Magnepans for years. 

I have 3.5r speakers which are wonderful.  

But lately it sounds like they have little to no bass.  I have them bi-wired, and when only playing the bass, it is barely there.  Strange because these used to have loads of clean, tight bass.  The mids and the highs still sound spectacular.  No buzzing, no problems.  I've examined them in bright sunlight and there is no delamination on the wires or anything.  Ive taken apart the crossover and measured and it all measures to the correct values according to the schematic.  Why would my Mg12's have loads more bass than my 3.5r's?    Powerful amplifiers.  What sound I do get is beautiful.  But just not getting the bass that this speaker should put out.  

Wondering if anyone with these speakers has experienced this issue.  3.5 or 3.6?  

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks. 

jsbelieve
jrosemd
151 posts
 

Perhaps you should see what happens if you use different electronics. 

It may not be the Maggies at all.  

By the way, I have had three pairs of Maggies over the past 25 years and love them all,  

jsbelieve OP
14 posts
 

Jrosemd- 

 

Tried many things.  I've used different electronics.  Again, it did not have this issue before, even with the electronics I'm using currently.  

But I've used several vintage pieces and some newer ones.  Vincent audio, Parasound, etc.  

I currently use a very nice, very powerful class a amplifier.  500 watts per channel in 4ohms, 100 watts pure class a.  

It's not that.  But I understand why you'd say that.  

I've always found the room to be the most important thing with Maggies.  Even more than electronics.  Then electronics 2nd.  

What model are you currently using?  

 

tweak1
3,644 posts
 

IME, although it is weird, it’s normal when only connecting the bass drivers of any speaker to barely make sound. I forget. does the back of the panel have 2 fuses? That's worth a check

Cheap actives are junk but you can buy a cheap one from several sources with money back, which would let you see if that would solve your issue, but for excellent active XO search Phil Marchand

Sometime the VS pages glitch. Try it again. ITMT: Copied from my Virtual page . I also have write up there in the comments

hth

 

 

jsbelieve OP
14 posts
 

Thanks for this.  

And you're right about the speakers not making much sound when only the bass is connected.  The only reason I checked while listening separately is that I wasn't getting much bass at all.

The rear of these speakers has two fuses.  Midrange and tweeter.  There is no fuse for the bass.

The Marchand was something on my list, but again, was very expensive when I really don't know how it will perform in my system or how big a difference it will make.  I also looked into Puritan Audio.  

Those are costly options.  I was going to go with a behringer and see if it makes a difference.  

Thanks for sharing the pic.  Those are interesting looking speakers, indeed. 

tweak1
3,644 posts
 

OK. even if you inspect the fuses visually, you might not see a problem. They're cheap, I would replace them. Better still though I never tried it but many swear by bypassing the fuses all together (do a search).

I went through 3 Behringers and 2 DBXs- total crap, BUT, with money back you could at least determine what (if anything) they could bring to the table

hth

More to discover