Magnepan + live music = 🔥
My Vidar mono blocks just arrived, and the magpan's mid and upper lows opened up a whole lot and there are more "meat" in the sound all around. Then I did the unthinkable, I paired .7 up with a Klipsch heresy iv through another two class A amps playing at around half the volume of the Maggie and now I'm in heaven.... |
Hello bwang29, I think mijostyn gave a very good summary of the .7s overall performance characteristics. I’ve never owned the .7s but I’ve listened to them, know they’re very good and are an extreme bargain for their price. I’ve also owned various models of slightly larger Magnepan panels in my system over the past 30 yrs, so I’m fairly familiar with their general strengths and weaknesses. It seems like you’ve already discovered their many midrange, treble and stereo imaging strengths but are just beginning to experience their main weaknesses of poor bass impact and poor bass dynamics performance. I’ve noticed over the years, on various audio forums, that many Magnepan owners are willing to accept or justify this overall poor bass performance by convincing themselves that it’s actually a matter of preferring bass quality over bass quantity or as an unfortunate but required compromise, or cost of entry, to the Magnepan/planar-magnetic world of very high quality midrange, treble and stereo imaging performance. Apparently just like you, however, I’m not willing to accept, justify, exchange, compromise or sacrifice the benefits of high quality bass impact and bass dynamics performance for the benefits of high quality midrange, treble and stereo imaging performance. Call me crazy, but I prefer to enjoy music and HT surround sound audio sources reproduced in a manner that is as full range and high quality as possible. Based on my 40+ years experience of building home audio systems, I've found that the high quality reproduction of the bottom 2 octaves, from about 16 to 32 Hz, is what distinguishes a decent hi-fi system from one that is felt as well as heard, is so visceral, dynamic and palpable, that one perceives the musicians as realistically playing in the room or perceives being very realistically transported to the musical venue itself with a good seat. This has consistently been my goal, I believe it’s your goal and I’ve only been able to achieve it successfully thus far by incorporating independently and strategically positioned subs in my room. I currently utilize the Audio Kinesis 4-sub complete kit, that mijostyn suggested, which relies upon positioning the 4 moderately sized subs in a distributed bass array (DBA) configuration in the room. This has provided near state of the art bass performance and seamless integration with my current and previous models of Magnepan panels in my room. I strongly believe this A K Swarm bass system would be an ideal solution for you and your .7s, here’s a link to a very accurate review of it: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audiokinesis-swarm-subwoofer-system/ I don’t know, however, how well the $3,200 Swarm system fits your budget. If you prefer a less expensive but still good solution for better bass at a single designated listening seat, I could describe how to utilize, properly position and configure a pair of good quality subs to accomplish this. Let me know, Tim |
I know it's a YouTube video done with my handheld Samsung S10 but it will still give you some indication of the dynamics of the Maggie's with a good high current amp Watch "Magnepan .7's & audio system" on YouTube https://youtu.be/WmHjTmDRO88 |
I have the Magnepans. 7's that purchased recently. l let them break in for approximately 200 hours before any critical listening I have mine position 4 feet from the wall, 7 feet apart with slight toe in They are 10 feet from my listening position l only have room for one sub which is the SVS Ultra 13 Originally l used my VAC PA 100 100 tube amp/ ARC LS 15 tube pre amp Exogal external DAC and OPPO BD 105 blu ray player. My streaming source is the Audiolab 6000N The Maggie's sounded magical! I thought maybe l should try switching out the VAC and insert my Spectron musical MK ll class D amp that weights 54 lbs. As you know Maggie's love watts/current and this amp gives it in spades 500watts@8ohm 650@4ohms &1,200@ 1ohms! The Spectron will produce 65 amps for 500 milliseconds. I typically listen to all kinds of music at 75/80 db and l must say the energy, inner detail, soundstage and dynamics almost put me into a live event! I'm amazed every time l listen for money spent So if you can feed your Maggie's good clean unadulterated power they will really come alive |
Magnepans don’t always meet expectations right away. It usually take a while to get the room positioning right. Use masking tape to mark out the position when you’re gaining on it. Also the room size and shape is more of a factor than most speakers. The amplifier of course is a big factor in getting the sound dialed in. Sounds like a lot of work and it is but when you get it right the payoff is worth the effort. Finally as mentioned break in is something that will improve things over time. |
@bwang29 - if your Maggies are still not performing to your liking when you connect the Class A/B amp, then, perhaps the speaker cables are limiting their true prowess? In the last 6 years I have come to realize the importance of speaker cables and the effect they have on sound reproduction. Maggies are capable of conveying incredible details, so they react to the subtleties between speaker cable types/brands. That reaction could be what's responsible for what you are hearing. What cables are you using? Just a thought - Steve |
bwang29, you have stumbled across the major benefit and shortcomings of the .7. Low bass is always going to be an issue for dipoles but the .7 is also cut a little short in the high end also. It will never match the ability of a dynamic point source speaker to totally load a room 40 Hz to 20 kHz. Which is exactly what you do not want a speaker to do! The improvement in imaging and depth you notice is because the .7 does not do that. What frequencies it produces are radiated into the room in a specific pattern that avoids many room interactions. By itself it is not going to play metal at 105 dB but down the line if you add subwoofers like Audio Kinesis's swarm system and if the AB amp you are getting is powerful enough that also will be no problem. Good job listening! 3.7i's will blow your doors off. You have been sucked into the dipole club. Enjoy. Mike |
Maybe they just need more time to break in as mine sound awesome with all types of music but did take a while to get there. Also play with positioning that can change the sound dramatics. I'm not familiar with that amp but in the past Magnepan discouraged the use of class D amps. The sound will also change with resistor attenuation or the supplied bar. I like running my 3.7 with small pieces of speaker cable. Don't forget too that they give you a relastic hearing of what the recording has quality wise. Enjoy. |
