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Magnepan Owners - Need Your Thoughts Please

Spent some time recently auditioning the Magenpan 12's and 1.6's; I was very impressed with the sound, especially when you consider their modest cost.

I've always had highly sensitive horn speakers so a Magnepan is a totally new direction for me. I will keep my Khorns and consider adding the Magnepans for even more fun! Here are some questions that I need help with. Of course, I will bring them home for a personal in-house listen before I buy but any thoughts that you Maggie owners could add will be greatly appreciated! Questions:

(1)Will a pair of 125 watt VTL monoblocks (EL-34's) be enough juice to drive the Magnepans to reasonable listening levels in my large room (17.5w x 26L x 9h). By reasonable levels I mean 85db - 90db (at the most). I don't want to 'blow-up' the VTL's! They are rated at 130 watts in Tetrode mode into 4 ohms.

(2)I assume that the larger panels of the 1.6's would be harder to drive overall than the smaller 12's?

(3) Setup advice: where do I start on placement? How far from the front wall and how far from the sidewalls? How far apart? Also, are Magnepans designed to be faced straight-ahead or with some toe-in? And, what about the ribbons, placed on the outside or inside?

(4) What are the appropriate listening distances? How far do you sit back from the panels?

Would love to hear Magnepan owners' comments and advice on these questions or any other Maggie issues that I am not thinking about. Thanks!
stickman451
fin1bxn
140 posts
 
You will never get that Bass/mid bass Impact from the Magnepans that you get from the k-horns, no matter what amps you use.

You will get better sound than what you have now with at least 500 watts at 4ohms high current amp.

I have had both Klipsh and Magnepans and speak from experience...

You can find a pr of Odyssey mono amps at a reasonable price. I drove mine with them and then upgraded to a PASS x250 with made them sing

Good luck and enjoy
bmckenney
91 posts
 
Bass response is also going to be a about where you placed them in the room. Big time. I would think that big tube amp should give you pretty good bass response even with the Maggies. Where did you place the speakers in the room exactly, from front wall and side wall to the middle of the panel?
bmckenney
91 posts
 
The other thing you might want to consider is finding a dealer close by that has Eminent Tech LFT 8 speakers. Planar's too, but with a hybrid design cone bass driver. Many former Maggie 1.6 owners actually prefer this speaker. One of the reasons is the bass response is better but loses none of the planar sound that the Maggies have. Ans your amp should be more than fine too.
stickman451 OP
553 posts
 
I didn't really expect the same amount of bass that I get from the KHorns; I think that I could live with the 1.6's bass as long as I had a beefy amp.

I started with the 1.6's 4'9" from the center of the panel to the sidewalls and 5'6" from the front wall; with a tab bit of toe-in... I also used one space for tilt to the back. I really haven't had much time to move them around yet for bass repsonse; will do that over the next few days.
bmckenney
91 posts
 
You put them right on the Cardas dipole placement math results. I'd be quite surprised if you get much improvement from where you have them now. A little fine tuning a half inch here and there and toe-in adjustment is probably all it takes now. I'm not sure how Maggies respond to toe-in. Some speakers require quite a bit. My planars do so I get the outside midrange driver towards my ears and that really helps with dynamics. Planar's need great setup and need to be well away from the walls and you're lucky you can do that. Maybe all you need now is a bigger amp. And bass traps in corners if you don't already have them.

Bryan
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