Thinking of Magnepan ... finally!

Great thread @arafiq .  Having been on the fence as well with mags, this "thought" comes up, kind of like dipping toes into vinyl .  I have friends with 1.7i and have heard them many times and they do sound great.  They do things really well and other things that may or may not meet ones preferences.

I recently heard them again in a diff setting and although they do kinda wow you at first, it didn't take long to realize I don't think I would be happy long term - citing many of the same attributes you did, that's why this was such a good read.

The big soundstage etc.. is "cool" but to me always seemed a bit too much or "artificial" for lack of a better word.  It sorta mashes everything together compared to dynamic/point source.  That's what I miss almost immediately - the dynamics, pin point imaging and bass authority.  I run two sealed 15" subs so I should be OK if I decide to try, 

Maybe that's just an element I'm used to and living with mags overtime would fall in love, dunno.  Like you I have determined that its either 3.7i or the 20's and really its more of a "something to try" and not at all unhappy with current setup - far, far from it.  However, I'm not a constant gear swapper, I find something that gels/has synergy and stick with it for awhile.

I always read from experienced/established users/audiophiles that everyone should try planers, just to see - that's always my motivation.

One other note, you have a nice room and your comment about diffusion - I would recommend against mixing up different types.  For the front wall do all QRD's (one dimensional only) along with proper corner bass trapping.  I've tried it and it can mess things up (diffusion is tricky/complex and in all honesty professional adivice is highly recommended) - I have on front wall two dimensional skylines (vicoustic  DC2) which are hemispheric broadband diffusion.(about 12-14 panels).  Works well, but I "think" if I were to do it over, would put all QRD - at least from my research, so the usual YMMV, my $.02

An interesting observation for me today with my Mini. I switched over to my Schitt Aegir monoblock amps which run at 70 watts 8 Ohm in Class A. Not sure about 4 Ohm. All other gear was the same.

The sound was a little more rounded than my Sander Magtech (Class AB). The sound was also rather boomy. I was getting fatigued and was thinking that I needed to put some of the GIK panels back behind the speaker to tame this sound. However, I gave all my panels away so that is not an option anymore.

I put back my Sanders Magtech and the boominess and fatigue went away. This was without any acoustic treatment in a weird room..

I am assuming that the Mini was not well served on the low end by the Aegir and the boominess was the result. My takeaway is to use a very powerful amp with the Mini. I am surprised I am not getting any sonic issues with the Sanders. It sounds great.

After a few more days with the 10 AWG Blue Jean speaker cable, it is no longer a question of whether I am keeping the cable. I put my Audience FrontRow up for sale. I am not even trying it on the Mini because I would need to rearrange some things to make the short FrontRow cable work. I also do not care for any marginal improvement, if it even exists, with the FrontRow. The Blue Jean cost under $300 for 2 sets and the short FrontRow speaker cable was about $5k MSRP.

Now that the LRS+ version has replaced the previous version, which was already said to have incorporated all new lessons learned by Magnepan in the original LRS version, and received much acclaim, do any of the owners of above entry level now older Maggies feel like the system has failed them? What if, after buying the best speaker and before system, you find out that you're already supposed to be dead, unless it's at a minimum of 10,000 watts, when you just heard Attack by The Exploited, oh, and with a sub?

How was the military intervention, since Reagan? Was there ever anything even YOU could find out, while James Bond was you first?

A potential customer's only hope of survival may be in a review of that track on any Maggies, with a comparison to what we should expect dynamic drivers to roughly be. What if someone broke into your home one weekend day, and demanded to hear your best rendition of that track, to find out whether you live or die?

@audioisnobiggie I don't think I understand your post. What is the point you're trying to make?

So it has been a few weeks since I received the new Magnepan 3.7i’s. I thought I’d share my findings -- good and bad, thus far ...

First, break in is important for most speakers but probably even more important for the Maggies. Initially, they sounded muffled, restricted, with very little bass. Imaging was substandard as well. I almost thought of returning them.

Fast forward to today, and most of these issues have been resolved by way of putting more hours, positioning, and adding subs. Both bass and midrange have improved considerably. Imaging, while not pinpoint accurate, sounds fantastic now. In fact, everyone who has listened to my system says that they sound more life-like, as in how it sounds in live events. Instrument separation is great, in fact better than most box speakers I’ve owned. I don’t find anything mushy or diffused about the image or soundstage at all. I suspect most folks who complain about that are not using adequate power, or current to be more precise. These big boys like current ... like a lot!

Bass response also improved quite a bit but I came to the conclusion that panel speakers will simply not give me that deep thumping bass no matter how you slice it. I auditioned several subs in my system, including REL S510, S812, and Rhythmik/GR Research open baffle. RELs, as good as they are, simply couldn’t keep up with the speed of Maggies. Don’t get me wrong, they were quite good but I could always hear them somehow. We spent several hours positioning and repositioning them but they didn’t quite disappear the way I wanted to. Rhythmik/GR open baffles were somewhat of a let down. I had such high expectations, but they simply don’t have the same level of refinement as REL.

In the end, the only one that ticked all the boxes for me was a pair of Wilson Benesch Torus subs. Each sub is driven by a dedicated external amplifier also supplied by WB. These subs are FAST!!! No matter what I throw at them, they never lose composure and provides me with deep tight bass without calling attention to themself. They disappear better than any other sub I’ve ever owned. The biggest revelation for me was to realize how much more nuance and texture is present in the bass region. REL does it quite well, but the WBs take it one step further. Rhythmik/GR didn’t get close to this level of performance, but they also cost a lot less so maybe it shouldn’t be surprising. But yeah, giant killers they’re not :)

At this point, I’m getting the most amazing, wide and deep soundstage, excellent imaging (though can be improved further) and midrange. The bass is deep and tight. In short, these babies are staying in my system.

Next steps: I ordered new stands from Mye Sound -- the new aluminum V-base stands. From what I’ve been reading, they should further improve imaging and bass. I’ve also ordered 4 quadratic diffusers (Q7) to go on the wall behind speakers.