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What do you think about Magnepans 3.6R for me

I am considering new speakers. I am thinking of getting a pair of Magnepan 3.6R. Will the speakers fit my equipment and room? I have a music room 28 x 16 for half and 28 x 22 for the other half. This room opens into a hallway on one side and two double doors on the other side.
My equipment is as follows:
1. Sonic Frontiers Line 3 SSE
2. Sonic Frontiers Power 3 with KT88 tubes
3: Mark Levinson 36s
4. Marl Levinson 37
5. Audioquest Diamond x3 balanced interconnects
6. Audioquest Diamond Dragon speaker cables bi wired
Will I have enough power for the speakers in my size room? Will my Audioquest interconnects have good sound with this setup? The Audioquest interconnects to the amps are about 6 or 7 meters long. I would hate to replace them. I heard these speakers several years ago with ARC equipment in a small room. I liked the sound and I think I would like to own them for a while to play old blues and jazz. I assume I just change the Power 3s over to 4 ohms to use the Magnepans and not use the 8ohms configuration?
I currently have old B&W 801s. I have had them a long time and need a change. I like the sound but want a change.
coxhaus
steveaudio
331 posts
 
Have you thought about selling the 801's? Huge, near impossible to ship, but they should sell at some price. Also the drivers &/or crossovers tend to fail on M801's or M802's.....I sold my M802's a few years ago & bought Totem Mani 2's; never looked back.

I'd say: if you get a nice deal on Maggies, go for it. But you may have to replace your amps, etc. etc. OR: if you like tubes, & you've got nice tube amps, get Merlins, or some other tube-friendly speakers. I'd almost vote for the latter, keep the tube amps, & get Merlin VSM's (drastically different from either b&w's or maggies of course).....
mred
88 posts
 
Get a PAIR of Vandersteen 2WQ subs to go with your 3.6's. The way Vandersteen uses a high-pass filter between the amp and pre-amp allows your amp to be relieved of it's deep bass duties which gives several positives 1)the midrange becomes more dynamic and clean (and more effortless due to lower distortion) 2) the soundstage expands and becomes more dimensional with images in the soundstage more firmly present 3) last but not least you have tighter,deeper bass.And that experience has been shown to be consistant in a number of different systems that I've heard them in.Love the Vandersteen subs!!
missioncoonery
1,237 posts
 
AVALON!!!!
coxhaus OP
231 posts
 
I have decided my room is too large for my current tube amps. I bought a pair Classe CAM-350 350 Watt Monoblocks in anticipation of auditioning the Magnepan 3.6r speakers. I hope these will be large enough at 700 watts per channel at 4 ohms.
I guess my next question is should I look at the Maggie 20.1 speakers as well? Are the 20.1 speakers a lot better than the 3.6rs?
I had a chance to listen to a pair of Avalons with some German equipmnet driving them in a large room. It seemed like you needed a high volume to bring out the bass. Any comments?
jimburger
104 posts
 
My room is comparable in size to yours. My Maggie 3.6's are powered by a Theta Dreadnaught II (approx 450wpc into 4 ohms) augmented by a pair of Vandy 2WQ's and they easily fill the room.
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