check out the Cardas website, there is a section there with suggestions and a formula for placing planar speakers. We used the formula with my friends 1.6s and it worked great.
Where are your maggies??
Hi,
Just took delivery of a pair of Magnepan 3.6 R's and I'm just starting to get a handle on their sound and at the same time having some placement issues.
I'm using a Belles 250i integrated, which despite it's modest power rating seems to handle the Maggie's incredibly well....large, open soundstage, dynamic, no compression to speak of at higher spl's etc.
My only issue so far is that the overal balance and presentation is a little on the bright side of neutral, more so than the monitors that I've used for the past 6 years or so. Also, bass is definately on the 'lean' side, which doesn't help with the issue of a bright tonal balance.
I'm wondering if my room is mostly to blame for the forward presentation, and wondered if any Maggie owners could cast some light on their own placement issues with 3.6's and what steps they may have taken to overcome the forward presentation and lack of bass. I know that placement with the Maggie's is critical and so far I've spent two evenings making adjustments without any real impact to the overal sound. I have some issues with reflective surfaces, but the speakers are 10' clear from the front wall, 25 or so feet clear from one side wall, 12' clear from the other side wall and 18' from the listening chair with 3' behind the chair to the back wall. So room reflections ought not to be a significant issue given their proximity to the room boundaries.(also, they are 12 feet apart with slight toe-in and the tweeters on the outside).
I've messed around with distance from side and front wall, distance from listening seat, distance between speakers, toe-in angle, and have switched the speakers around between tweeters inside and outside.
The changes in position have effected the soundstage, imaging depth/width but have not really altered bass response or the tonal balance to any real degree.
I'm wondering if these are just inherrently 'bright' speakers with no bass??....though I have heard people claiming to get great bass response from 3.6's and have never heard anyone claiming that they are overly bright. (I've got the Maggie supplied tweeter attenuator installed also, by the way).
Should I be trying anything else as far as placement is concerned, what have others used to tame a forward sound??
Should I be concerned about the amp?...it is an integrated with a tube pre and solid state power stage, and most people describe it's sound as warm, full and tube-like.
Sorry for posting yet another 'Magnepan' thread, but my instinct is that these speakers are capable of much more than I'm getting out of them, and I have the space to allow them to 'breathe' with a room approx 30x60.
I do however have a limited budget for amps, $3k max, though I suspect the Belles is really a great amp that is up to the task of handling these puppies.
Any ideas, insights or tweaks would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Rooze
Just took delivery of a pair of Magnepan 3.6 R's and I'm just starting to get a handle on their sound and at the same time having some placement issues.
I'm using a Belles 250i integrated, which despite it's modest power rating seems to handle the Maggie's incredibly well....large, open soundstage, dynamic, no compression to speak of at higher spl's etc.
My only issue so far is that the overal balance and presentation is a little on the bright side of neutral, more so than the monitors that I've used for the past 6 years or so. Also, bass is definately on the 'lean' side, which doesn't help with the issue of a bright tonal balance.
I'm wondering if my room is mostly to blame for the forward presentation, and wondered if any Maggie owners could cast some light on their own placement issues with 3.6's and what steps they may have taken to overcome the forward presentation and lack of bass. I know that placement with the Maggie's is critical and so far I've spent two evenings making adjustments without any real impact to the overal sound. I have some issues with reflective surfaces, but the speakers are 10' clear from the front wall, 25 or so feet clear from one side wall, 12' clear from the other side wall and 18' from the listening chair with 3' behind the chair to the back wall. So room reflections ought not to be a significant issue given their proximity to the room boundaries.(also, they are 12 feet apart with slight toe-in and the tweeters on the outside).
I've messed around with distance from side and front wall, distance from listening seat, distance between speakers, toe-in angle, and have switched the speakers around between tweeters inside and outside.
The changes in position have effected the soundstage, imaging depth/width but have not really altered bass response or the tonal balance to any real degree.
I'm wondering if these are just inherrently 'bright' speakers with no bass??....though I have heard people claiming to get great bass response from 3.6's and have never heard anyone claiming that they are overly bright. (I've got the Maggie supplied tweeter attenuator installed also, by the way).
Should I be trying anything else as far as placement is concerned, what have others used to tame a forward sound??
Should I be concerned about the amp?...it is an integrated with a tube pre and solid state power stage, and most people describe it's sound as warm, full and tube-like.
Sorry for posting yet another 'Magnepan' thread, but my instinct is that these speakers are capable of much more than I'm getting out of them, and I have the space to allow them to 'breathe' with a room approx 30x60.
I do however have a limited budget for amps, $3k max, though I suspect the Belles is really a great amp that is up to the task of handling these puppies.
Any ideas, insights or tweaks would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Rooze
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- 28 posts total
Rooze, what your experiencing is not "the norm" if they are brand new then you'll have a few hundred hours before they sound right- break in is roller coaster ride with these speakers up's and down's. Even if they are broke in if you just got them they will need to settle for a day or two, try not to form any opinions yet. The more power you feed them the more bass you get, I am using an amp that produces very high current and 450 watts at 4 ohms and am thinking of something more powerful. With your budget I would suggest looking into the innersound esl, they are a great amp for the money and give you tons of power. I am getting great bass from my speakers(along with all of the other audiophile bells and whistles), I would suggest for you however to try to move the speakers closer to the front wall and the same with the listening chair. Start at about 6 feet from the front wall and move them out 1 foot at a time to you get the compromise from everything. In my room with the speakers 2 feet from the front wall(obviously to close) I get explosive fast bass, but it doesn't sound good, and there's no imaging or soundstage, so its all about finding what works with your room. The other problem is that the 3.6's even stock are so revealing if your system upstream is colored at all you'll hear it, which could be the lean sound your getting from them. You can try and tone them down a little bit with the tweeter attenuator, see if that works, and down the road try taking it out. I found that these speakers were so revealing I needed the attenuator in place until I got used to the speed and clarity I was hearing, then I removed them and haven't looked back. What kind of floor do you have? if you are on the second level of your home, i.e. subfloor you may have a problem getting great bass with out some room tweaking(which I would strongly recommend either way), concrete floors and magnepans seem to work great together. I have owned the 3.6's for a while now and love them very much for the money they are the bargin in high end and if your ever looking for more sky's the limit after some modification. You may also want to check out http://audioasylum.com/forums/MUG.bbs.html its a place dedicated to planers and electrostat's and there is a lot of information available there(and a lot of varying ideas so your destine to find something that will work for you). Enjoy the speakers! |
I have MG1.6. I assume that the "attenuators" which you refer to are 1 ohm resistors. (That's what came with the MG1.6). If you still find your MG3.6 to be too bright, try a 2 ohm resistor and see how you like it. All crossovers have resistors in series with the tweeter so as to match its SPL to the woofer. One crossover schematic that I happen to have handy (for a Dynaudio system) uses 3.5 ohms, so don't feel guilty about the resistor. I am not familiar with your amp, and it may be a fine unit, but Maggies, perhaps more than any other speaker, benefit from brute force. At the same time they are an "easy" resistive load for the amp, so perhaps the amp doesn't need to be an exotic expensive design. I have 350 watts (4 ohms) and I am willing to believe that an even more powerful amp might extract even better sound. To be specific, see if you can borrow an Adcom 5500 (200 watts into 8 ohms) and give it a listen. If it works for you your budget will still have $2000 in it for other neat stuff. |
- 28 posts total