Why don't you like Mageplanar speakers?


Popular as they are, some serious listeners do not like the sound of Magnepans.
If you are one of these, why not tell us what you don't like about them?
rpfef
for me, the maggies are kinda like a a porsche--great performance, but not necessarily practical or a good choice for your everyday commuter. personally, it think the 3.6/3.7/20.1 sound fantastic, even transcendent. however, many people can't deal with the low waf and the limited sweet spot. plus, when you're done adding the megawatt amp and the necessary sub or two, they don't seem like quite the bargain they appear.
It seems to me that all of your ducks need to be in a row if you are to like Maggies. Meaning, issues that come into play are: amplification, location, aesthetics, etc. I only heard one pair of Maggies in my life and it was an awful experience, but more on that later. Amplification: Maybe many people don't pair them with the appropriate amps? I don't know why, with the plethora of information here and other sites, how can you go wrong? Location: Being dipoles, I understand they need to be out far from the front wall with some acoustic treatments behind them. Aesthetics: Let's face it, if the monoliths are not in a dedicated listening room, they look ridiculous. Sorry to all of the Maggie owners who are trying to convince themselves otherwise but let's be real, the marriage to a pleasing aesthetic simply doesn't work here.

So maybe all of these things are factors to someone's overall negative opinion of these "supposedly" great speakers. Oh yeah, the one time I did hear Maggies was a disaster. In an Audio store in NYC. New Maggie 20.7's driven by Mcintosh monoblocks, Mcintosh preamp, and source was top of the line DCS stack. I wanted to beg the salesman to scratch his fingernails on a chalkboard to save what was left of my hearing.

In their defense, the speakers were close to the back wall but, that said, given the reputation of the speakers and the cost of the overall system, that simply was no excuse for one of the worst systems I've ever heard.
Have owned few maggies, including 20.1's. Love, love the sound. What I didn't like is:
-huge, heavy power amp(s) needed to wake them up and get full performance out of them
-poor low level sound
-small sweet spot
-room domination, they're big and need to be way out in the room to sound right
This is why I don't own them anymore.
Joc3021,
I also question speaker designs that mandate the use of high power amplifiers.It seems a flaw to make speakers this inefficient and miss the opprotunity to use really good low-moderate power amps that are simpler and sound fantastic.Many threads on this site concerning maggies are usually about how much power one needs to get them to 'come alive'and open up.
Charles1dad,

According to Wendell Diller at Magnepan, the reason Maggies aren't more efficient is that neodynium magnets would cost the buyer more than a more powerful amplifier. That being said, they'll work perfectly well for most people with an amp of moderate power. If you want 115 dB SPL's out of them, well, then you'll need a big amp. But most people don't listen at those levels.