Life after Maggies?

Dfhalecycko, I feel your frustration.I cannot imagine going from a good room to one that gives you such sonic limitations.You already know that your new room is going to be the greatest factor that you need to deal with.GMA designs their speakers with this room parameter taken into account.From what you told us the Callisto's would be the perfect canidate for your room ( If you can swing and hear the Pico Executive do so!).I am totally impressed with the complete natualness of the GMA"s (I heard the callisto's at a good friends house and they play way bigger than their diminutive size)sound.My friend has planars and they are very good but are limited dynamically and don't maintain perfect phase (that is the achilles heel of all planar designs).You should go and audition the GMA's and bring your favourite licks and see if you hear things in a new way.I can honestly say that the Calypso are the finest sounding speaker I have ever heard( they just hand you the music).You really should listen to the Callistos if you get the chance and if they have the Pico Executive (just buy it!).Also a EQ is one more way of messing up the phase of the signal and really isn't a correct vehicle to use.Hope this helps and go audition some speakers-Cheers Dennis

I've had MG IIIa + MGI imp.modded + now Eminent Tech. 8a. I have had the Modded MGI imp. + the ET 8a in the same room 14 x 12 and I found the ET8a to work much better in a smaller room.

You will need some room treatments and I found sitting against the wall to be no problem if the wall behind my head is treated as well.

You will have to take your time to play with placement.

Someone mentioned the SMGa that are modded by Peter Gunn, well these have had alot of good talk about these by people who own Maggies. Some say it is better then stock MG 1.6. He does use an external passive X-over, so there is a chance you can sub the passive for your active x-over and get even better with the porper settings.

If you do get something else and sell your Maggies.
Then you will have to decide to sell them modded or put them back to stock.
I have no problem buying modded but alot of folk won't.
YMMV

G24 actually, I have an Ultracurve Pro, which is one of the reasons I know about the room modes. It's actually a pretty cool device! Running pink noise and/or autocorrect, I can see how much the room is impacting on the sound. I've been hanging out on the Audio Circle forum on room correction and I've got some stuff I need to try to cancel some of the nastier room modes (bass trapping mostly).

Unfortunately, I can't stand the sound of the ultracurve permanently in the signal chain, so using its correction algorithms isn't such a good idea, although it gives me a pretty good idea what a flat sound would be like in the room. When the bass is fixed, it really opens up the mids, which is nice!

One of my issues with equalization is that the bass modes are substantially different even if you move the microphone a few inches. Sampling a bunch of locations, you'd make very different adjustments, altho you can average some of them for something that will work OK. The bass nodes are the worst, of course, and after treating as much as I can with traps, I could go for something like a PARC parametric equalizer to tackle the bumps in response that remain. The Parc is said to sound better than many of the digital solutions, like Tact. I mostly listen to LP's so I'm not living in the digital domain yet. I've been playing around with the parametric equalizer in the DEQ2496, and it makes a really impressive difference without mucking the sound up in adjacent octaves. If only the unit didn't make everything else sound flat & lifeless. In the signal path, even with no parameters engaged, it just sucks the life out of my music. Too bad!

I think I can tackle many of the worst ones with treatments, and use the UltraCurve to track how well I'm doing.

Dennis, I'm still scheduled to audition some Callisto's. I'm excited by what I've heard about the Green Mountain line, and a friend of mine who's an ex-Maggie owner also recommends them. I hope they live up to the buzz.

That said, I've invested 7 years getting the Maggies to sound great, so I'm a little discouraged to be starting all over again in a new space. Frankly, I'd rather listen to music than fiddle with equipment.

Thanks again all who responded!

Dfhaleycko
you will not be disappointed with the GMA line but if they have the Pico Executive try to audition it.Dynamically there will be little comparison between the stat and the cone dome.After I bought my Calypso's i have been revisiting a lot of my old recordings ( these are the ones that do not qualify as audiophile but still hold a strong affinity while you were growing up).I no longer worry about speakers and really enjoy listening knowing that the GMA"s sound incredible & correct.The speed and agility of these speakers make them amazing in the imaging department.Layering is accomplished front to back and side to side with little regard to room walls.I have never heard a speaker that throws huge images and dynamic swings and never seems to break a sweat even when playing @ 100+ db.The Calypso's have left me stunned (when you hear some of your favourites and they sound like nothing you remember because of the new information).I hope your audition goes well,however,you really should take them home for the weekend with a provision to buy or sell(the Maggies that is).Remember that system synergy does play a part and GMA is very revealing.Please keep posted as to the results-Cheers Dennis

Your objection to the sound quality of the DEQ2496 is interesting. I have no such problem with mine. However, I have found that it helps to have the line level signal into the DEQ2496 a good deal higher than typical of consumer audio equipment. When I play a CD (for example) the PEAK dB for the entire CD (which the DEQ2496 displays) is within 6 dB of Clipping...usually more like 3dB. Most of the time when average volume music is playing the -18 dB green LEDs in the the METER string are lit, and the -12 dB LEDs toggle on and off. This setup probably requires more gain in front of the DEQ2496, and less in the power amp.
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