Magnepan 1.6

I owned a pair of Maggie 1.6QRs for several years but had to sell them when we moved. Like many things in the audio world, whether or not they are "best" for you is dependent on a number of variables.

1. They require space. You need enough room to get them at least several feet away from the rear and side walls.

2. They have a dipole radiation pattern. The sound coming from the rear of the speaker is equal in volume to that coming from the front. Under the right conditions that adds a nice sense of space. Under the wrong conditions, they are muddy and uneven sounding.

3. They are not terribly efficient and certainly not a speaker for someone who likes very loud music with a lot of bass.

Only you can answer the question as to whether you should get a pair of Maggies or something else. Look at your musical and listening tastes. Take your listening room into account. Go from there.

i own magnepan 1.6s . currently, i am looking for another speaker. i am looking for less upper midrange treble emphasis and more bass. i will not buy a cone. i am looking for another panel speaker.

the vandersteen 2--whatever version is current is worth listening to, as well as the eminent technology lft 8. the magnepan is probably more coherent than the et, but it is worth listening to the et. i think a pair of used quad 63s, at around $1600-1800 is definitely a better choice. i owned the uads for several years until i had repair problems,at which time i bought the magnepans, about 1 year + ago.

The Magnepan 1.6 is a bit overrated and I attribute a good deal of its popularity to its novel appearance, which looks serious in an old hi-fi way. But aside from their ample soundstage and imaging they have pretty significant sonic limitations, dynamics and bass extension/impact chief among them. Speaker preference is a very individual thing but I don't see them as markedly better than their competition in many ways and in quite a few ways they are not as good and place more demands on their users. I wonder why this makes for such hype, especially among TAS writers.

Ghanson & Mlsstl have pointed out some shortcomings or limitations, another is the 1.6's unwillingness to sound it's best unless partnered with the right amp. I had used Luxman, Adcom, and Belles amps with my 1.6's and all left me underwhelmed. The PS Audio HCA-2 transformed their reproduction capabilities for the better, not a subtle improvement. Their fussy reluctance to sound their best with a broader variety of amps was one reason I sold them. I found they needed a subwoofer to sound fully fleshed out and alive. However, if you value accurate reproduction of instrumental timbre, expansive soundstaging, imaging very much like you hear in a live venue, and can live with somewhat limited dynamic capabilities and the need to turn the volume up to get them to come alive, I think they deserve their general high esteem.