Maggies and rolled off treble

I can say that older Maggies sound so appealing because of the rolled off treble, the emphasis on midrange, the transparency and punchy bass. Therefore they are quite forgiving with regard to less immaculate recordings. And that's for most people a very pleasant feature. IMHO there are more revealing speakers, but they won't be as appealing to most people as the Maggies. That's why Maggies are so popular among people and that's why many people consider their sound as SOTA, but in fact they are psychoacoustically "tuned" devices and are therefore not truly SOTA. But hey, we want a musical sounding system, not a system that is SOTA on paper but not SOTA with regard to musicality. Or don't we?

Chris

Chris and other fans:

For "older" Maggies, are you including Maggies with ribbon tweeters?

Or the really old Maggies, like MG-1bs, MG-II's, Tympani 1-D's. I have had several pairs of Maggies and now have Tympani IVa's with ribbons.

To this day, my first pair of Ib's (no ribbon0 were one of my favourite speakers.

cwlondon

Dazzdax No that is absolutely not true !! again it is depending with what amplifier you are matching it period !
-Old Magnepan has a more natural & musical sound balance compare to the new Maggies.
-New Magnepans are more audiphile sounding you will hear cripy micro details a kind of high techno sound(but unnatural compare with live)

---> If you want pure natural sound then go for the Apogee Diva, it has the dynamic punch,the 3-D, big sound stage, far more lively than Magnepan.
Apogee approaches live music much better than any of the Magnepans

I agree with OP, at times I hear Maggies and really like them, but I alos hear them many times and its a dull and boring sound so it is either upstream gear or the model but its hit and miss.

Anytime I've heard the Maggies, they behaved as a most wonderful midrange speaker. I suppose most of the sound is in the midrange so that's ok. The problem I have had with them, is that the "picture" is so small...it reminds me of headphone listening a bit. I always wish I could remove the wall between the speaker and the performer..which was indeed playing right there in the courtyard.