Are Magnepan MG-IIIa speakers problematic?

You need to have room for them. You need to have sufficient power for them. Beyond that... a true audio classic and a great speaker. Magnepan will rebuild them if necessary I believe (though not cheap.. and expensive to ship).

A good source of info is: http://www.integracoustics.com/MUG/MUG/

The ribbon tweeter on them is simply amazing. The maggie bass is also extremely nice.

mdl.

Yes they can be "troublesome" however they are well worth the effort- much like a high-maintenance girlfriend :o) Magnepan still repairs them and with MUG you can't lose anything you need help with you can find there. If you are getting a good deal and the rest of your system is up to the task of driving them go for it! There is a reason magnepan has the cult like following it does.

Tireguy is right, there's a reason that Maggies have such a loyal following. I suppose, like all components, they aren't going to work well in every system or room. Maggies need room to "breath," they don't work optimally jammed into corners or against walls. They need high quality, powerful amplification and not every amp is happy driving them. I started with MGA's and have had 1.6's for several years and have found them very reliable, not at all "high maintenance." I had to go through a few amps before finding an extremely synergistic one (PS Audio HCA-2.) I guess I've been lucky roomwise, never finding them finicky or hard to set up. I find Magneplanars to have a certain magic that I haven't heard in any other speaker, especially at their given pricepoints.

I owned a set of MG 3.5Rs for 10 years, and didn't have any issues with them. They were a pain to set up in the three different rooms I had them in, but once I found "the spot" everything was great. I don't see how that is different than any other speaker type though.

Problematic?

Depends on whom you ask. Most have had very positive results with older Magnepans. Although Magnepans are not for everyone they can provide an incredibly musical experience for not a lot of $$.

Do you have the room for placement options?
It's preferred NOT to have anything in between them like a huge RPTV that is unless the RPTV is recessed into the wall.
Having the speakers 3-5 feet from the front wall and 1-3 feet from the sidewalls is preferred, but not always necessary. Once set up correctly wow!

The 3A's were built from 1987-1990 so you have about a 15+-year-old speaker.

Can you listen to the speaker before you buy?

If you can listen before you buy use material with good string bass notes. This will help detect any delaminating wires from the panels. You may not hear this with drum notes. I This can be repaired with some effort, but the toughest part is re stapling the sock covers. Factor this into the cost.

You can get pair of 3A's for about $600-1000 depending on condition. That's a very good price for the performance you will get from them. If ever you have to replace the tweeters it about $100 per side and can be done in your home. I do not know if Magnepan still offers refurbishing of the 3A's. A simple phone call to them will answer that. Consider cost of shipping in the equation.

You will need a high current amp not just a high watt amp. This will help in preventing blowing of fuses or the tweeters and bring the performance of the speakers to a higher level.

Another issue is that although the later version Magnepan are not as revealing as the newer Magnepan speakers you may find yourself upgrading your source, Amps, Preamp, cables...So consider that into the equation as well.

By the way I have never owned the 3A’s, but I have owned 4 of Magnepan later versions including the 1.6QR, 3.3R, 3.5R and now the 3.6R.

Hope this helps