Magnepan vs B&W: Same specs, different bass?

I agree with Kijanki and Williewonka, that its probably placement of the speakers in relation to the size of the room. Maggies can get low and punchy sounding when set up in the right room correctly.

Matt M

Besides placement, I wonder if the amp is having trouble with the low impedance? They are rated at 4 ohm, but I suspect they might dip lower.

OP, are you using tube or SS?
B

Thanks for the input guys, sounds like everyone thinks with the similar specs they should perform similarly.  I thought maybe conventional woofers with more throw might have more punch than electrostatics or some other explanation like that.

I'll try moving the Maggie's around the room a bit to see if I can get more bass out of them, but it's such a big difference I doubt I'll be able to.  I'll try to take some measurements this weekend and post them.

I'm using a Levinson 433 amp rated at 400wpc at 4 ohms which should have plenty of power, right?  =)

Also, "conventional" speakers sounds as though they have more bass if they have a rear port and postioned close to a corner - it reflects off the wall/corner.

My current speakers were quite good in a smaller room, but now they are in a larger room their bass has "normalized" and those lower frequencies that were present all the time are now only there when actually present in the music.

Last time I heard excellent sounding Maggie’s they were in a room with 4 ft behind them and around 5ft in from the side walls and 7 ft between them.

Hope you have a large enough room

Regards - Steve

Speaker specifications are meaningless.