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Maggies moved 6 inches...big improvement

I have never found that my Maggies are so sensitive to positioning as suggested by many users. Perhaps it is because I have three (not two), the room is very asymetrical, and full of randomly placed furniture unlike the dedicated "listening room". I pull them out a few feet from the wall when I am listening seriously, and that's about it.

However, I just moved them about six inches, and it made a big difference. The secret is that I moved them straight up...off the floor.
I have known for decades that Maggies sound best when suspended from a high ceiling, but that option is not available. What I did is put 1X6 oak boards, on edge, under the metal Maggie feet. This raises the speaker about six inches, and provides open space under them. I am not sure why the improvement happens but here are a few ideas.
1. The open space under the speakers.
2. The speaker is more equally spaced to the ceiling and the floor.
3. The speakers being higher, furniture obstucts less.
eldartford
eldartford OP
4,262 posts
 
Theaudiotweak...The 3000Hz tweeter to which you refer has a voice coil that pushes one way on its dome and the other way on a speaker enclosure. You ask us to believe that it moves the 40 pound enclosure more than the half-ounce dome. Obviously you have never heard of Isaac Newton.

Perhaps you are thinking of the woofer moving the enclosure that the tweeter is mounted in. Although the woofer cone is heavier than the tweeter dome, the mass of the enclosure still dominates.

If you want to worry about HF being corrupted by LF vibration think about how HF (say 1500 Hz) is generated by a mid/woofer cone that is simultaneously vibrating with large amplitude at 150 Hz. I believe this is called "Dopler distortion".

The walls of some speaker enclosures do vibrate, but primarily as a result of internal pressure from the woofer. The vibration amplitude is much less than the cone excursion, but there is a lot more area of the enclosure, and significant spurious sound can result. Heavy enclosure walls, internal bracing, and, best of all, curved walls will stiffen the enclosure walls and solve this problem.
gregm
3,411 posts
 
The ratio of moving mass to total mass, in Eldartford's spkrs is very low... so there's little fear of energy loss in his case (were loss of a case).

On topic, raising the spkrs has reduced floor bounce and probably helped "clear" lower mids -- and thereby, this effect daisy-chained upward. Good to know!
aball
2,018 posts
 
Wouldn't it be much easier to tilt them back a few degrees instead? It seems like hangning them would be hard on the frail frame after a few years.
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
I use to own Tympani 3a's and worked for a Maggie dealer sometime back. They always sounded better when properly coupled to the floor. The result was superior image much better focus less image wander. Can see the results as well as hear the results.Tom
eldartford OP
4,262 posts
 
Aball...Tilting them back, which is usual practice, does not open up space below them. If you had occasion to lift a MG1.6 your concern about a "frail frame" would disappear!

Albertporter...Your comment suggests an amusing game. What form of execution is appropriate for different speakers? Hanging is indeed appropriate for Maggies...speakers for the common man. Bose should be strangled. Your Megalines, so patrician, should drink hemlock.
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