Magnepan MMG or something else

Couple of options and my own 2c of opinions...If you generally like the maggies sound and think you may keep them..May I offer a few suggestions to get the most out of the stock MMG you have....

First...

read Peter Gunn's Magnestand site as mentioned above, AND the MUG site for as much info as you can. Email and talk to Peter for some very good info on the MMG..He really knows how good the MMG can be. MMG is a very good speaker, even stock, despite the size and natural comparisons made to the larger maggies. But larger Maggies are not always the answer, especially depending on your room size..( which would help us to know) BTW..Larger maggies are NOT MADE BETTER, just bigger, with more driver surface and different crossovers as well as adding the ribbon tweeter..all of which require their own set of requirements especially in power feed to them. Thus the semi-fallacy of having to get bigger maggies to "upgrade"..be careful about size here..it can ruin the experience if your not prepared to move mountains to accommodate them!.

A MG12 may fit the bill and sonicaly presents a picture with the musicality and generic soundscape of the MMG, but adds the better detail and clarity of the bigger 1.6, in a more room friendly size. I have owned the 1.6 a few times and find now the 12 matches my 19x22 room much better. The key( also for the MMG) is lots of room to breath off the front and side walls and proper room treatments to get the best of Maggies. Too many Maggies users try to stuff their speakers to fit in their small rooms or dont set them up to get the best from them and are quickly dissapointed..when all along there is superb sounding transducer that lies within...and just needs some proper placement and room attention. If you dont have sufficient room from the side wall to the speaker, you will find them a bit bright and thin sounding. I have 4ft to my side wall on one side and still needed to treat the wall with heavy sound absorbing material (carpet!) to smooth out the sound. Things like this make a huge difference with planers such as maggies.

Also, MYe stands while seemingly nice, can ruin the overall sound of the mids and highs and bring a bit of beaming of the sound at you. ( read the Magnestand site) You tend to lose the air and decay with them standing straight up.. I have yet to hear maggies( or anything for that matter...) sound better when you set them up with them tilted back and slight toe-in and spread apart at least 8-9 feet.

I completely agree with Magnestands recommendations on set up and rake, which is Magenepans positions as well.

of course, Gunned Maggies are a whole 'nother story and as Peter would say, they sound nothing like the factory sounding maggies. I have not heard them myself and have considered this, but am just not in a position financially to go this route.

Subs are a logical choice to try with MMg's..but make sure you investigate fully what subs work and those that may be too much or ill matched. Most REL subs with 10" driver size would be a good choice and driven of the speakon connects only for best sound. Many here have used REL's with great sucess.. No one has ever been shot for using a REL! You should also email and chat with Duke (Audiokenesis) about his "Swarm" subs which use multiple arrays of subs positioned about the room and incorporate smaller drivers for better integration.There's chat here and on the MUG site about his excellent subs that are made for speakers such as maggies and planers in general.

As for using the tweeter attenuators, they work at the expense of taking the life away from the upper mids and highs. Id throw them away and work on the room and placement..then use a very good cable to connect, the stock jumps are nothing special either and many find that a good aftermarket cable works better, especially if it matches your speaker cables, and lastly, if you still think you need one..try a sub.

All my own jaded opinions ;-)

Thanks Everyone for the input. Some really good advice here. My room is about 12 wide and about 25 feet deep total. It is a living room and dining room combined kind of thing. The speakers at the narrow end and about 5 feet apart with about 3 feet to each side. It interesting to read that no really suggests another brand. I think the MMGs are great so far as I mentioned with some reservations. Maybe a sub will do the "magic".

I'm thinking of the Martin Logan Dynamo. Any additional advice on this sub with MMGs.

I love Mac gear, I have always believed that there is a reason it holds it's value so well, and it's not soley for the wonderful aestethics. I have had a C2200 in my system before where it was spectacular, that was with Dynaudio speakers and an Innersound ESL amp, but when I switched the speakers out to my beloved Maggies, the system sounded flat and lifeless with no real depth. I have never gotten Maggies to match with Mac gear. Just not a match in my opinion. I also tried mc501's with my (near)current system and once again I was disappointed. Those wonderful amps ended up driving some incredible B & W Nautilus' in a friends system, but didn't match well with my Maggies.

If you love your MAC Integrated, I would try a different speaker, if you love the Maggies, I would try some different gear, I think even the MMG's need more than 200w to really wake up.

Good luck.

I had MG12's in my 13 x 14' room and I initially drove them with a modded Dynaco ST 70. Excellent sound. I wanted more power and detail and I purchased a Moscode 300 and AVA Super PAS3i (VA design not Dyna) and the results were excellent The MG12's opened up and the sound was better than I ever imagined. The MG12's were about 41" from the back wall and 22 inches from the side wall. So the speakers were nearly in the middle of the room. Not good! But once I hit that sweet spot that wonderful midrange, tight bass along with sweet and smooth highs the sound made me smile. I had several audiophile friends tell me it didn't get much better than that.
I then added 1 Dali Suite 12" acoustic suspension model 1.2 subwoofer. This gave me more much deeper soundstage than I expected. With the sub in place the midrange opened up tremendously. And since I didn't have to deal with boomy bass I added another Dali Suite 1.2 sub. At this point you couldn't pry the Maggies from my room until one day I need more space in my room My listening room was now my office and I needed more space. I purchased a pair of Spica TC 60's to compare to the Maggies. They were so close in the their presentation of sound but the subs blended oh so wonderful. I contacted JB (designer of the Spica speakers) and he assisted me in setting them up. Once that was done things were pretty even and the Spicas gave me much more space than the MG12's. I ended up keeping the TC60's because of space limitations and I sold the Maggies and the Moscode. Spicas are Tri Wired which gives me a wider and deeper sound stage and it adds a level of refinement that is scary.
With that said the Maggies simply played louder and with more power but the TC 60s were at that time only the thichness of thin wire behind them at that time. They don't require a big beefy amp and that had alot to do with my decision. I added a VTL ST 85 to the system and it's sweet.

I would suggest that if you are adding a sub,get two.Many will argue that only one is needed,but the other will add more separation and more uniformly load the bass.Akin to a true full-range set of speakers.I don't believe the claims of non-directional bass below 100Hz-there are left-center-right ambience cues in the low frequencies.