Any Magnepan 1.6 owner who upgraded to 1.7?

Hi Magfan,thanks for the intrest you have taken in my attempt to get to the crossover network.I must tell you that I am not going to touch the network in anyway other than to fix it in place. In my left speaker the crossover is loose and and dangling inside being held up by the wires solderd to the back plate. It works fine ,however i am uncomfortable.I must be able to remove the cover and secure the unit once and for all. 3.6s are too large for the space available. Skiing Ninja looks good and I am sure that it will sound better than the existing unit, however I am I am biamping ( vertical) with a pair of tube amps that I likeand with Ninja it is not possible. As yet I have not flipped them, I am waiting for longer cables,as soon as they arrive I will do that and let you know. Thanks again Cyrus.

But to me the 1.7 is not better. It doesn't have the glare stock 1.6's have, and it's (very bizarre) XO artificially tilts everything from the upper bass up with an "edge" that makes it appear to be clearer and "brighter", only it's an incorrect illusion. I can see how it would appear better, but for me it has too many flaws stock, including 2 rather bad humps in it's XO.

Also, IMHO before and after modding it does not have better bass than the 1.6 does. (this was very clear after modding) It was also the first of all of them which did not gain a dbl boost. I attribute these facts to the QR foil which doesn't have the mass it needs to achieve those things.

Petergunn is not entirely right: It does have a bump (a treble/shout) in the upper midrange. Before modding (any of the previous speakers of the last 10 years)the 1.7's present the most dramatic represenation of music naked as they are opf all of them. But dramatic does not mean accurate. It is exciting speaker with all its falsities. It creates streams of sound and reminds me of the way John Coltrane threw out waves of music with its ability to make sudden powerful shifts. The naked , unmodded 1.6's or 3.6's were never intended to behave quite that way. The 1.7's are not fussy. I am sure the Audiogon and audio asylum crew will get to modding the 1.7 and correct its faults. It's ten years are not up yet.

Right on !!! The 1.7's are not a better speaker ,just different. In my side by side evaluation of both i found :1.7 soundstage smaller. Imaging was smaller-more precise. Which i did not care for .The bass did not blend with the speaker well. All being said ,If i had never heard the 1.6 i would be happy with the 1.7 .But i spent three weeks with both !

Maplegrovemusic
Were the 1.7's fully broken in?