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Magnepan Sweet Spot

For the last year, I have been listening to my set of Magnepan Tympani IVs.  They are great at creating a wall of sound, and picked up substantial bass and detail when I acquired a Parasound A21.  However, I have failed to create the sweet spot I have experienced with other maggies I have owned.  Between this failure and the size of the Tympanis, I am considering selling them and looking at other Magnepan models to achieve the sweet spot. I have always loved the Magnepan clarity and detail, and do not need thumping bass.

The current Tympani arrangement has them at one end of a 22x12 room (12' wall behind them).  If I change them out, I think I will rotate the setup, so that the listening chair will be at one end of the 12' wall and the speakers 3' - 5' away from the other wall.

Given this setup, which of the Magnepan line should I consider to achieve that sweet spot??  I have MMGs but would probably get the LRS if I chose that size speaker. 

Heresy though it may be, if I turned away from the Maggies, what speakers would achieve similar results for about $2500 used?

kythyn
gdnrbob
4,441 posts
 
My first call would be to Magnepan.
They have great customer service and should be able to direct you in enhancing you speaker placement.
Second, I would consider some room treatments. It sounds like your room might have some issues. 
I love the Maggie sound, but unfortunately, don't have the space.
Bob
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Magnepans are incapable of creating the phenomena of the more localized phantom image, the illusion that the central part of the performance is as "solid" as the L/R channels. I reviewed the .7 for Dagogo.com

Having owned Maggie MMG and 1.6QR, as well as Eminent Technology LFT-8A/B and Kingsound King and King III (The ET and Kingsound were reviewed for Dagogo.com) none of them create the focused phantom image that you are seeking. 

Placement can help with the width and to some degree of focus, but it simply is not capable of the same kind of localized imaging of a dynamic or horn speaker. You will lose much of the grandeur of the music by moving to smaller Maggies, which is a rough trade-off.  

I am not interested in arguing/debating my discussion.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,468 posts
 
douglas, then why say it at all? Line source speakers produce a larger image than point source speakers which many of us think is more realistic. You disagree and that is why Howard Johnson's made 28 flavors. Planar Magnetics still have a sweet spot and it should be easily noticeable. Having had Tympani's I know for a fact they will image appropriately if set up correctly. No they will not produce the lilliputian image you seem to like but they will produce the life like image I like and kythyn will have to determine on his own if it is for him or not. 
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
mijostyn, wrong. You seem to have the classic knee-jerk reaction that Maggie fans have when any criticism of the sound characteristics are mentioned. You will note that I have used and own a panel speaker, so I hardly consider their sound quality inferior. I will say I feel the performance of electrostatic speakers is superior holistically to that of magnetic planars. 

I did not say that I felt other types of speakers are more realistic. I pointed out to the OP that changing to a smaller panel will not resolve the issue. The reason I shared this with the OP is that they seem to not be aware of this.

That's my one clarification. As I said, I'm not going to continue with a debate about it.  :) 
erik_squires
16,009 posts
 
Do you have any diffusion between them?
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