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Broken hearted...magnepan and vandersteen

I finally got an opportunity to hear the 1.7i magnepan. I will blame my ears and taste, but I was underwhelmed. I heard them with tweeters inside and outside for comparison. outside did sound a bit better. Then I allowed them to play the vandersteen quatro ct. The speakers disappeared into the music. Deep, tall, wide soundstage with excellent imaging and air around the different instruments. Full range sound. Thankfully the trio ct sounded almost the quatros equal. I really was ready to go with magnepan. I was surprised. All other speakers are sounding inferior now. 
glfrancis2
larry5729's avatar
larry5729
1,008 posts
 
Call Jim Salk at Salk Audio.  His Song3 Encores at $6,000 sound incredible.  Listened to them at RMAF and they were by far the best speakers under $20,000.  Jim sells direct, but uses the best speakers and his cabinet workmanship is custom and really high quality.  Tell him Larry Edwards sent you.  He is incredibly nice and knowledgeable.
gdnrbob
4,444 posts
 
@OP,
I concur with your description of the Golden Ears.
Like I said, you have good hearing. Good taste,too👍
B
glfrancis2 OP
27 posts
 
Fantastic suggestions. if I am seriously pondering quattros, there have to be a lot of other speakers to listen to. The salk and spatial audio intrigue me. But difficult to hear any of these. FWIW, I have a mild case of OCD and research things, especially when spending a good chunk of change. maybe I need to visit all the rooms in Vegas one year when they have all these toys on display. Take lots of notes. 
jl35
3,977 posts
 
In some ways it’s like do lots of homework then take your best guess...because there’s no way to hear all the excellent speakers in your price range in your own room with all possible electronics 
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
...but with 11 bands of analog EQ you can tune any powered bass Vandersteen FOR the room you are in. I recently moved my pair 9” and reran the EQ, not massive differences but certainly a few tweaks, THEN listen and set level and Q. BTW a nice review of the Quattro CT and matching 5 high pass amplifiers in this month Stereophile, including measurements built on a tower of salt....

fun, enjoy the music....
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