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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
axeis1
293 posts
 
To the OP: I recently bought Dynaudio Special 40's $3K they sound amazing.. Not sure where your'e located sounds like East Coast, maybe Sound Connection is the dealer??  anyway the other speakers to listen to ProAc, or Harbeth..
f917025
81 posts
 
it's very difficult and arbitrary to even find something you really like.
so i see no point in listening to even more expensive speakers .the trio ct looks really nice in ebony if it's too pricey try a second hand pair of quatros or older vandersteens. you can get a 10 year old flagship at the price of a current entry level speaker.
stewart0722
184 posts
 
You should stick to the proven high quality classics....

Find the very best pair of Bose 901s you can get your hands on
and be happy for the rest of your life!

They will obliterate both Maggie and Vandersteen!
coachpoconnor's avatar
coachpoconnor
380 posts
 
To each his own.. I guess
pwhinson
158 posts
 
Look, if you’re going to compare a Magnepan, compare the 20.7 to the Quattro. That will be more of a horse race. Still cheaper than the Quattro but within $1K of each other I believe. I liked the Quattro ALOT and came very close to buying them in an exotic wood (I purchased Thiels from the same dealer 12 years ago also in a custom wood). I was auditioning numerous other speakers including Magicos and Von Schweikert at higher price points. The thing about Magnepans is that I really do feel like you have to have a fairly deep room so that you can bring them 5-6’ out from the front wall to really get them to sing. I have them 6’ out from my front wall and I’m having diffusion panels built to hang all across that front wall. The larger the room up to say 25 x 35, the better the 20.7’s will sound. If you haven’t heard the 20.7’s they do BASS in a way that speakers farther down the line simply can’t do: powerful deep and accurate. It requires alot from your powerful high current power amp to get them there but they are astonishing top to bottom when properly set up with the right electronics. For classical music, their soundstaging is unsurpassed in my opinion.  That is with the possible exception of the big Sound Labs (I’ve had smaller Sound Labs so I’m guessing that the top end of that line would also be astonishingly coherent and quick top to bottom and quite likely even better.
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