Enjoying the search. thank you for the suggestions.
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.
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@gormdane Thanks for the reply to my comment. I do have the Mike Powell silver upgrade and I have noted a significant improvement. I think the MyeStands are important. They were recommended to me by my Maggie dealer, and after researching them I took the plunge. They are well made with a reasonable turnaround time. Yes, they offer stability. But more important is that they offer rigidity to a panel that is moving albeit in small amounts back and forth which motion likely takes away from where the energy likely would other go, which is to Sonics. Those have made a big difference to my system. As for amps and clipping, yes, with the Powell upgrade one needs to be careful to always turn off or mute your preamp before doing anything with your amps, because you have no fuses. I suppose that concern is mitigated by the Synergistics. The silver Powell upgrade replaces the cheap stock fuse with a silver tube. It’s not a fuse. As for amps, I run the Bryston 28B3 (cubed) monoblocks. So I have tons of power and headroom. Also good power management cabling and interconnects. I recommend the MyeStands and a fuse and jumper upgrade highly. Actually Magnepan really out to sell these or recommend them to their buyers. But that is another story. |
The beauty of the BMR is the RAAL ribbon tweeter...and as was previously mentioned, you can still buy them from Salk http://www.salksound.com/model.php?model=BMR%20Monitors another RAAL ribbon tweeter alternative loudspeaker for less money that seems to be getting very favorable comments...and you have a 30 day return...is from Ascend. http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/SRM2EX/srm2ex.html |
Good News....you can now build your own Dennis Murphy BMRs for under $1500....Dennis is saying over on AVS that the cabinets will be available soon for about $400 for the pair. https://meniscusaudio.com/product/phiharmonic-audio-bmr-speaker-kit/ |
I had a very different experience than you. I was at a Vandersteen speaker show in Atlanta last week. I heard a VAST difference between the Treo ct and the quatro ct. To me the quatros were completely different than the Treos It wouldn't make sense for Richard to make identically sounding speakers wher one was about half the price as the other?. I initially went to the show to buy the treo ct but I much preferred the quatro. Note: the quatro were properly set up in a private room and the treos were in an open environment. I have owned Vandersteen speakers for 44 years. You cannot beat time and phase correct speakers. |
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