Magnepan owners : past / present

I have owned 1.6s twice and a pair of 3.5rs. Magnepan makes a good speaker but ultimately I moved on every time. Two speaker desgns that I liked much more than the maggies were Piegas and Green Mountain Audio.

Shakey

Plato,
You've chosen your moniker wisely...come to think of it what less could we expect from a 'Plato'...you're a smart guy.
The Maggies are a find for anyone, and for those who say they're hard to drive, just read his comments. They are an almost purely resistive (as opposed to reactive)4 ohm load, very predictable. Let's be real here, its not as if that Pioneer was a bastion of current delivery, yet it handles the Maggies very well.
Great post Plato...maybe more people will go to school on your comments and give these little speakers their due, as this is but one more brick knocked down from the 'they're hard to drive' bull, that permeates all blogs.

P.S. Years ago when I met Jim Winey, (Mr. Magnepan) he told me, "If you let anyone out of your store without playing these little guys (SMGa) you're foolish." He was absolutely right!

Larry

Larry your response seems very informed and rational i.e. the maggie `s 4 ohm load is resistive and not reactive. Is this true for the entire line or just the smaller models? I wonder because many maggie owners seem to universally agree than you must have significant power to effectively drive these speakers. It seems counterproductive to design a speaker that only can sound it`s best with high power,bigger and thus more complexity and increased number of parts etc. Rather than have the option of high quaility but low/moderate power amplifiers that often have superior sound.

Charles,
I haven't kept up in recent months, (maybe years) with ALL of the Maggies.
But I am pretty sure that virtually all the Maggies state a 4 ohm load (easily checked on their site).
This has to do with the 'nature of the beast'.
I believe, and this is pure speculation, that the, 'they're hard to drive' comes from several aspects of their performance. They are very low distortion loudspeakers, and as they go up in volume, don't have the normal, (out of gap) distortions that traditional loudspeakers offer up.
(IE, as we move the coil further from the magnet, the emf is less and less, therefore the 'control' exercised over the driver is lessened)allowing for exponential distortion levels. The human ear while aware of distortion is possibly distracted by the volume, and not as aware of it.
For example, the typical loudspeaker woofer, even at modest excursions can deliver as much as 10% distortion very, very quickly. THAT is a lot. The Maggies, are lower in distortion AND lack the overall 'kick' or 'punch' to most ears, that traditional loudspeakers have. This lack of kick causes the listener, craving that punch, to turn up the volume, possibly louder than is called for. When the amplifier clips, the listener is immediately under the assumption that it has to do with 'inefficiency' rather than the reality of the situation.
As a dipole speaker, the Maggie is loading sound into the room in a completely different manner than 'traditionals.'
In phase to the front, out of phase behind the speaker...but energy into the room nonetheless, so one could argue that the traditional, 2.83V 1W1M measuring techniques are inadequate to really assess. I've always thought this measurement, while the standard, is static, and not indicative of what a speaker actually does with a 'dynamic' or 'music' signal--and only a laboratory tool.
Sorry, off topic.
Suffice it to say, the Maggies are special and worthy of ANYONE'S audition if size is not a deal breaker. With their overall attractive presentation, it isn't for me, but then I'm not a decorator, or a wife fighting for room space.
If you have any further questions, you can write me off site at lrsky@insightbb.com, or through a'gon.
BTW, your system, I'm pretty sure, based on a cursory look, is VERY sweet sounding.
Good luck, Charles.
Larry

I drove my Maggie MG12's (plus sub) with a McIntosh MC352 that had lots of power. I used the 4 ohm taps. Only thing was that the watt meters rarely reached 35 watts and produced great SPL levels in my moderately large/open room. I never felt they needed THAT much power but that they needed some volume to produce their best/natural sound. As to the original question, my present speakers are Harbeth SHL-5's and I don't expect to change any time soon.