Magnepan owners : past / present

"i went down in size and bought Merlin TSM-mme"

Good small monitors are a reasonable option to Maggies for many IMHO.

Not exactly the same in terms of the nature of the sound, but a lot of the same strengths in a slightly different flavor.

Good small monitors are a reasonable alternative especially if what you are seeking is more kick and impact in the dynamics than one typically gets with planars alone.

I started with Magneplanar - Magnepan speakers when they first arrived on the scene - Tympani 1U, a couple of other Tympani, ending with the Tympani IV-A, also owned MG-3.6r and MG-20.1 speakers.

To my way of thinking, nothing at similar price points to the various Magnepan speakers comes close in direct comparison.

The biggest problem with the Magnepan speakers, in my situation, is the physical size. My several music rooms have required that speakers be placed in front of windows and the wonderful things do mess up a view.

I replaced my last pair of Maggies (the 20.1's) with a pair of Avalon Eidolons which cost almost twice as much and sounded so good that I was reasonably satisfied with the trade. But note that as I stated earlier, I had to spend a lot more money to equal the Magnepan sound.

I went from Dynaudio Contour 3.0 to Maggie 3.6R after a 20yr maggie hiatus. I became disillusioned with the bass again- 'who pulled the plug on the bass player?'. I don't like the idea of integrating with a subwoofer. Instead of investing further in maggie modifications and more power, I built a Scan-Speak DIY design from Zaphaudio and have never looked back. The only sacrifice to me being soundstage size at low volume. IMO the maggie 'boxless' sound is not as 'transparent' as the Zaphs. I hear more musical information and satisfying bass.
However,I would still take the 3.6Rs over the Dyns.

Two comments - In the late '70s I had to downsize ($ wise) my system and ended up with a used pair of MG IIs driven by a Sansui AU 717. I don't recall the output of that amp but it was close to 100 wpc. It was a magical match and through several system upgrades that followed in later years I regretted selling those Maggies.

More recently I've heard current Maggie models at shows or dealers. I always appreciate the openness and percussive detail they offer. But my biggest issue has always been they only seem to "come alive" when played at fairly loud levels. I suspect this relates to their inability to move much air in the 60-300 Hz range unless they are turned up. I don't always want to listen at 90 dB levels. Some may then suggest adding a subwoofer but I believe making a sonic match is very difficult.

I'm not a fan of the bigger Maggies 3.6/20.1 but do find the 1.6/1.7 very good sounding speakers and quite possibly the best value in hi-fi today..

regards,