Magnepan owners : past / present

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,

I have to yet listen to a set of cone speakers that can do imaging and layering better than the Maggies 3.6r and 21.1, regardless of the price.

That's the main reason why I still have the 3.6s and will have them for the foreseeable future.

I owned MG12s and 1.6s for about 6 years. Fantastic speakers. I now own single drivers driven by SET, gives me a lot of the same things I got from Maggies. I like them at least as well as I liked the Maggies, at least in part because of my small 12' x 13' room.