Magnepan 3.7

Sthomas, they don't normally delaminate for many years, if ever (they don't like moist and damp). Most of the stories of delamination are from people who are buying and refurbishing very old ones. Old dynamic speakers require repair work too, generally it's the woofer surround that goes. And if they do need work, the repair is fairly easy, you can do it yourself or send them off to Magnepan. Most other speakers of the same vintage can't even be easily repaired, because the manufacturer is out of business or no longer supports them.

Unsound, a quasi ribbon is a ribbon that is attached to a mylar backing. A true ribbon is just the foil, without a backing. A planar dynamic is wire attached to a mylar backing. Early Maggies were all planar dynamic. Then they went to a true ribbon tweeter on the most expensive models -- that's indicated with a /R. Then a quasi ribbon tweeter on the less expensive models, that's a /QR, and also quasi ribbon midranges on the more expensive /R models. But they were all still planar dynamic (wire) in the bass. Now they're going to quasi ribbon in the bass, too. So either you have all quasi ribbon models like the 1.7, which is a three-way with a quasi ribbon woofer, tweeter, and supertweeter, or on the higher end models a true ribbon on the tweeter and a quasi ribbon on the midrange and woofer, like the 3.7 (at least, that's what everyone assumes, I haven't seen specs yet).

Josh358, thank you! If the only difference is the shape/thickness of the wire/ribbon, and assuming the "quasi-ribbon" acts more like a planar dynamic than a true ribbon, the "quasi-ribbon" label seems to be a bit misleading.

Josh358 is correct. The difference is they have glued on a foil instead of gluing on a thin wire/coil.

It should make the "driver" lighter and faster. It should also give the radiating area a more consistent (pistonic) movement. All of this shoud translate to a more controled detialed sound.

On a side note for those that argue magnepans are built well should take off the sock and look at the bent over staples that hold the driver to the MDF, or the tention screws (wood screw with plastic button) strianght through the Mylar, or the degraded glue (very moist and tacky) that hold on the coil.

Anyway sorry to be negative. I am actually excited to hear the new model. I like the sound of the 3.6 and 20.1 pretty well and 3.7s are cheap (as they should be).

There's a lot of slop in the use of these terms. Some manufacturers refer to quasi ribbons as "ribbons," which really is misleading. Sometimes they just say "planar," which could mean anything. Also, quasi ribbon drivers cover the gamut. You have quasi ribbons that are basically true ribbons backed by plastic -- some of the Apogee mids, for example, which consist of three ribbons with side-by-side magnets (like a true ribbon), joined together with plastic. Then you have quasi ribbons in which the foil covers most of the surface area, like Magnepan's quasi-ribbon tweeters. Finally, you have Magnepan's new quasi-ribbon woofers, or at least the ones in the 1.7, in which the foil traces aren't much wider than the wires they replaced.

Still, however they're made, quasi ribbons seem to be effective at bringing the sound closer to the true ribbon sound, by controlling more of the diaphragm area and reducing diaphragm resonances. Since it isn't possible to make a true ribbon woofer and true ribbon midranges are marginal (Apogee used them and at their best they were wonderful but they had amplifier-destroying impedances and tended to twist at levels above 100 dB SPL), they're the best that can currently be done with planar magnetic/ribbon technology.