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Magnepan + live music = 🔥

I’ve been living with my Magnepan .7 for a few days now. When the unit just arrived, the sound is quite confusing when I’m throwing a mix of genres, the mid has a hollowness and the highs do not depict the sense of transparency and finesse I’m expecting from what I’ve been reading (comparing to my Dynaudio, Paradigm, Klipsch speakers), the bass is fast but doesn’t have much of a punchy dynamic (which was expected). I tried different positioning and the situation isn’t a lot better.

But there is something I started to notice and later fully verified with me and my pals, when it comes to live music reproduction, the Magnepan is what I’d say significantly noticeably more realistic and I’d say enjoyable in terms of sound stage, tonality and transparency than other speakers. Especially when playing music recorded from say a small room or basement, the realism of someone sitting in your room is surreal - even the bass becomes deep and punchy. And for this type of live music, the other speakers that were more exciting and "hifi" suddenly either appear to make some symbols or vocals overdone, underdone, over-rendered, or have a fake sense of unrealistic details - the live music sound more like a sudio-mix compared to Magnepan.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qWMHYsmvds , in this video, the Magnepan really closes the gap between the cognitive dissonance of watching video and hearing the music, you can feel the musicians in the room with you, while my other speakers still make this video feel like I’m enjoying a piece of well mixed 2 channel soundtrack, separated from the video.

So I have a theory that Magnepan wasn’t doing a worse job playing non-live music, it’s just human is actually able to better tell if a music sound realistic if it’s a live recording. And "unreal" music usually sound better in non-live situations. This also makes me think Magnepan, specially .7 as a specialty speaker doing extremely well for smaller set of music than a bigger set.
Amp used is PS Audio Class D amp, I'm getting a class AB this Friday and see if anything changes. 
bwang29
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
bwang29, you have stumbled across the major benefit and shortcomings of the .7. Low bass is always going to be an issue for dipoles but the .7 is also cut a little short in the high end also. It will never match the ability of a dynamic point source speaker to totally load a room 40 Hz to 20 kHz.
Which is exactly what you do not want a speaker to do! The improvement in imaging and depth you notice is because the .7 does not do that. What frequencies it produces are radiated into the room in a specific pattern that avoids many room interactions. By itself it is not going to play metal at 105 dB but down the line if you add subwoofers like Audio Kinesis's swarm system and if the AB amp you are getting is powerful enough that also will be no problem. Good job listening! 3.7i's will blow your doors off.
You have been sucked into the dipole club. Enjoy.

Mike
williewonka
3,082 posts
 
@bwang29 - if your Maggies are still not performing to your liking when you connect the Class A/B amp, then, perhaps the speaker cables are limiting their true prowess?

In the last 6 years I have come to realize the importance of speaker cables and the effect they have on sound reproduction.

Maggies are capable of conveying incredible details, so they react to the subtleties between speaker cable types/brands. That reaction could be what's responsible for what you are hearing.

What cables are you using?

Just a thought - Steve
decooney
2,149 posts
 
+1, agree, more break-in time and quality low capacitance speaker cables will help.  
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
Using YouTube for a sonic reference - LOL!
dougsat
374 posts
 
Magnepans don’t always meet expectations right away.
It usually take a while to get the room positioning right.
Use masking tape to mark out the position when you’re gaining on it. Also the room size and shape is more of a factor than most speakers. The amplifier of course is a big factor in getting the sound dialed in. Sounds like a lot of work and it is but when you get it right the payoff is worth the effort. Finally as mentioned break in is something that will improve things over time. 
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