Can Magnepan survive Wendell Diller?

I hope the following will be regarded as a constructive contribution to this thread.

"The fallacy of begging the question occurs when an argument’s premises assume the truth of the conclusion, instead of supporting it. In other words, you assume without proof the stand/position, or a significant part of the stand, that is in question."

Wouw , many here that love it and a few that really hate it. 

So let's start with a story here , I got since 3 years now a completely rebuild Tympani I (magnepan rebuild it)   , aside from that a mgII I rebuild myself, a mgI I rebuild myself and I have a couple of mmgw. My past maggies, were smg and a mgI 

I saw someone post a rather lengthy "they are hard to drive and cheap blabla" no they are actually not hard to drive , at all. Planar speakers are a resistive load, many amplifiers out there will not have any issues running them. They don't dip in impedance that crazy much, and for sure do not "peak and valley" like cones do. 

That's okay, it's a generic misconception about magnepans in general. Then the crossover parts, you ever opened up a Revel ? Sonus faber? Klipsch ? A infinity (arnie nudell) ? You, think they have all polycaps and air gap inductors?! Keep thinking that😉

There is always, a cost saving factor present with ANY (not talking exotic here) speaker you can possibly think off. Magnepans, have been consistent with their friendly prices, a lrs performs way above it's $650 price tag. New ! 

"But I got a a speaker I bought of ebay and that one sounds better at the same price" well ya! As you bought a speaker, that's most likely vintage, and at the time was a good BIT MORE expensive ! So account for inflation, you're comparing a speaker that cost a good bit more than a new Maggie does. That's the apples and oranges comparison that holds, 0 merits imho. 

Magnepan 30.7 was not the speaker they intended to build. I spoke to Ryan (production service manager) he told me straight up "the whole idea was to make a Tympani again. But improved , they steered away from it and made the 30.7 which sells sporadically! From a commerical point of view it's indeed a fail. However, take a look at the specs a planar that specs 20hz at 3db or so , is a incredible design feat! He did tell me to never get rid of my Tympani, I won't it's by far the best speaker I got and this. 

Keeping in mind I have a infinity rs1b ,kappa 9 , kappa 6.1, renaissance 80 , rsII, rs4 ,QE, and tons of cone speakers to compare. None of them can produce the open soundfield the Tympani (caveat I use subs and active crossovers) does. It's not even close, and that doesn't mean I hate cone. 

Again I got plenty cone speakers and enjoy the. Just as well. So not being biased because I have so many maggies. I got more cone than maggies. 

Aside from their speakers being incredible, let's talk about their service ! I had mine rebuild,imagine that okay folks. A 1974 speaker ,being rebuild by the company that designed then is unheard off. Rebuild kits readily available they support their customers ! USA made , very competitive prices... .

They let you hear what your gear is doing, they guys that I heard saying "they sound thin or terrible" the second they throw a amp on there that FITS the speaker they are running. 

Wow.....it's a revelation, it really is key is equipment. These type of speakers don't color the sound field like cabinet speakers do. The quasi ribbon tweeter is more than capable to give you fantastic highs, their ribbon (true) is better but extremely fragile. 

I don't get the haters, but yet again I don't really care. Each to their own, but me going back to cone again ?! Is virtually proven to be impossible for me... I don't miss the boxiness of them . 

For more than 25 years I have used Maggies with true ribbon tweeter (MG 3.3, MG 20 and now 20.7) and not once has this driver failed. Even my old 3.3 with the protection fuse replaced by a copper bar could handle realistic sound levels without any problems. So don’t let their presumed fragile construction hold you back, just make sure the cleaning lady keeps the vacuum cleaner away!

I agree Maggies are not particularly hard to drive with their even 4 ohm load, but their low sensitivity does require sufficient power. But they have slightly improved on this over the years. The 20.7 now has push pull quasi ribbon bass panels, which are more of a kind with the push pull quasi ribbon mids. This made it possible to do away with that large outboard crossover box of the MG 20 and 20.1 which ate up lots of amp power. Still, don’t expect them to make music on a low powered SET.

The OP’s post is not really a question, but a statement. He already assumes/ BEGS the answer. Some of the subsequent posts are shameful ad hominem attacks on Wendell Diller.

Magnepan is a small American company that has been in existence for well over 40 years. It is a great company, and they sure as hell know what they’re doing. Mr. Diller, like all of us, will eventually pass from the scene. But I strongly suspect that Magnepan will be around longer than many of us.

Malcontents must surely lead a dreary life, and it seems that there are all too many in our wonderful hobby.

@ps555


If this was just a cheap shot at Wendell and Magnepan, I would have left it at that. Well, actually I wouldn’t have posted it in the first place since the point to that would have been what to me? I have several legitimate beefs with the company, and it’s a crime to air them? And when it’s an individual in that company I should throw the company under the bus to protect their identity? 

What’s more I have spent the intervening time researching and upgrading my Magnepan’s, putting my former knowledge from working in Design and Development to good use,  and they can buy these back from me if they want to reasonably make significant upgrades to this series. So I have visibly placed the ball in their court, and time will if my assertions are valid or not.


Sorry, that’s why nothing ever gets done in the world. The only time it does on this level is when the problem is defined and then acted on. And apparently you haven’t read this thread, because many other people have the same issues with Magnepan, and wrote about them here.


Strip all of the side chatter out and you will find pertinent information on this post.


Since I posted this I have learned a lot about Magnepan. One of the prescient points is that all of the company is holding the company back, and there isn’t a lot of it left, so if it survives that rests on their shoulders, not one post on a single audiophile forum out of the hundreds available.


I and others have posted more here that is beneficial to the company and it’s product then any damage a single post could do, and if they don’t want to listen that’s their conscious decision and they will have to live with the results of that decision, just like they have been for a very long time.


Having stripped the panels down and having spent close to $1k on test equipment and crossover parts for comparison analysis, crossover points and blending first, second and third order crossover combinations that are not "conventional" I have gotten to the point where I have gotten a relatively flat curve from my 1.7i’s from 60hz to 11khz. Something the company cannot apparently do.


Right now I’m making changes to the panel geometry and wiring of that to smooth the curve even more, as well as changing the geometry of the face of the speaker to eliminate some inconsistencies in the curve caused by reflections from the mounting point relative to its MDF surround and the structural side supports, which don’t have to be as thick or forward of the radiating surface as they are, thereby allowing me to remove the "buttons" from the membrane and improve bass response.


I have also tested 3 amps while doing this work and can tell you the simple fact that, until recently with Class D amps, any amp worth buying to use with these speakers can be judged in one listening session, so the bs on their web site about them not having time to make a list of amps that people have had success with is disingenuous.


So from a Marketing standpoint, abdicating responsibility for recommendations of successful combinations of amp/speaker/etc is something that has always hurt their sales. And anyone could simply send an email to the retail stores that sell their product for a list of acceptable combinations, thereby putting that particular bugaboo to bed.


Of course there are other recommendations that could be gathered and published in a FAQ’s page on their site that deals with everything from speaker cable rec’s to subs that actually do work with their speakers. So 14awg lamp wire? No! 10 gauge single strand common house wire twisted together with a vice and electric drill? Oh Hell Yes!


I think the amount of time and money I have spent on proving that this post is prescient says more than any offhand quip someone may dash off, so to your point: yes, I posted a question.