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My New Magnepan 1.7i's sound dull and lifeless on the top end...why?

First time Magnepan owner - 5  days old 100+ burn-in hours on them
Associated Equipment:
-Denafrips Terminator Plus
-Holo Audio May KTE version
-Pass Labs X22 Pre-amp
-PrimaLuna EVO 400 Pre-amp
-Pass Labs XA100.8 Monos
-PrimaLuna EVO 400 Monos
-AntiCables interconnects and speaker cables
-Stock tweeter attenuator jumper replaced with AntiCables level 5 spade jumpers on the 1.7i's

My spectrum analyzer indicates both speakers highs are falling off beginning at 1.25K and are 9db down from 2.5K on
Been playing around with speaker placement and room treatments for 2 days now without any remediation. What am I missing? Suggestions appreciated.
128x128nayls02
crustycoot
590 posts
 
Where along the vertical axis are you measuring?  1.7is and all QR Maggies are only good in the middle one third of their overall height. That’s why 3.7is are so much better… true ribbons do not have that limitation.  
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
541 posts
 
bypass the fuses.
mozartfan
2,143 posts
 
Maggies like high power

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now we are getting somewhere, which may lead us to the resolution of the OP,,,wait a minute,
Nayls02 has a massive SS amplifier,, and still he can not get the Magnepans to perform as high fidelity speakers...
......

Sure glad my tech geek screamed at me..
***NO***
wow, would have been yet another speaker project disaster.
The Voxativ Project set me back $900.
Good Luck to Nayls02
I’m outta here
ps
740 posts
 
Either the tweeters on OP’s speakers are working properly or they’re not.

I say the following based on my decades of experience with Magnepan speakers. Amps, room, placement, source material, cables, fuses, the alignment of the stars, and so forth, and so on, have only had relatively minor, not dramatic effects on how the tweeters sound.

Whether I’ve used beefy tube mono amplification, a not-so-beefy tube integrated, a moderately-beefy hybrid integrated, or robust solid-state integrated, I find that I want to tame the tweeters a bit using resistors. The rest is refinement.

That is all.
johnto
972 posts
 
Any tech who says no to Maggie's unless you have a very low watt amp isn't worth listening to. Maggie's may need subs for lack of the very low end but they sure don't lack high end sizzle unless something is wrong with your tweeter. They come with the jumpers or resistors to tame the highs in a lively room. Your tech probably doesn't sell Maggie's so is pushing something else which I doubt will ever match a Maggie for the $$.
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