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Magnepan 1.7 crossover capacitor improvement?

In my never ending quest to eliminate "glare" from all components I've recently realized that my MG 1.7's are a contributor. The crossover caps in them are nothing to write home about, a mixture of non descript caps including an Axon totaling 116.8uf in the mid range and an additional 10uf Axon for the tweeter. Since Axon is basically Solens which does have glare issues, I'm ready to move on. After snooping aroud it sounds like a mixture of Clarity ESA series/ 250V + Mundorf supreme replacements in the mid range and Mundorf Supreme for the tweeter would be a good choice. But i'm curious if someone here has already trod this path and found a different path thats reasonably affordable ( not Duelends and Vcaps...grin)
At this point I have glare about 95% tamed but there are still certain CD passages that cause that chalk board scraping sensation.
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johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
12-23-13: Jordi
The upgrade requires 115.8mf not 116.8 as stated above and a 10mf and 1.4uf inductor. Best is to use alpha core inductor and 3 sonicap 33mf a 10mf and 6.8mf to create your 115.8. You will not fit this in the panel base and must do it external and this will cost about 5-600.00 and will make your 2k speakers soUnd like 20k speakers.

Jordi, you pique my interest in finding a way to do this Xover upgrade to my 1.7s. However, I don't think it's fair to take Magnepan to task for their business model. It may be a $500-600 improvement for a DIY-er, but the retail price of just about any manufactured product has to be 4 to 5 times the cost of manufacture to be able to turn a profit, once you account for labor, utilities, rent/mortgage, warehousing, utilities, shipping, and distribution, Therefore, an additional $600 in the crossover would bump the 1.7's price up to $4400. While at that price the 1.7 might be an unbelievable value, so is the stock 1.7 at $2K.

I concede, however, that it would be nice if Maggie had (or would officially outsource) a factory-warranted upgrade path that included such a crossover upgrade.
stickman451
553 posts
 
Sell the 1.7's and buy a used pair of 3.7's; much less work overall and the 3.7 is a far better transducer in every respect. The 3.7's will sound 'smoother' than the 1.7, have better bass and mid-range magic, and are better intergrated; the panels and ribbon speak with a single voice. Also, try increasing the angle a bit by raising the rear and tilting the panels forward slightly, this will help to shelve-down the high end.
jordi's avatar
jordi
110 posts
 
3.7's or 1.7's same Ferrari with 20.00 tires on them. Magnepan did not spend more then 5.00 on each crossover in either the 3.7's or the 1.7's and personally I have a huge problem with that. Kind of embarrassing to be honest. No matter how you slice it putting a bigger engine in either of those Ferrari's changes nothing. Without great tires you have NOTHING
jordi's avatar
jordi
110 posts
 
By the way Stickman451 I took my 1.7's over to my buddies home who owns 3.7's and we did a side by side and he said my 1.7's blew his 3.7's away in every category. We are now in the process of ordering up everything to do his 3.7's crossovers.
shahir
2 posts
 
Jordi, I am very much interested in making improvements to my 1.7's and was hoping you share your experience / details / schematics of how you went about making those improvements. What type / make capacitors & inductors did you use in your crossover mod?

Thank you very much in advance for your help. Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Thanks,
Shahir
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