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Maggie 1.7i's lack detail. Ideas?

Hi,
In about 1979 I had a roommate who had a pair of Magnapan's, an amp, pre-amp (at least one of which was NAD, and a fairly high quality turntable.  I was shocked and amazed about the feeling the singers were present in the room with me.   The accuracy and detail of the sound.

Fast forward 40 years and I purchase a barely used 1.7is.   I have a new Marantz NR1200.  A 15 yo BK EX-440 Sonata (350WPC @ 4 ohms), and optical bit stream out Sony DVD player.  I use optical cable between the DVD player and NR1200.   I have fairly high quality cables between the pre-out of the NR1200 and the EX-440.  I have somewhat high gauge copper stranded cable, about 6', between the EX-440 and the speakers.

The sound is not bad but very much lacking the detail and immediacy I remember in the highs and mid-range.  A great disappointment. My question is what the most likely culprit?

Some possibilities:
1. My hearing has declined.
2. I've a romanticized memory of the sound quality.
3. What I was hearing was the mushrooms.
4. The speakers my roommate had were a bit wider.  Maybe more like the 3.7s.  Maybe 40 year old 3.7s are just that much better than current 1.7is.
5. Stranded wire cables.
6. Turntable that much better than CD.
7. ????
 

jros
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,635 posts
 

P. mushrooms don't work like that on me.

DH Labs does.

jros OP
15 posts
 

the BDP-S590 dvd player has optical, coax, hdmi, and line out.   The hdmi is noticably worse than the optical.   I haven't tried the coax.  I thought coax/optical digital was digital.   I set it to PCM and bitstream.

soix I chose these components mainly because I thought they'ld get me close to the sound I remembered without spending too much.   Maybe I should have done more research on the components that would get me there.  The Marantz was the cheapest option I could find that had all of the common inputs you would want these days and output stereo pre-amp out.   The BK I bought used about 10 years ago.   i assumed power was the main thing and it got good ratings.

The Marantz to BK connectors are SonicWave from Impact Acoustics.   

I can swap out my cheap optic cable for coax from Monster.

jros OP
15 posts
 

any thoughts on the stranded coper between the amp and the speakers?  What is good cable for Maggies crappy connectors?

 

dekay's avatar
dekay
5,658 posts
 

Another thing to check is the the bar jumper on the bottom inputs (make sure that the connections are clean and tight).

Might as well pull and reinsert the fuses while you are @ it.

PS:

There is also the option of placing the tweeter section inside/outside.

DeKay

czarivey
5,946 posts
 

They lack details from the very beginning so I guess it's normal for these speakers.

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