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Magnepan .7 Alternatives

Looking for suggestions…Currently I have Magnepan .7’s and am generally happy but at times they just don’t do it.

I find these speakers to be schizophrenic, sounding great on some tracks and other tracks leaving me wondering what the hey !… I’d say probably 30-40% of the time I’m feeling this way. Either too much treble, not clear or not tonally balanced. I’m no expert but just my opinion, it often comes off as the midrange being pushed to it’s limit trying to be treble. I assume I feel that way being the speaker’s lack of accuracy, although what Maggi’s do they do well, just not an accurate speaker.

I experience this pretty much no matter what source or style of music I play, certainly a non forgiving speaker. Yes, I’ve played around with Toe-In, tried various resistors & jumpers…sounds great on everything I adjust, just not a consistent sounds great.

Lets get it straight, I’m not a “Magnepan Hater”, there’s certain qualities I truly love about my Maggi .7’s, the open sound, the transparency but hoping I may be able to find a speaker that’s not as finicky and can give me the open feel, transparency and clarity that I seek.

My set up consists of:

Odyssey Khartago Extreme Amp

Tubes4hif SP-13 Preamp

Bluesound Node

EAT B Sharp TT w/Sumiko Moonstone Cart

Pro-Ject Tube Box S Phono Pre

(2) REL - T5x Subs

 

Room dimensions: 11.5’ W x 12’ L

10’ Ceilings -

Listening Distance from Speakers

8.5’ - 9’

Carpet, Curtins, (4) 48” x 12”Acoustic panels on wall behind sofa facing my set up.

Not a fan of bookshelf’s and rather would prefer recommendations on

Floorstanders but will listen and research any suggestions you feel would work.

Note: I’m just starting my search, so don’t beat me up if I don’t go right out and purchase your suggestion as others have done in the past.

My Budget is around the $3k mark.

Thanks

🔊

128x128flasd
flasd's avatar
flasd OP
89 posts
 

Most of the time my .7 Maggi’s sound fantastic, just a little finicky.

I know my room is smaller than I would like, but unfortunately this is the room I have to work with. I certainly understand the “bloom effect”.

My (2) REL T5x Subs blend beautifully, they’re fast, musical and appropriately sized & placed for the room. The Maggi’s are 3’ out from rear walls & 2’ from side walls, spread is 6-3/4’ apart, After hours of listening and adjusting, I’ve tried them both ways and have opted on having them towed in with Tweeters on outer edge so every seat on the sofa is a sweet spot. Played a lot with placement as well as researched a lot on their nuances and I get it, but have to work within the constraints thrown at me. 

Think I’m going to try running the Blusound Node’s output to a better DAC… Being I mostly listened to vinyl prior, pretty sure it really wasn’t as profound an issue till I started streaming. I’ll be researching the speaker suggestions and trying to figure out how and where and I can audition.  All comments are read and appreciated. Keep those suggestions coming.

Thanks

 

precis
3 posts
 

Work up stream from preamp. A-B dacs streaming serivices they very greatly in resolving on type, sample rate.format all play math in a peculiar way.

No two r the same in the sweat spot point, equilateral triangle in front of your Maggie’s.

Or if material you listen to is on CD or DSD. Buy a cd/DSD spinner which is a dac

Lastly, If you still have all the vinyl collection and your turntable, convert the library to various hires formats on pc/Mac you probably can find an a/d converter then stream library from networked drive from that.although that rabbit trail extends Another six months and $$$ to short to ground variable.

Or just work the preamp upstream angle. If you listen to piano reel piano, my experiences difficult at best to beat vinyl OR well recorded CD/DSD . But I recorded a lot of piano and analog so my opinion is skewed.

digital done well . It’s Not perfect but nice to play ability from your sofa.

secretguy
1,686 posts
 

Ag insider logo xs@2x

kingbarbuda

479 posts

 

@mschott I think this narrative about Maggies not integrating well with subs is a myth

 

Truest thing ever posted here.

jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 

lots of good comments here, valuable reading not just for the op, but for many having or interested in the smaller maggies

key points:

-- room appropriateness and setup for any speaker choice is always critical - the dipole maggies illustrate this in spades

-- subs are needed for little maggies and many work well, despite wendell saying they don’t (god bless wendell but he is salesman and he is trying to sell his new bass panels lol!)

-- maggies are very very revealing, and like any truly hi-rez transducer, the resolution can be a dual edged sword -- poor recordings are revealed to their full extent

audioconnection
1,271 posts
 

Problem with system interface!

the amp has a10 k input impedance 

tube pre amps are not at their best here

Get a real amp with a friendly 100 k input impedance 

or get a matching pre amp for your solid state amp

in the meanwhile take the Bluesound directly into the amps rca inputs and be sure to activate the nodes volume control.

just to test please respond asap

 

 

JohnnyR

Magnepan dealer

NJ

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