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Magnepan Directionality/Off Axis

Hello-I am a decided rookie here-I have a pair of Maggie .7i with a new Bluesound 2i, a Michi P3 Preamp and Pass Lab X250.8-the room is about 25 by 15 feet-

I had KEF104/2 before which I love, and I love the Mags too-one bit of disappointment is how directional they are-if I get up from the "equilateral triangle" spot-the articulation and clairity just vanishes--even standing up changes the sound drastically, let alone moving around the room-would 3.7i fix this-one thing about the KEFs was they sounded great whevever you were, sitting/standing/moving in the room--what other speakers in the rough price range (between 2-10K) could make the grade-I do love the maggies, I just wished the extreme dependence on the location of my ears didn't make such a big difference-thanks for your help-

tjredington
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 

If you like the basic sound of the .7i on axis then you will love the 3.7i. It's ribbon tweeter has excellent horizontal dispersion characteristics. If you are tall you might lose the high end standing up. The cure for this is tilting them back just a little. The 3.7i is handily the best value in the Maggie line up. The 20.7 is their best speaker IMHO. The only way upward is with ESLs like 8 foot Sound Labs.

rodman99999
6,130 posts
 

     Dipolar/planar speakers will have a beamy (figure eight) radiation pattern, by design, which is advantageous in some environments.

     Used correctly: better imaging, less room interaction/reflection/interference.

                            Not everyone's cup of tea!

               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_speaker

       

 

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 

@rodman99999 , absolutely correct. Set up correctly you would think it would be everyone's cup of tea. 

There are many ways of building a dipole speaker. Horizontal dispersion should never be a problem. Magnepan solved the problem by using a very narrow ribbon tweeter. Sound Labs did it by curving the loudspeaker. Because all dipoles send no sonic energy to the sides they greatly reduce unwanted room interactions that cause difficulty with all omnidirectional speakers. If the dipole is a full spectrum line source it will also not send any sonic energy up or down doing an even better job of reducing room interaction while creating a more life like sized image. 

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