Thinking of Magnepan ... finally!

I hate threads like this because the Maggie's are the only speakers I keep thinking I should go back to. Let me explain.

My first real speakers were original Large Advents; I still own two pairs. About 15 years ago we moved into a new home with a great man cave basement with two large windows. Does not feel like a basement at all. 35 feet long by 18 wide with 9 foot ceilings. Due to a support beam in middle of the room, I am restricted to a space about 16 feet long from the front wall. 

Anyway, I was looking for box speakers and heard Magnepan 1.2's. They sounded  like Advents to me only much better. Bought them on the spot. I moved up to 1.7's but did not really enjoy them as much. Moved up to 3.6's. Loved them with a Wyred4Sound ST1000 at 500 WPC (back then, I understood power but not quality). Certainly played loud but I kept hearing about Thiel speakers being Magnepans on steroids.

Anyway, moved to Thiel CS3.6's and got lucky to find a pair of CS5i's. All that time, I still had the Maggie 3.6's. Finally found an amp I liked with the CS5i's - McCormack DNA500. At that point, I was selling the Maggie 3.6's and listened to them one last time with the DNA 500. Wow! Wonderful bass! So I agree that one needs a quality amp with Maggie's. The bass with a good amp is nuanced and you can feel it.

Then I kind of got tired with the Thiels; just could not make then disappear and felt they were a bit too polite.  So now I am going down the efficient speakers and low power amp rathole. Zu Soul Sixes and Klipsch Forte iv's.

While auditioning Fortes and Cornwalls, I was also able to hear Maggie 1.7i's and 3.7i's. Still sounded good to me. Then this thread, and I am thinking maybe I  should just forgot the Zu and Klipsch and get back to Maggies. They are really good speakers!

Thanks for listening!

 

@mesch : Congratulations on your new speakers! I have no doubt that Pass XA 25 sounds great paired with the LRS+. That’s a combo I’ve been thinking “should” sound great, so I’m happy to know that someone is using them together. I’d love to hear it. 
 

@dsper : I understand what you’re experiencing. I’ve tried other speakers in place of the Magnepans I had at times. Sometimes I’d put the Magnepans in another room and set the new speaker up in the main system. Other times I sold the Maggies and replaced them with carefully chosen “other” speakers. I always missed them after awhile, so went back to using them again. There’s something uniquely “real” about how they recreate recorded music that I’ve found missing in other speakers. ALL speakers have their strengths and weaknesses, so I prefer the ones that have strengths in areas of sound that are important to me, and ones that don’t have any type of weaknesses that are deal breakers. My goal is always to put together a system that creates sound that is both pleasing, and “musically” correct (according to what I have in my mind). As I’ve gotten older, and as I’ve been exposed to a wider variety of combinations of equipment, and different environments, I’ve learned to trust what my ears and brain tell me… not what others tell me. I’ve also learned that it’s unfair to judge any component, especially speakers, without some experimentation. Things have to work together well to sound great.

Dept. of FWIW: Earlier this year I had an Aavik 1-180 at home for evaluation. The amp worked well enough with SF Guarneri Homage speakers, but when paired with Magnepan .7's I found the presentation to be unpalatable. If I had to choose one adjective the word would be "strange." I won't elaborate further except to say it was one reason I decided not to purchase the Aavik. I've had Magnepans in one form or another for decades, and to date I feel they've sounded best with adequately powered tube amps.

@mesch enjoy your maggies!! do you have subs? iirc you are coming from klipsches, yes? i cannot think of a more different musical presentation, as special as both are have fun!

@campoly   @krelldreams  Thanks! I find the Maggies to sound very articulate with the XA-25. Extended highs without grain, wonderful midrange, enough bass in my small room to satisfy, not earth shaking however precise.