Thinking of Magnepan ... finally!

@mclinnguy I've been busy with work and travel, didn't get a chance to login to audiogon. Just to bring everyone up to speed, I acquired a pair of 1.7s which I really enjoyed. I'm not aware of too many speakers around the $3K mark that can better what the 1.7's provide. No doubt it's a phenomenal value, provided you feed it with good quality high current amplification. Contrary to what I read online, I found imaging to be quite good. Maybe not super precise like other speaker types, but I found it to be surprisingly more life-like, i.e. how you it sounds like when you attend a real event, e.g. at a jazz club. 

On the negative side, they (obviously) lack the punch and greater dynamics you would get from cone speakers. I also missed the beautiful midrange of my Harbeths. While the 1.7's have decent depth, they don't compete favorably with my Harbeths when it comes to layering.

Anyways, fast forward to today, I ended up upgrading to a brand-new pair of 3.7i's. They arrived a couple of days ago, I'm still breaking them in, but I suspect I have to be patient and wait for at least 100 hours before I form any concrete opinions. Right out of the gate, they sound much bigger, fuller, and with substantially better bass than the 1.7i's. The pure ribbon tweeter is a double-edged sword though. Phenomenal clarity and detail retrieval but can sound a bit harsh at times. I'm hoping this gets alleviated as I rack up more hours. But having said that, the life-size and life-like attributes of the 3.7i's are an aural feast that few speakers can match at this price point. The soundstage is wide, deep, and tall. The way it does instruments, especially acoustic instruments, is breath taking. 

According to Magnepan, I need to be patient and wait at least 200 hours before I make any judgements. Let's see :)

So you have both the Harbeths and now the 3.7i’s?

It has been 15 years since I broke my 3.6’s in, I don’t recall what the tweeter did during break in, but I recall the bass was quite tight and lean until they did, then it got fuller and deeper as the panels loosened up. The old trick if you wanted to speed up the break in process was to put both speaker’s close together facing each other, and wire one out of phase, and play something like rap (god forbid).

I have upgraded everything else over the years, and keep upgrading everything else and the music keeps sounding better and better; I haven’t reached the limits of these speakers yet or my desire to change them to something else. And yeah, I enjoy Dream Theater through these planars too. If anything I will start to build a second system before I ever get rid of them.

I might add earlier this year I talked to a highly regarded US speaker manufacturer, and he uses a set of 3.6’s to voice his own "box" speakers- says from 200 Hz and up they are "perfect".

@mclinnguy: At the moment, I have both Harbeth and 3.7i’s. However, it will be financially irresponsible to keep both. I have to decide which one to keep.

I followed the link you sent me regarding the HK / LImage setup for the 3.7i’s. Not only does it look totally ridiculous, but it also goes against the Magnepan user manual which specifically asks to have some toe-in. I figured I had nothing to lose and decided to give it a shot anyways not expecting much. I pulled out the speakers about six and a half feet from the front wall (i.e. the wall behind the speakers), and exactly 14 inches from the side walls. And as instructed, I have zero toe in.

Let me tell you, the results are totally mind-bending. My room feels like it doubled in size. I don’t think I have ever had wider and deeper soundstage in this room. You often read about how you can walk into the soundstage and around the musicians. Well, that’s exactly what I’m experiencing. It is truly a spread out, three-dimensional soundstage with extraordinary imaging. Music emanates from the center to the far right and far left. I’m getting a much deeper soundstage with more than decent layering. More importantly, the harshness is gone, and bass is much deeper and satisfying. As a side benefit, the sweet spot has also widened where I don’t have to site smack in the center to get good imaging. Overall, I feel like I’m attending a live jazz concert in a decent-sized hall where the musicians are spread 20-30 feet across and 10-15 feet deep.

Over the years, I have owned several speakers ranging from $1000 all the way to $30,000. No other speaker has put a bigger grin on my face! This is ridiculously good! So yeah, the Harbeths will be gone soon.

Thank you for sharing the link. I would have never in a million years thought about trying that ’bonkers’ configuration :)

My pleasure. Glad you are enjoying the bonkers setup.

For others wondering wtf, essentially it is a theory of coupling the speakers back wave to the room itself using the front wall, and what results is a wall of sound, a cathedral effect, and yeah, it can be quite an experience in soundstage. Diffusion like the quadratic diffuser I have on the front wall makes the imaging even more precise.

If you want more bass, push the speakers closer to the side walls, (same distance to the front wall). Less bass further away from the sidewalls.

My 3.7i also sounded harsh on the top end until I had over 200 hrs on them. I also went from a Parasound Hint to a Pass 250.8 more power and current will always sound better. I experimented with different resistors and ended up with .57 I found out that anything over 1 seemed to suck the life out of them.

Enjoy happy listening