Magnepans and Rock


All my years in the hobby I have never heard a magnepan - can they handle classic rock?
pops
Had Maggies for years. They are very good when set up well. BEst for acoustic music and low to medium volume in general. Not a natural fit for harder or more electronic forms of rock music IMHO. I would listen and judge for yourself to decide if they work for you.
Just to be clear, I didn't hate the 1.7's, they just weren't as good as I thought they were going to be. This may also sound odd, buy the one thing I did like about them was the bass. It was really high quality, well defined and musical. They didn't go that low, but what they did give you was very good. It was that long strip of aluminium that didn't agree with my ears.
Depends on the size...1.6s and bigger...plenty of bass slam even without a sub...smaller mg12s, MMGs, etc. require a sub for bass dominant material/classic rock...however even larger Maggies have very well-controlled bass which if your coming from a box design that has a warm mid-bass or lower...takes a bit to get used too...but bass is highly subjective...I tend to prefer lean bass over bloated bass
I have 1.7i Maggie's.... I have owned many speakers over 30 + years.
I listen to more rock than ever, it sounds great on the Maggie's!
You may need subs in the mix, depends on your personal listening preferences.

Everyone has their own idea of what reproduced music should sound like, depending on their reference. It seems to me that since live Rock music is always heard through a sound reinforcement system (a "P.A."), a listener of primarily that music might be happier with a home speaker that sounds like a P.A. speaker---15" woofers and horns.

I will take issue with only one previous statement made in this thread---"nothing reproduces a kick drum like a 15" driver" by shakeydeal. The fundamental frequency of a kick drum actually resides not in the deep bass (where a 15" woofer has a real advantage), but in the midbass. And nothing reproduces midbass like a magnetic-planar driver. Ask anyone who has a pair of Magneplanar Tympani 3-panel (two of the three for bass/midbass only) loudspeakers!

And actually, not just kick drum, but all percussive instruments, including piano and standup bass. The lower registers of a piano, when the keys are struck hard, produces a very percussive attack, as does a standup bass when the strings are "slapped" (as in Rockabilly music). The big Maggie panels produce a taut, kinetic leading edge, and also excel at reproducing the huge, shuddering wavefront created by a pipe organ in a cathedral. Very exciting!