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Tweaking the Magnepan 1.7s

Looking to tap the Audiogon crowd to come up with inexpensive tweaks for my new Magnepan 1.7s. Here is what is planned so far:

Have room treatments. I am a bigger fan of sound absorption than sound dispursement. I have four 2' x 4' x 2" sound absorption panels that sit on each side of my stereo shelving unit between my speakers. Does a great job of removing the reflections off of my electronics.

Having Magnepans for 30+ years, I do like to deaden the front wall behind the speakers a little bit. From hanging an oriental rug to curtains or whatever. Will be trying out some of these ideas with my new location.

Mye stands. I am waiting for my bank account to grow a bit before I go for these. I believe Mye has the new updates for the 1.7s (although, I can't see any difference between the 1.7s and my old 1.6s).

I want to bypass the fuse and that stupid metal jumper with the least disruption of the speaker itself. Anyone remove the back panel and replace with better speaker connects? If so, what do you recommend? How about wiring tips - anything I should be know before I start the project?

Debating on using a 1 ohm resistor to tame the high end. Any suggestions for high quality 1 ohm resistors?

Anything I am missing?

Sound notes: full description of my experience with Magnepan 1.7s and the electronics I am using in other Audiogon threads, just search for ronwills.
ronwills
ronwills OP
52 posts
 
I will definately try reversing the speakers to hear what it sounds like. I never heard about this for the 1.6 or 1.7s. I imagine I will get a few stares when people come over and ask me why I have my speakers facing the wall!

About the few comments on various sites about the 1.6s sounding better than the 1.7s. Some of the comments come from people listing for a few minutes to about an hour at an audio dealer. All I can say is that I had the 1.6s for 5 years and now have had the 1.7s for several months. I would never go back. From top to bottom the 1.7s are clearly superior. Add that to much more detail than I have ever heard before. By the way, I have over 400 hours on the 1.7s and they keep sounding better. The most recent change is much better low volume detail.

I want to thank all those who, so far, have come up with tweaks that I never heard before from flipping the speakers front to back to the razor treatment. Great stuff.

I am looking for some decent speaker connectors to replace what comes on the speaker and will bypass the fuse as my next step.

Working on my "man cave" new listening area which will take a little time. Will be using some sound treatment in the room, moving out a lot of crap to make room for the speakers and dedicated seating area and upgrading power backup and electric filtering.
crom
19 posts
 
Ron, I have had 1.7's for 4 months and had 1.6's previously. The 1.7's are definitely a better speaker all the way around. Since you are over 400 hours you definitely know that the bass improves dramatically. I use to run my 1.6's with tweeter out and listened to my 1.7's that way up to the 200 hr mark. I then swapped positions of the left and right speakers putting the tweeters in. Everything seemed to gel with the tweeters in. All the tweaks I have done on 1.7 are reversible atleast until the warranty period is up. So far, I have Mye Stands, replaced metal jumper bar (tweeter atten) with 3" wire jumper w/bananas and replaced stock fuses with the HiFi Tuning fuses. You can take backplate off and easily bypass fuse and tweeter attenuator too without any expense.
audiocr381ve
6 posts
 
Hey Crom, did you get the aluminum version of the 1.7's? I got mine in the aluminum trim (not sure if all of them are aluminum?) ANYWAY, can you explain to me what effect the Mye Stands had on your 1.7s? Wondering if I should take the plunge on them...
crom
19 posts
 
My 1.7's are black with the black aluminum trim and can be seen on the Myesound website. The Mye stands provide more stability than stock stands. Bass is tighter and better defined. There is more clarity across the entire frequency spectrum with better focus and low level detail.
ronwills OP
52 posts
 
By the way, I got the wood inserts instead of the aluminum so mine look almost exactly like the old 1.6s. I wanted the beige color and the dealer talked me out of the aluminum trim (which I wanted). The only way you can tell that they are 1.7s is that the speaker grill appears to be ever so much more transparent than the 1.6s and the speaker connectors are different.

Would you say the Mye stands were a $600 improvement? I want to get them but I am a little turned off about the price. It would have to be a big improvement for me to make the investment.

Were you able to hear the difference with the wire hook up instead of the metal bar? You reminded me that I purchased some short jumpers for my 1.6s years ago and will dig them out and replace the standard jumpers. If I remember correctly, I didn't feel I heard any difference with the 1.6s.

How about the switch in fuses?
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