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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
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?
utley1
44 posts
 
Ron - Crom- & Audio
May I ask what you are driving your speakers with?
THANKS
crom
19 posts
 
Ron, my 1.6's were black with cherry trim but I like the look of the aluminum trim better. Although it may just be cosmetic, I think the aluminum stiles add a little stability to keep the mdf from doing any flexing whereas the wood stiles are plainly cosmetic. As far as the value of Mye Stands, that would be up to you. I plan on having my 1.7's for awhile so I think the Mye Stands are a good investment and they definitely improve the sound. As for jumpers, the first thing my dealer said was to get rid of those crappy metal bars. I had some jumpers and installed them without any comparison. The fuses I used are HiFi Tuning 4amp fast blow (gold)fuses which are on sale right now. If I used one word to describe them it would be "cleaner." Like I said before, I decided to keep fuses in while still under warranty and using a better quality fuse gets me closer to no fuse at all.
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