Magnepan MMG

[Westrock2000]

I think these are by far one of the best values in Hi-Fi audio.


I'll give my general review, but also checkout the reviews over at AudioReview, these things have a 4.68/5 out of 233 reviews.

I have had these speakers for about 4 years now and I still love them. They use a mylar film mid-bass and a quasi-ribbon tweeter. When I purchased mine they were $500, but they are now $550. You have to order them directly from Magnepan, but they do have a 60 day return policy on them. But I'm sure once you hear these you will be impressed.

One of the most amazing attributes of these speakers is the ability to image on the Y-axis. I know we are all used to X-axis imaging, but with these you can actually hear one instrument down near the floor and another 5 feet off the ground. With all my other "traditional" speakers, everything is more or less across a line in the middle. X-axis imgaing is also excellent, as music comes from everywhere between the speakers, not just the center.

Disadvantages? Sure. Since these speakers don't have a pistonic movement, they have very little excursion, but due to size of the diaghram, they do have a lot of surface area. But even so, they don't go very low in bass. I'd say 60Hz or. Also due to thier dipole nature, the bass is extremely tight. These things have no boominess, so you have to get used to it. They have bass, its just different. Upgrading to larger models increases bass response due to larger dighrams. Magnepans are also pretty inefficient. But due to the lack of bass these put out, you do not need a ton of power (I power these with a 35Watt Monarchy Audio SM-75 and a 80Watt H/K PA5800 amp no problem, never clipped on either).

They also require alot of room behind them. At least 2 feet, 3 feet is better. I once tried to hang them on the wall to save space, and they sounded like absolute garbage. My computer speakers sounded better, and had more bass! Last time I moved, I accidently set them up about 15" from the wall, and when I listened to them I noticed I had to turn the volume up much higher. Then I realized the problem, moved them out to about 2.5' and they were much louder and sounded much better.

Clean looks. Look at these things, their beautifull!

The particular ones I have are White Cloth and Oak Trim. They look stunning. 14.5"x48"x1.25". No one ever guesses that their speakers! Good WAF too!

This brings to my next point, if you look in the picture you see that light colored line running down the speaker? Thats the tweeter, it runs almost the whole length of the speaker, and the midbass pretty much fills in the whole clothed area, except for about 4" at the bottom. Sound radiates from every inch of these things, front and back. No matter where you put your ear, there is sound. Which means no matter what height your seat is, the image is always even with you. Although the sweet spot is very, very tiny with these. You will be doing lots of toe in adjustments. I mean seriously like moving your head 2" can make the image move to the left or right, but once you get it, its amazing.

Only complaint I have with these things is the back panel, in particular the posts. Heres a general picture of the back...very strange....

And lack of dealer locations....there's three in Texas. Although with the MMG's it doesn't matter as they are factory available only, but I want to upgrade to the 1.6QR's eventually.

Anyways if you interested, read the review link above. Magnepan also offers a smaller version now, called the MMG W, there $300 and a little smaller than the MMG's, so a sub is definent, but a great way to get in the door.

Magnepan Website

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

I auditioned Maggie 1.6s last year and, just because they were there too, the big expensive ones (can't remember the model designation). The vertical imaging was startling but, I eventually concluded, unnatural. I recall that the trumpets on a classical orchestral recording seemed to be coming from the ceiling! Don't recall ever seeing an orchestra thus deployed!

That aside, planar and ribbon speakers have their positive attributes and devoted fans. And dipole radiation, whether of a planar driver or a conventional cone (like my Linkwitz designed DIY speakers) can make for a more subjectively accurate sounding or "tighter" bass like you noticed, partly because it exites fewer room nodes. How so? Because in a dipole, the front and back waves are out of phase and cancel each other out on in a plane that is perpendicular to the front and rear. Hence the room nodes in that plane (side to side and top to bottom) aren't activated, or at least not as much. And it can also enlarge the soundstage and give a nice impression of ambiance due to the extra reflections off the rear wall. Unlike your Maggies, my tweets are strictly monopole, being a conventional dome in a sealed assembly. Only my midrange/bass driver is dipole. But it still does the job soundstage and ambience-wise for my ears. There are lots of good arguments for the dipole approach and I'm a believer. Welcome to the cult!

Downside, of course, is that the same out of phase behavior causes the bass to roll off pretty quickly starting in the midbass range. Don't know about Maggies but the design for mine includes a 6dB/octave EQ boost (a simple passive circuit) from somewhere above 100Hz on down to counteract that effect. I get good bass down to about 40Hz (yes, I measured it). And as you found out, you can't back dipoles up against the wall. You MUST have a few feet between them or kiss any bass goodbye. Good thing about Maggies and other planars is that even if getting that wall space in a small room puts them in your face, the wave launch geometry of planars reputedly still gives you a 'farfield' effect.

Anyway, my cavils aside there's a lot to like with Maggies and other planars. Suggestion: if or when you want to add subs to your speakers, and you're not afraid of DIY, check out Linkwitz's designs for dipole cone woofers. A match made in heaven, I've been told. Enjoy!