Maggies and rolled off treble

the new maggies are hot on the treble if anything.

Indeed on the 3.3/3.5/3.6 series. Unless the system has a severely rolled off top end, a power resistor value of 1-2 ohms is a must on the tweeter attenuation terminal.

Do the older models also have such terminals? If so, is there a resistor there? And if so, try a lower value or none at all.

In the meantime, neurotic audiophiles spend fortunes on things like "extension" "air" "resolution" and and "transparency" making themselves miserable in the process and then spending another fortune on corrective measures like overpriced cables and silly tweaks.

Miserable? Not quite. Some of us just happen to like to hear the detail brought on by the great percussionists, pianists, guitarists, vs. a blob of midrange grain or attenuated trebles so evident in the electronic designs of the 1980s and before. Drop in any number of modern preamps in place of the SP-11 and you will not only hear significantly more clarity and dimensionality in the coveted midrange but much new information that has been hiding in your system all this time. It's on the LP or CD, you're just not hearing it.

... as well as most high priced "audiophile" speakers manufactured today.

That's quite a generality. And how many of these have you actually heard directly compared to each other in the same system?

This is why Magneplanars, LS35a's, Quad ESL 57's, Celestion 600's and precious few others are legendary speakers, many years after they were first manufactured.

Or are they legendary because they do the mids so well but so much else is compromised that the listener is solely focused on the mids. And for many of us, this is the most important range for a system to get "right". But once you hear a speaker do this and so much else, these "Legendary" speakers often get boxed up AND put in the attic. Oh, and you forgot to mention Spendor.

There's too much focus on rolled-off or attenuation and not much about resolution and clarity. The Magnepans I owned and heard at the dealer were never rolled-off....but they were mediocre at best in resolution compared to the SoundLab A1s I run with now.

Sorry Cwlondon, it's not neurotic --- it's magic.

As far as generalization go - and the obvious limitations of making gross generalizations - I agree fully with this one!

Now here's a quote to carve into stone for eternity!

One of the principle reasons for chasing accurate bass response with low distortion - is NOT TO MESS UP the lower midrange!!!

Shadorne ... It's quite impossible for any speaker to mess up the lower midrange when the CD player upstream has already done a phenomenal job of this.

Most people miss this point altogether and focus only on....

Perhaps "most" people not into the hobby of high-end musical system. But I suspect that very very few A'gon members would put themself in Shadorne's "most" camp.

But Jafox you are sounding a little defensive.

My intent is to give a counter-view as I suspect I would be classified as being in the neurotic camp where effort is made to refine a system in every way possible, including cables and tweaks.

But in my experience, those attributes have never increased my ability to relax and enjoy the music.

The idea here is that added tonal coherency and resolution should be exclusive of musical enjoyment is a theme often covered here. There's been a lot written in these threads about resolution/detail/dynamics vs. dimensionality/ambiance/harmonics ..... when in fact, a well implemented system can achieve both ..... and result in relaxed listening. One does not have to sacrifice the frequency extremes to enjoy the great stuff in the middle. And I know this well as I owned the SP-10 for 8 years back in the 80s/90s. As great as it was to bring on the musical enjoyment, I was also aware of its severely subtractive nature. And today I have the magic I had with the SP-10 but so much more.

And no, I am not a dealer. Just another A'gon member here who has learned much from many people here.. They have made me aware of the possibilities because I was willing to take their advice and try some of their suggestions directly in my system ... rather than to discount their value because I had already made up my mind based on my own past experiences.