Magnepan 1.7 speakers (asking for a friend)


Hello, this question is for a friend who's considering Magnepan 1.7 speakers. I've not tried Maggies in 20+ years, and not as familiar with the new generations Magnepan like the 1.7 model, can imagine they may have improved some...  

>>Hoping others with 1st hand experience with these recent generations speakers from Magnepan might reply<<. 

New Magnepan 1.7
Room: 14'x19'
Amps: Tube, Mono, Ultralinear, custom 60-80wpc
Positioning: various ways

Questions:
How far apart in a 14' room works for you, with open sides/pockets?
How far from the front wall?
Low capacitance speaker wire matter?
Other thoughts?

No need reply about tube vs solid state amplification, have plenty to test but this will be for tube amps primarily. Thanks in advance, will be happy to pass along your comments. 

decooney

Showing 3 responses by decooney


@gdnrbob, thanks, yeah he does sell them both (speakers and the same amps). Across the US though, maybe he can drop-ship later.  

Same answer as usual I guess, won't know until we try them in our rooms on our setups. Thx. :)  
Hello All, the experience and added use-case scenarios will be passed along. Interesting placement variation so far with the different room sizes. Thanks.  
THANKS to all for the feedback. Very helpful and saved valuable time.

Appears the 4ohm 86db 1.7s might be a bit much to handle for my buddy’s smaller EL34 tube amp, in a tad larger open room setting. While he does not crank it up much, he and his wife also do a lot of "walk around" listening adjacent in the kitchen just behind the great room area, not always seated directly in front of the speakers. He tried some lower cost horn speakers for 30 days and was not thrilled having to consider upgrading brand new speakers, so he sent them back.

To get by for a few months while looking, he’s now experimenting with updating and modding some older Vienna Acoustics Mozart 2.5 speakers he received from a family member for free, for now. Will keep looking. Thanks!