I can relate to your system.
I recently acquired new MG 1.7s and driving them with W4S ST-500 for the moment (and W4S DAC-2 with no preamp in between)
I went to the Magnepans after 3 yrs with the ML Source (everything else same).
In my other place i still have ML SL3's driven by a Bryston and Theta gear, so generally i have an affinity to planar speakers.
Also the first thing i got was jumpers. I am using DH-Labs Q10 in all my systems (Logan and Magnepan) and had jumpers made from the same material for the 1.7. At first the provided U-jumpers do seem to have a bit tizzy sound to them. Depending on the break-in time you give to the Magnepans you may feel occasionally some instruments rich in HF (say strings) being positioned much closer to the listener, than the rest of the instruments. This was remedied with the custom jumpers.
Actually in my case, one of the twitter jumpers was missing its allen screws from the factory (but the jumper was there) and i didn't notice it before 2 weeks had passed (LOL!!). I had always felt the image off-center for some reason and then when i finally noticed that the U-jumper was not securely fixed. By that time i received the custom jumpers so that took care of imaging, balance and tizziness but without losing resolution at the HF. I also have Synergistic fuses in order for the 1.7s.
In any case, i've been able to get a very good center image on the 1.7's driven by the W4S. Great soundstage and dead quiet background. In some ways it is very very close to the ML sound but with very different dispersion pattern which you can tell when moving off-center. Sometime in the future i will probably go for a Bryston as well for the 1.7s but so far no major shortcomings at my listening levels (reasonably high volume but not deafening..) Sometimes with the MG 1.7 you almost feel that the time slows down and you are able to delve into the music and pick up individual cues, reverberations etc. This is similar to my SL3 system perhaps due to comparable panel size.
Best,
I recently acquired new MG 1.7s and driving them with W4S ST-500 for the moment (and W4S DAC-2 with no preamp in between)
I went to the Magnepans after 3 yrs with the ML Source (everything else same).
In my other place i still have ML SL3's driven by a Bryston and Theta gear, so generally i have an affinity to planar speakers.
Also the first thing i got was jumpers. I am using DH-Labs Q10 in all my systems (Logan and Magnepan) and had jumpers made from the same material for the 1.7. At first the provided U-jumpers do seem to have a bit tizzy sound to them. Depending on the break-in time you give to the Magnepans you may feel occasionally some instruments rich in HF (say strings) being positioned much closer to the listener, than the rest of the instruments. This was remedied with the custom jumpers.
Actually in my case, one of the twitter jumpers was missing its allen screws from the factory (but the jumper was there) and i didn't notice it before 2 weeks had passed (LOL!!). I had always felt the image off-center for some reason and then when i finally noticed that the U-jumper was not securely fixed. By that time i received the custom jumpers so that took care of imaging, balance and tizziness but without losing resolution at the HF. I also have Synergistic fuses in order for the 1.7s.
In any case, i've been able to get a very good center image on the 1.7's driven by the W4S. Great soundstage and dead quiet background. In some ways it is very very close to the ML sound but with very different dispersion pattern which you can tell when moving off-center. Sometime in the future i will probably go for a Bryston as well for the 1.7s but so far no major shortcomings at my listening levels (reasonably high volume but not deafening..) Sometimes with the MG 1.7 you almost feel that the time slows down and you are able to delve into the music and pick up individual cues, reverberations etc. This is similar to my SL3 system perhaps due to comparable panel size.
Best,