Magnepan owners : past / present


What speakers have you bought after owning maggies that you liked as well as maggies ?
128x128maplegrovemusic

Showing 4 responses by 4est

Lrsky, once again Plato said:

"In another room I have a pair of VMPS RM2's, which are somewhat large ribbon hybrid floorstanders, but in my opinion they outclass the Maggies in midrange transparency (they reproduce guitar strings better than any speaker I can think of) and they are certainly more dynamic and extended in the bass (more kick and they go lower).

Believe it or not, at the moment I have them sounding fantastic using a '70's vintage Pioneer SX-939 receiver and an inexpensive Pioneer DVD player to play my CD's. They sound even better with more upscale gear but my point is that they can sound quite involving with well-designed modest gear too. Being more efficient, they are not as amp fussy as the Maggies and seem easier to place and tune in my room."

I love their presentation, hence my Soundlabs. Both are a bugger to drive though. 4 ohm resistive or not, they have always been known to like power. Once you get the power, it is an easy step up to electrostats.
Soundlabs

Lrsky miss understood Plato. I think he meant that the VMPSs were easier to drive.

"VARIOUS MAGNEPAN MODELS- All the speakers from Magnepan, including the Reference Tympani bass panels above, require above average power, and louder-than-life sound pressure, to sound "alive". This is because they very noticeably subtract low-level information; particularly dynamic shifts and harmonic decay."

I'd have to agree with Arthur Salvatore (Audio Critique) in that the Magnepans lack dynamic contrast and require a lot of power. Purely resistive or not, you need to give them a lot to jump a little. IME you just cannot give them enough power, and I easily get listening fatigue with them due to increased spl required to extract some detail I am used to.

FWIW, at the moment I am modding my Soundlabs, and injected a pair of 1.6qr. They have some of the nice dipole qualities, but they are in no way as detailed as either my Quads or Soundlabs, my Tannoys either for that matter.

I can see how someone could switch from mag to Ohms, similar ambient information, but both are veiled IMO.

Go ahead and tag me!
There you have it, bigger amps for Magnepan! Not the first time I have heard or felt that...
Forgive me if I offended. What I meant to say is, the OP asked what people switched to. Magnepans have less detail IMO than Soundlabs, but with a similar presentation due to both being dipole planar speakers. I meant veiled compared to Soundlab, not that they are veiled in general. As for the my comment about Mag>Ohm, it should be clear Mapman. I never mentioned dynamics relative to Ohms. I think Ohm would be more dynamic than either Maggies or Soundlab. And yes it was the older Ohms, but this thread is about Magnepans. My comment was really intended primarily to the OP.