What are some of the downsides of owning a Magneplanar .7 or 1.7i ?


Thinking of moving up speaker wise, and so am considering  the fabled Magneplanar speakers, that is, either the  the .7, or supposedly new 1.7i.   (BTW, I am not sure the Maggie .7 is necessarily an upgrade, and has less bass than my current box speakers...see below)

Besides "Maggies" having outdated speaker terminals that might be a struggle with banana plugs,, and they are generally power hungry, I am curious if anyone can honestly tell me of any other downsides of this design.  For the last 30 years, I have owned several traditional box design speakers. 

I currently have a pair of Golden Ear Technology model 7's....which I like and generally sound good However, I  would like to confirm what a planar design brings to the table in sound quality. I have read many times about the box-less sound  provided by this design, and its wide sound staging and low distortion. 

I think I have enough power with BAT VK-200 amp (100RMS) to drive the .7, but not sure that is enough to drive the MG1.7i. to higher volumes The pre-amp is a Conrad Johnson PV-14SE. 

The listening room area 12 X15ft, but opens into kitchen/dining area divided by a medium size couch. The rest of the space is approximately 12X18ft behind the sofa with a stupid counter island ( so I cannot move the sofa back any further.. The ceiling is 8 to 9 ft feet high ( not a cathedral ceiling, praise the Lord) . It is a bit of haul to the dealer I bought the Golden Ear T's from who also carries Magneplanar line.  All advice welcomed.    Thanks, SJ   

sunnyjim

Showing 8 responses by schubert

Lack of Dynamic Range . If you play Classical Music is a problem with rock/pop is not .
Essentially, what she said was not a speaker for Classical music.
By chance I was in a large hi-end store I do business with little while ago, and noticed that had .7's right next to new Rega RX-3 's in listening room. same room, same system , mostly MAC .
Owner is a buddy and ran them both for me , close in price, in fact he offered either to me at same price . Rega was FAR better than the .7's in every way on Classical . Other genres I have no idea .
That's always been the problem with Maggies I had . But guys on here claim 1.7 on up has changed that on dynamic range at least .

If you don't listen to Symphony , which has 10x the range of rock, they don't .
ps,
Doesn’t have to fit in your room, the best seats in most halls are in the middle of the hall , if you have the dynamic range, rhythm and tone down you can come close to being there , IF all that is on the recording .
4 pairs I owned did their best square in the middle of the room.
As is common, I put tape on that spot and left them against wall when not playing .