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What's Up with Magnapan at Shows?

Years ago, Magnapan presented an amazing 5.1 classical music presentation with Audio Research. Beautiful music, awesome sound, no gimmicks. Now every show they play the Wizard of Oz game with something behind a curtain.

I don't get it....just play music and let the consumer decide!
jeff1225

Showing 2 responses by johnnyb53

johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Many people, esp. non-audiophiles, are so used to the artificial 5-10dB "hump" around 100-200 Hz built into many speakers, radio broadcasts and also TV broadcasts that the honest humpless bass of the Maggies sounds thin by comparison. I totally grant that Maggie bass below 40 Hz is MIA, but I'm talking about excessive bass in the upper bass region that creates the illusion that the bass response is better than it really is. 

Even after extensive auditioning and eventually coming home with a pair of 1.7s, I was unprepared at how "quiet" Maggies are--that a lot of what I was previously hearing on playback was enclosure resonances, which the Maggies don't have. 

I do have a pair of small high-powered subs to fill in the 35-45Hz range. It adds oomph and dynamics to the presentation, while not adding a hump to that upper bass range.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
This thread started over three years ago. Back then Maggie was stirring up interest for their Mini-Maggies and DWM bass panel. The demo I saw had three pairs of Mini-Maggies with a lot of power (150w per speaker) plus the DWM. 

They were using the basic demo method of Bose's introduction of the Acoustimass system years before, but where the Bose demo was "meh" the Maggie demo *was* astounding. I remember hearing the demo before the curtain was dropped, and it was some of the most realistic-sounding reproduced percussion I'd heard (I've been playing drums for over 50 years). The rest of the demo with curtain down was equally impressive.

In spite of the negative talk on this thread about Mark Winey, Magnepan has become a more interesting company since he took over. The 1.7 was introduced in 2010, replacing the 1.6 after 10 years. Soon the 3.7 replaced the 3.6 which . Not too long after that Mag introduced the 3.7i and a few months after that came the 1.7i.

Since then we've seen the new .7 and more imaginative implementations and package deals for panels plus the DWM. 

I've had my Maggie 1.7s for 2-1/2 yrs and I *love* them. I think overall the changes have been positive.

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