Maggies and rolled off treble

I think those of you who know me well realize I like to get a bit cheeky once in a while, in the good natured pursuit of further conversation.

But Jafox you are sounding a little defensive.

I have also owned and enjoyed Apogees, Martin Logans, ATCs, Sequerra Pyramids, Epos and others over the years by the way.

I am sure my SP-11 is not the last word in air transparency and extension.

But in my experience, those attributes have never increased my ability to relax and enjoy the music.

They have, however, often increased my compulsion to buy more audio gear and/or increased my worries and stress that despite all the money I had spent, there still was something that just wasn't quite right with my system....

I otherwise agree Spendor (and also Harbeth) could be added to the list.

Are you a dealer by any chance?

If so, please feel free to forward my details to all of your customers who have boxed up their Quads and early Maggies in the attic and I will be more than happy to show them a fair bid.

Shadorne

Thanks for feeling my pain.

cwlondon

As far as generalization go - and the obvious limitations of making gross generalizations - I agree fully with this one!

Now here's a quote to carve into stone for eternity!

One of the principle reasons for chasing accurate bass response with low distortion - is NOT TO MESS UP the lower midrange!!!

Shadorne ... It's quite impossible for any speaker to mess up the lower midrange when the CD player upstream has already done a phenomenal job of this.

Most people miss this point altogether and focus only on....

Perhaps "most" people not into the hobby of high-end musical system. But I suspect that very very few A'gon members would put themself in Shadorne's "most" camp.

But Jafox you are sounding a little defensive.

My intent is to give a counter-view as I suspect I would be classified as being in the neurotic camp where effort is made to refine a system in every way possible, including cables and tweaks.

But in my experience, those attributes have never increased my ability to relax and enjoy the music.

The idea here is that added tonal coherency and resolution should be exclusive of musical enjoyment is a theme often covered here. There's been a lot written in these threads about resolution/detail/dynamics vs. dimensionality/ambiance/harmonics ..... when in fact, a well implemented system can achieve both ..... and result in relaxed listening. One does not have to sacrifice the frequency extremes to enjoy the great stuff in the middle. And I know this well as I owned the SP-10 for 8 years back in the 80s/90s. As great as it was to bring on the musical enjoyment, I was also aware of its severely subtractive nature. And today I have the magic I had with the SP-10 but so much more.

And no, I am not a dealer. Just another A'gon member here who has learned much from many people here.. They have made me aware of the possibilities because I was willing to take their advice and try some of their suggestions directly in my system ... rather than to discount their value because I had already made up my mind based on my own past experiences.

Is the rolled off treble response (if there is any) from the older Maggies due to the fact that a Magneplanar driver consists of multiple loops of aluminium trace on a Mylar membrane, so there is in fact a high resistance?

Chris

No, there is not.
The modern Magnepans are in fact the back side of the old Magnepan reversed to the front.

Jafox,

My intent is to give a counter-view as I suspect I would be classified as being in the neurotic camp where effort is made to refine a system in every way possible, including cables and tweaks.

And I respect where you are coming from. You are certain that an ordinary CD player will be woefully inadequate, as would an ordinary interconnect or cable. As the saying goes.....one bad apple and the whole lot will turn bad. It certainly has some logic to it.

However, I assure you that significant bass distortion is quite common in almost all popular aesthetic looking speakers with extreme LF response (small but sound big). Distortion is typically several orders of magnitude greater than what one would typically observe from a CD player or amplifier. Therefore you might consider this along with the CD player and wires in terms of what might need to be refined.