Maggie owners (past, present, future) what do (did) you love and or dislike about them?


I've always owned dynamic speakers, but I'm ready for something different. I remember about 15 years ago auditioning a pair of Maggie's at a small shop on the Plaza. Don't remember the model but I was astounded by the clarity. Couldn't afford them then, had 2 kids in college. Presently own a pair of Monitor Audio Gold 300's and they're very good speakers, but I've been reminiscing about the clarity of those Maggie's and I want a pair of the 3.7i's. Those of you who have experience with Maggie's let me know your love (hate) relationship with them. My room is 17 x 15 with a sloping ceiling up to 10 feet. Is that enough room for the 3.7i's to perform at their best?
mewsickbuff
@mewsickbuff Regarding the large sound stage, I agree with Mike, I've never been to a live performance where, when seated or standing 5th or 6th row, the performance didn't sound large.

Speaker placement, sometimes even 1/2" one way or another, is critical with the Maggies, Also, dampening of the front wall behind the speakers is important. In my room, after dampening the wall behind with acoustic drapes and pains taking set up, the imaging and placement of vocals and instruments is incredible and stays that way - whether standing or setting and wether in or out of the sweet spot. In spite of their large size, the Magies have a way of disappearing from the performance, leaving only the performers the music and the stage....Jim
With my .7s I find that a good solid-state amp paired with an equally good tube preamp seems to work best.  I will say that speakers do sound "sweeter" with all-tube gear, but not as dynamic.
It's all about synergy, and of course, the room is an equally important element.  My listening room is small 11x13x8 and in some ways, I prefer my old, partially modified (half-razor) MMG's  ie: they were less "vivid"  and bright.  The .7's can sound "too vivid" to me at times.  I have experimented with resistors in the .7s but that zinginess is often still present, no matter what the source is.

 Again- all is relative. I'm kinda sorry I sold the MMG's- so much so, that  I may get another pair and sell the .7s.  :)
I have owned 3 different sets of Maggies over the years.

Currently, I have a pair of MGIII. I bought them from a seller who had them in storage for a couple of decades, for $300.

I had to do some work to them, i.e. relaminate the coils in a few places, buy new socks and recover them, build new bases. On top of that, I upgraded all the caps in the crossovers (Magnepan was notorious for using mediocre parts in their crossovers) and built my own stands for them (similar to Mye stands).

As for the stands, Maggies are fairly unsupported, so they tend to move forward and backward with audio output, causing a slight amount of blurring, that is not really noticeable, UNTIL you hear a pair with stands. Putting stands on them, makes them clearer, better imaging, tighter midbass, and some other improvements.

The things I like about them: very coherent, great detail and transient response, big soundstage (width and depth), great midbass.

Things I don’t like about them: compress dynamics a bit, images are a bit larger than life (better with newest Maggies), images are not as specified as dynamic speakers.

Even though I like them a lot, I am in the process of selling them to move to dynamic speakers*.

*Yes Kenjit, even though I enjoy the hell out of my Maggies, I am still going to get something else. What a concept.
I had a set of 1.6QRs that I really enjoyed. The only reason I sold them is that we moved and the room at the new house was simply unsuitable for bipolar panel speakers.

That's probably my only contribution to this discussion -- take a good look at your listening room and how the speakers will interact with it.
Over the weekend I moved my stereo to a bedroom, 12 x 10 x 8. I know the 3.7i's are too big for this room. For the first time I plan to do some room acoustic treatment with some diffusion panels and see what happens. Without it, though, I'm enjoying the privacy. My speakers are 3 feet from my front wall and 3 feet from the side wall. I sit in an equilateral triangle which is only about 2 1/2 feet from my back wall. The sound stage is fairly wide with most music (wall to wall) and every now and then deep, but not so much high. Imaging is good. Perhaps now, the 1.7's would work best.