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Can Magnepan survive Wendell Diller?

I bought my first set of Magnepans in 1976, and I currently have a pair of 1.7i's.

It is difficult for me to upgrade to the 3.7i's because their are so many things that the company can do to improve their product that they simply won't offer; upgraded crossover components, a solid wood/rigid frames and better stands are examples.

Other companies are now doing this, but Magnepan always says Wendell doesn't think that is a good idea.

Can a man who suggests using lamp cord for his speaker line really have that much control over an otherwise unique technological approach to speaker design? I must be missing something obvious when a product is hand assembled in MN and any of these upgrades would, in my mind, warrant factory upgrades. Who wouldn't spend an extra $1k for a 1.7i with a hardwood frame and an upgraded x-over? Adding a ribbon tweeter to the 1.7i would warrant an additional $1k, still bringing them in $2k under the 3.7i.

Is it common for one person to hold an entire company back in high end audio? 
128x128william53b
dsper
657 posts
 
I worked my way up the Magnepan line to 3.6's before I switched to Thiels.

The Maggie's are wonderful speakers just like they are.

Could they be made with better parts? Sure. Is it necessary? No.

In my opinion, they easily blow away half of what is on the market today and are affordable. 

Why mess with that?

Thanks for listening.

Dsper







don_c55
1,025 posts
 
He is old and tired and should retire.

Magnepan has gone downhill since Mark Winey took over from the old man.

Wendell is just the marketing man and answers the phone.

He does not design anything at Magnepan.

Why do we never hear from Mark the president? He is absent?

The 30.7 was a total flop as they sold less then 50 after showing at 50 stores with 75% of the demos having poor sound per Wendell !


william53b's avatar
william53b OP
211 posts
 
Dsper,

"Why mess with that?"
Because that is what speaker design is all about? 
Continually refining and upgrading components to create the best sound you can make with your product.

It is as if they have the head of Ford automotive design running Porsche. And Ford has all but given up making cars, lest the Mustang, because they can't compete. 
They can't compete because they are making the wrong choices, they can't blame who they hire on someone else; they don't see it as their failure to make their car lines profitable as a process that they would have to change to compete at something they practically invented.

Why doesn’t Magnepan incrementally improve their product by adding a rigid laminate to the MDF frame to tighten up the middle of the frame instead of wasting money on the 30.7?
william53b's avatar
william53b OP
211 posts
 
don_c55,

I get what you are saying, I bought the 1.7i's based on a brick and mortar demo session. They beat everything on the showrooms floor for anything near that price range. 
But I have to say that once home and listening the upper mids and treble sound seemed muddy, sort of like they have a slight head cold. No other speaker in a line of products suffers from that the way the Maggie’s do. My KEF R 300’s have the same midrange tweeter combo as their big brother the R 900's had. So the only thing that suffered in the line significantly as you got smaller was the bass response; just like practically every other speaker line on the market.

Again, K-mart design parameters in an high end market. 
william53b's avatar
william53b OP
211 posts
 
To my point on the 1.7i's I messed with some complimentary drivers to incorporate with my speakers, something that has mega definition.

I bought some Fostex FE168EZ 6.5" drivers and Fostex pots from Madisound and made some thrown together boxes that I placed behind the Maggie's with just enough volume to add definition to the mids and highs. What an amazing difference!

I would add them as dipoles but I can't figure out how to do so without making them incredibly ugly, as mounting them to the top of the frame looked horrible. 
Because of this I have decided to go all in on their rebuild with all new X-over components, binding posts and pulling the fuse from the design. (I removed the fuses and replaced them with solids but the gain was not significant compared to what the Fostex drivers do for the speakers performance.)

Once I get my "Maggie’s little helpers" final boxes built and mounted  I'll post a picture of them.

But this is an awfully long way to go in time and expense to do something that I should be able to buy from the manufacturer, don't you think?


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