Maggie 1.7i's lack detail. Ideas?


Hi,
In about 1979 I had a roommate who had a pair of Magnapan's, an amp, pre-amp (at least one of which was NAD, and a fairly high quality turntable.  I was shocked and amazed about the feeling the singers were present in the room with me.   The accuracy and detail of the sound.

Fast forward 40 years and I purchase a barely used 1.7is.   I have a new Marantz NR1200.  A 15 yo BK EX-440 Sonata (350WPC @ 4 ohms), and optical bit stream out Sony DVD player.  I use optical cable between the DVD player and NR1200.   I have fairly high quality cables between the pre-out of the NR1200 and the EX-440.  I have somewhat high gauge copper stranded cable, about 6', between the EX-440 and the speakers.

The sound is not bad but very much lacking the detail and immediacy I remember in the highs and mid-range.  A great disappointment. My question is what the most likely culprit?

Some possibilities:
1. My hearing has declined.
2. I've a romanticized memory of the sound quality.
3. What I was hearing was the mushrooms.
4. The speakers my roommate had were a bit wider.  Maybe more like the 3.7s.  Maybe 40 year old 3.7s are just that much better than current 1.7is.
5. Stranded wire cables.
6. Turntable that much better than CD.
7. ????
 

jros

I’ve never had the experience in years of owning Maggies. But what you MAY be missing is the true ribbon tweeter. It’s glorious.

I appreciate all of your inputs.   I just did a little test and I think I found the critical piece.  I did a lossless rip of a cd.  Put it on thumb drive and put it into the USB slot in the NR1200.  What a difference.  The voices came alive.   So much more detail.  I either need to rip all of my 10 cds or get a better player.

Check the setup config of the DVD player. Make sure the digital output is set to PCM, not dolby digital.

Gotta ask, if you had the amp why did you buy a Marantz receiver and not just a stereo preamp?  IME, both Marantz and B&K skew to the warmer, fuller side and less detailed up top, so I don’t think either are helping you there.  Another issue is using the optical connection — that’s a big no no.  Use the RCA out. Also, what cables/interconnects are you using?  Before you go ripping all your CDs I’d recommend upgrading to a good RCA digital cable like Black Cat, DH Labs, etc. and see if that fixes the issue.  Best of luck.