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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
bigkidz
3,307 posts
 

here you go, send you components to me for upgrades.  Better than any cable, component, room treatment you can find.

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jji666
440 posts
 

you likely need a hearing checkup indeed. That or your sources/amplification are not that revealing.

Or perhaps I just need to chill out when I see something egregious like this comment yet meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

You do realize this is effectively an ad hominem attack rather than addressing the point directly?  When an opinionated audiophile has no other arguments to make, they call the other person deaf or insult their gear.  

To be clear, my Maggies are true ribbon models. Perhaps the QR versions are less detailed, I would not know.  But I would not generalize on all Magnepans regarding this issue.

Specifically regarding the Focals, I would not call it more detail.  I would call it more forward detail.  I think it's a matter of taste which is preferable.  

 

 

 

jaymark's avatar
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jaymark
484 posts
 

I have a pair.  The crossovers in them are made of cheap low quality parts.  I had my crossovers rebuilt with high quality identical spec parts and they improved dramatically.  Detail was quite good post mod.

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jji666
440 posts
 

I have a pair.  

If you're referring to Maggies. I had a similar experience. True active bi-amping made a world of difference on these.  I assumed it was because the crossovers are quite old.  

 

invalid
1,073 posts
 

If you are using the marantz as a preamp that is a big part of the problem, I used a marantz AVR as a preamp with a Krell amp and apogee duetta speakers, couldn't get it out of there fast enough. I bought a dedicated preamp and everything fell into place.

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