Magnepan 2.7QR owners...please.


A few months back, I purchased a used pair of Magnepan 2.7 speakers for my son's system. Although he is quite happy, he asked some questions I can't answer and seek your help.

What do "Tweeter attenuator" and "Midrange attenuator" mean?
Are the extra speaker inputs for biwiring or are they supposed to just fit the small "U"-shaped metal bars that came with the speaker?
Are there any outboard crossovers available for this model?
For my taste, these speakers are a tad bright although they are remarkably transparent. Can some of this brightness be modified?

Thank you very much for your consideration.
vvrinc
I had the 3.3 and then the 3.5. These too had tweeter attentuators. This design allows for component/room matching that is more cost affective and "pure" than a continuous level control that exists on many other models.

The speakers come with metal shorting bars. By removing these bars, and inserting a 1, 2, or even 3-ohm 10-watt resistor here, you can tame what I too found to be too exaggerated of a top end. I have no experience with midrange attentuators but I suspect this would not be needed.

Just throwing tube amps at the Maggies will not resolve the forwardness in the trebles. I had to do this with the Counterpoint hybrid amps as well as ARC, Wolcott and CAT tube amps. Experiment with the resistor value based on the amp you are using. Start with a 1-ohm value and increase in 0.5 increments until you get the tonal coherency to your liking.

I am sure others will say that adding resistors here would take away the ultimate in transparency but this is not really a strength of the Maggies. The attentuation will allow for a greater tonal coherency which removes the otherwise fatiguing sound. And once this is removed, the great midrange and awesome 3-dimensional presentation of these speakers can be more appreciated.

John
Maggie MG1.6 come with 1 ohm resistors (attenuators). The instructions say that the speakers are flat without the resistors, but, because many recordings are equalized with a "hot" high end to compensate for rolled off speakers, it may be desirable to use the resistors. I am not familiar with other Magneplanar crossovers, but in the MG1.6 there is no tweeter padding resistor in the crossover. Most speaker crossovers have tweeter padding resistors in the range of 1 to 3 ohms, so the Maggie attenuators are just tweeter padding resistors, of lower-than-usual value. And, you get to pick the value you like.