Evaluation of the Magnepan 1.7

[johnlewisgrant]

I have discovered Maggies. What didn't I hear these 10 years ago? Toronto, Canada isn't that remote.

Anyhow. The remark here that they caused the user to abandon forever box speakers of all descriptions is now one that I can comprehend completely.

My only problem is this..... I have the MMGs set up in my 20x14x9ft-high livingroom as I write. The sound (coupled with a sub) is utterly sublime.

The point of comparison, in this case, are a pair of Spendor A9s and ProAc Response 1SCs, which I hauled into the living room from elsewhere in the house.

There is no comparison. And it's not the case that I have "ribbon" ears or "maggie" ears. It's certainly true that ones ears do "accomodate" to speakers, such that, obviously, you can get accustomed to a certain type of speaker for certain types of music, and then THAT becomes the "objective truth", so to speak.

But that's exactly the opposite of what happened in my case. I just happened to hear these things; practically by accident as it were, and immediately preferred them over anything and everything I had ever heard. So my ears had to do a 180; and they did.

Now I have all this expensive speaker stuff that must be resigned to the dust bin of speaker technology.

Oh well.

But I have a bigger problem. The shop where I picked up the MMGs also demoed for me the 1.7s and the 3.7s. I must confess--yup it's a confession--I could not discern a palpable difference in mid and high frequency quality. The only obvious distinction was in the bass, and in the admittedly much bigger and more encompassing sound of the larger Maggies.

I'm I wrong in this? I'm I perhaps a little hard of hearing? Are the 1.7 and 3.7 clearly and distinctly (as Descartes puts it) Better in the mids and highs than the MMG????

JG

[DonH50]

"Clearly and distinctly" is very subjective... The MMG is a 2-way design with QR tweeter. The 1.7 is a 3-way design with QR panels. The 3.7 is a 3-way with QR mid/bass panels and ribbon tweeter. Larger panels will provide deeper bass, all else equal. You might not have the frequency range (depending on age and/or how much you've abused your ears) to hear the difference in the QR vs. true-ribbon tweeter, and my guess (not having heard them all) is the QR panels in the mid and tweeter in the 1.7 are in fact fairly close to the QR upper-mid/tweeter of the MMG. So, with a short listening session you might not hear a significant difference, and even in longer sessions the differences are likely to be subtle. The larger speakers to my ears present a much larger sound stage and much better/deeper bass, but not a huge difference in mids and above. When I was younger and my hearing extending well above 15 kHz (22 kHz in college) I could clearly hear the difference the ribbon made. At that time, however, there were no QR panels, so the newer QRs may have closed the gap.

Enjoy what you have!

[Fred]

...Are the 1.7 and 3.7 clearly and distinctly (as Descartes puts it) Better in the mids and highs than the MMG???JG

Any man that quotes elements of Rene Descartes philosophy in a Magnepan thread obviously needs to sit down with a pair of 20.1's,

[DonH50]

The 20's are nice, and I came close to getting them instead of my 3's, but placed in the same (large) room and driven by the same electronics, in all honesty there was very little difference between them to my ears, and to the salesman's as well (who practically had the 20's sold, but he actually suggested trying them in the same main studio room). They are bigger and go a little deeper, but at least back then were not a huge or even large upgrade over my 3a's. Ears of clay, I guess...

Back then, the 3a's were around $2k, the 20's $4k or $5k, and I seriously considered a pair of B&W 801's at ~$5k. About 20 years later, when I started looking again to set up a main system, I had serious sticker shock! In the end I stuck with my old 3a's since they still work, but $12k for a pair of 20.1's didn't seem as outrageous after seeing the price of the new B&W's, Wilsons, et. al.

[FrantzM]

Any man that quotes elements of Rene Descartes philosophy in a Magnepan thread obviously needs to sit down with a pair of 20.1's,

I second that !!!

[Lee]

I will be getting the 1.7s at the end of the month.

This will be my third pair. I had IIIas and currently 1.6s.

[Fred]

I will be getting the 1.7s at the end of the month.

This will be my third pair. I had IIIas and currently 1.6s.

Congrats Lee, you will love them! If I may ask, what type of wait time did your dealer advise you of?