I acquired a set of the small MMG's at Carverfest this year and am truly impressed with them. These are their "beginner" speakers to give you a taste of Magnaplaner sound. Does anyone else have or had Magnapan's ? I'm interested in your opinions. I just passed on a larger set of 1.6QR's but I still have the fever!!!
Finally, a Magnepan believer!! I like the Mag sound. The MMGs are a meant to give you a taste, as you wrote, with just enough sweetness to persuade you to max your Visa and go up the ladder. I have owned several and share the following advice:
- The 1.6QR is the sweet spot in the line if you don't want to spend a lot. My fav affordable Mag.
- The 1.2 and 1.7 are unimpressive. Between the two I would take the 1.2 (I kept those for three years or so, bought them new, I kept the 1.7 for a year).
- With maggies like the ones above you can adjust the tweeter quasirbbon tweeter output with resistors. If you find a pair that sounds bright, do not discard too quickly, the resistors can do magic
- Fixing them is not that hard and there are plenty of instructions on the net how to. If you run into a delaminated pair, don't assume they are a write-off.
- The speakers are particularly good with string instruments, to get decent bass you have to jump up the line onto the 3 series (or add a sub - see below). The 3 and above have notoriously low SAF (letting them pick the sock fabric helps a little, but the things are large).
- Subwoofer integration can be tough with Maggies, My advice is to look for speed, smaller (8") subs are easier to integrate, I had good luck with Rel and Sunfires.
- The Maggies sound very different and better with lots of power, even at lower volumes. They really take advantage of dynamic range in an amp. So, if they sound good with 40 watts, expect a quantum step improvement with 300 watts.
- Like monitors, Maggies reward you if you get a good speaker stand. In the case of Maggies the stands involve different "shoes" and, sometimes, a reinforced frame. There are aftermarket options for that.
Hope that helps give you some background!
Pepe
