Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2011 12:27:12 GMT -5
Upgradeitis !!
Sold my Paradigm Reference Studio 20 v5 a while back due to some renovating reasons, so the search is on.
I have been looking for that particular speaker to make me want to listen to music for long periods of time. All the speakers I've owned in the past did this to some extent. My favorite two speakers were the Magnepan MMG's and MG12's first and then the Paradigm and LSA-1 tied as second, with a slight edge to the 20's.
I went to my local hi fi shop to audition a few different styled speakers. I've wanted to listen to the Magnepan 1.7. They set them up in a dedicated room and brought in also a pair of Dynaudio Focus 140's that I wanted to compare them with. I first listened to the Dynaudios. Holy smoothness and ease of sound ! very enjoyable speakers. They better be for $2100 !! They had excellent pace, rhythm, slam and detail all wrapped in an attractive and small package. I haven't been that impressed with a monitor in a long time, perhaps never. This could be the best sound I've heard from a speaker regardless of price.
The Magnepans were the reason I went searching. I've read mixed reviews about them, anywhere from the best thing since sliced bread to, the 1.6's do it better. When he fired them up, the first thing I noticed was a sense of overall good cohesion. Everything seemed to gel better than previous Maggies, not by much but it was there. In saying that, with the cohesion came a blandness in sound. They were not as alive as my memory of the MMG's and later on with the MG12's. We played tracks with some bass heft and there was the Achilles heel of the 1.7. The bass although present, was not as authoritative as the prior Maggies. Even the Dynaudio's were more impressive than the large panel 1.7's. I was stumped. The dealer noticed the sound difference immediately when we switched back to the Focus 140's. The mid bass and lower bass filled in beautifully with the Dynaudio's.
Track after track, and endless positioning of the speakers did not change the results. I believe Magnepan has improved one area of the 1.6, but the bass is a mystery. The dealer said to not expect the impact of what the Dynaudio's offer to be the same as the 1.7. I had to laugh a bit because my MMG's had more slam than what I was hearing in this treated room. I'm puzzled as to what Magnepan has done with this model, but my preliminary indication is that I am unimpressed, and I desperately wanted to like them.
By the way, the Dynaudio's are killer speakers...I'm also contemplating the Salk Song Towers. 45 days to receive them is a turn off.
Search continues. It's fun to listen to all different types of designs and compare them side by side when the opportunity is there.
Sold my Paradigm Reference Studio 20 v5 a while back due to some renovating reasons, so the search is on.
I have been looking for that particular speaker to make me want to listen to music for long periods of time. All the speakers I've owned in the past did this to some extent. My favorite two speakers were the Magnepan MMG's and MG12's first and then the Paradigm and LSA-1 tied as second, with a slight edge to the 20's.
I went to my local hi fi shop to audition a few different styled speakers. I've wanted to listen to the Magnepan 1.7. They set them up in a dedicated room and brought in also a pair of Dynaudio Focus 140's that I wanted to compare them with. I first listened to the Dynaudios. Holy smoothness and ease of sound ! very enjoyable speakers. They better be for $2100 !! They had excellent pace, rhythm, slam and detail all wrapped in an attractive and small package. I haven't been that impressed with a monitor in a long time, perhaps never. This could be the best sound I've heard from a speaker regardless of price.
The Magnepans were the reason I went searching. I've read mixed reviews about them, anywhere from the best thing since sliced bread to, the 1.6's do it better. When he fired them up, the first thing I noticed was a sense of overall good cohesion. Everything seemed to gel better than previous Maggies, not by much but it was there. In saying that, with the cohesion came a blandness in sound. They were not as alive as my memory of the MMG's and later on with the MG12's. We played tracks with some bass heft and there was the Achilles heel of the 1.7. The bass although present, was not as authoritative as the prior Maggies. Even the Dynaudio's were more impressive than the large panel 1.7's. I was stumped. The dealer noticed the sound difference immediately when we switched back to the Focus 140's. The mid bass and lower bass filled in beautifully with the Dynaudio's.
Track after track, and endless positioning of the speakers did not change the results. I believe Magnepan has improved one area of the 1.6, but the bass is a mystery. The dealer said to not expect the impact of what the Dynaudio's offer to be the same as the 1.7. I had to laugh a bit because my MMG's had more slam than what I was hearing in this treated room. I'm puzzled as to what Magnepan has done with this model, but my preliminary indication is that I am unimpressed, and I desperately wanted to like them.
By the way, the Dynaudio's are killer speakers...I'm also contemplating the Salk Song Towers. 45 days to receive them is a turn off.
Search continues. It's fun to listen to all different types of designs and compare them side by side when the opportunity is there.
This is why all these different brands exist, I guess. Some people just hear it all differently than others. If you saw my ad, I was selling a pair of Dyanaudio Audience 42W bookshelves that I acquired, since I had no use for them. I just decided to keep them. They're just too good, and these are only $899/pair list. Dynaudio makes a speaker with presence, and that's what I love. I don't feel any electrostat has presence. Paradigms, to me, are always a bit muddy, and never have that incredibly huge soundstage I love. I did recently hear the very latest, highest end Signatures, and I had to concede to that dealer, they were acceptable. But, for the price? Not for me.
