ARRIVED!!! Pulled the trigger: Maggie 1.7's...

[rclark]

Hopefully you can get the situation dialed out before your Ncores arrive. As enjoyable as the 1.7's will be over your current speakers (enjoy learning their finer points), I'm quite certain you'll get an even greater jump from those amps. In a few weeks you will be in audio nirvana.

[paintedklown]

Mark,

I have been in lurk mode (as opposed to post mode) for the past week (haven't had a lot of free time), and I am glad to see that you have finally received your 1.7s.

Bummer about the leg though, and it's clearly the fault of the UMC-1. ;D

I am glad you can still keep a sense of humor about the ordeal after all you have been through.

As suggested, just call Magnepan directly, and swap them out. If they refuse, they know they will have lost your business and the business of all those who hear your story. I have zero doubt that they will make it right for you though.

By the way, I have had my MMGs for close to a week now, but I haven't really had the time to sit down and give them a long and honest listen yet. Just some background listening mostly. Life has been busy lately. That's kind of ok though, as it gives them a bit of burn in time before I get too critical.

[garbulky]

Ughh! I always hate problems that come up after spending tons of money. Hopefully your dealer treats you well. Best of luck!

[rclark]

btw I am almost done with my Epik Legend review but here's the crux of it : an American made subwoofer with true audiophile level sound quality that will totally blend with Maggies and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

I'll link it here.

[klinemj]

gents - thanks for the tips on calling Magnepan. I was debating that, and I decided what I would do is give my dealer "first dibs" on solving this. They know they are "in the hole" with me and given their stature here in town - they want to keep that. Once I hear what they say the plan is, I will independently contact Magnepan to reinforce the timing they agree to AND if the timing my dealer quotes is not prompt - I'll be asking Magnepan for faster.

And, while it is a bummer to have the issue, I have learned over the years that once an issue happens, there's not much I can do but try to constructively resolve it. And humor helps...darn that UMC-1 for breaking my new speaker's leg!

rclark...looking forward to more about the Legend!

Mark

[jackfish]

Aug 27, 2012 22:08:43 GMT -5 sorbe said:

3) Run REW and see how the room is echoing -- you'll likely need absorption panels.
4) You'll probably need foam bass traps in the corners as well: www.thefoamfactory.com/
5) Think about putting QRD type diffusers directly behind the maggies right on the wall.

You need to treat your room to make them sound like they should.

Foam is an inadequate material for bass traps. It does a decent job of absorbing midrange and high frequencies, but fall short in controlling low frequency reflections. 2" of sculpted foam is at least five times more expensive than 1" of #703 rigid fiberglass board which is as effective.

Yes, by all means treat your room, but I'd use #703 or ATS rigid fiberglass for absorption (GIK, RealTraps, ATS, etc.) and leave the acoustic foam for diffusion for which it works very well.

[klinemj]

So the dealer is working on the defect issue, but for now...I am celebrating the music! Here are my initial thoughts:

1) These are only 86 dB efficiency...are you kidding me? They get really loud really fast...and it's a GOOD loud...crystal clear, coherent, depth of sound. The XPA-2 must really like pushing 4 ohms. (Can't wait to try my nCores in ~1 month or so!)
2) These only go to 40 hz...are you kidding me? The bass is great! And, for now I am running them through my USP-1's hi/lo pass with the fronts set to go as low as possible and my sub volume down really low. But they still hit tight, low bass. It sounds lower than is possible for their specs and the USP-1's x-over setting.
3) Clarity...wow...so clear...at all volumes. Listening to Dire Straight's Private Investigations, the sounds of the shoe grinding into a gravelly pavement are just like my ear is right near the person. Amazing.
4) The DEPTH of notes...within Steely Dan's Black Cow, there's a guitar part early on that always used to sound like a series of notes all in the same front-to-back space...now it sounds like notes inside notes and notes behind notes in a hologram of sound. Super nice...
5) Even though I have not optimized setup at all, I am getting no sense at all of "where" the sound is coming from. It's just a stage...one that is wide and DEEP! I always detect more of a "flat wall" of sound from other speakers. This soundstage has amazing width, height, and depth.
6) While it doesn't make a difference from the listening position - it's just really cool to go stand behind the speakers and her the music coming out there, too. I knew it would, but...it's just cool.

PS...I am running ERC-2 to USP-1 (via hi/low pass...for now!) to XPA-2, and I don't have the tweeter attenuators in yet...breaking these in w/o them per dealer reco. Of course, I won't have this pair for long so I will have to repeat the process...but...what the heck.


That's all for now!

Mark

[Entity]

Good to hear you're enjoying them! Sucks to wait that you had to wait so long just to end up with issues, but at least you can listen to them in your own home.

[Jean Genie]

Mark, Congrats on the new arrival ;D Wish you all the best for years to come! Bummer about the gimpy leg , hope everything works out quick and pleasant.
Seems like you're getting your ideal listening position zeroed in.
If you don't mind, would you let us know your room dimensions and the speakers' configuration within it;
i.e., toe-in angle;
distance from:
walls;
listening position;
each other (the speakers - not you and the Mrs.)

I look forward to your continued impressions and assessment of your new girlfriends ;D


P.S. I also was pleasantly surprised at the bass response. And maybe I'm just getting used to the 1.7s sound, I have no equipment with which to measure, but I swear the bass has improved since break-in.

g

[savjac]

Congrats Mark, I am sorry for the damage but happy you get to listen in the interim. As they break in, say 80+ hours or so they will get even better. Trust me....

[paintedklown]

Aug 28, 2012 16:38:28 GMT -5 klinemj said:

So the dealer is working on the defect issue, but for now...I am celebrating the music! Here are my initial thoughts:

1) These are only 86 dB efficiency...are you kidding me? They get really loud really fast...and it's a GOOD loud...crystal clear, coherent, depth of sound. The XPA-2 must really like pushing 4 ohms. (Can't wait to try my nCores in ~1 month or so!)
2) These only go to 40 hz...are you kidding me? The bass is great! And, for now I am running them through my USP-1's hi/lo pass with the fronts set to go as low as possible and my sub volume down really low. But they still hit tight, low bass. It sounds lower than is possible for their specs and the USP-1's x-over setting.
3) Clarity...wow...so clear...at all volumes. Listening to Dire Straight's Private Investigations, the sounds of the shoe grinding into a gravelly pavement are just like my ear is right near the person. Amazing.
4) The DEPTH of notes...within Steely Dan's Black Cow, there's a guitar part early on that always used to sound like a series of notes all in the same front-to-back space...now it sounds like notes inside notes and notes behind notes in a hologram of sound. Super nice...
5) Even though I have not optimized setup at all, I am getting no sense at all of "where" the sound is coming from. It's just a stage...one that is wide and DEEP! I always detect more of a "flat wall" of sound from other speakers. This soundstage has amazing width, height, and depth.
6) While it doesn't make a difference from the listening position - it's just really cool to go stand behind the speakers and her the music coming out there, too. I knew it would, but...it's just cool.

PS...I am running ERC-2 to USP-1 (via hi/low pass...for now!) to XPA-2, and I don't have the tweeter attenuators in yet...breaking these in w/o them per dealer reco. Of course, I won't have this pair for long so I will have to repeat the process...but...what the heck.


That's all for now!

Mark

Excellent!

Good to read that you are finally reaping some joy from your investment. It sounds like you are going to get your issues resolved just fine, so it's a good time to kick back and enjoy for a bit.

I always love to read reviews for Maggies, they seem to be some of the most "holographic" speakers available.

I am going to pull my XPA-5 out of storage tomorrow to rum my MMGs with. The XPA-1s are just too big (physical size) to place where I have my setup now. In the meantime, I have disconnected all of my other speakers (and disabled them via my Yammmys setup menu) and have been running like that.

The problem is, that my Yammy gets REALLY, REALLY hot when pushing the MMGs and I am afraid that I am going to fry it.

Not to mention, I don't feel that my AVR has enough current delivery to really "open up" the Maggies, the way they need to be.

Tomorrow night, I should have the XPA-5 back in the loop. Then I can give the MMGs a "real" listen, and hope to be able to post a review within the next couple of weeks.

Congrats again on the new Maggies, the love for them is truly infectious on here. ;D

[klinemj]

gaglione...I was planning to do exactly what you said w/layout to share it but I have not yet had time to measure exact details. For now, the room is ~18*28, speakers are set up with the 18' being the width, inside edge of the speakers are ~3' from the wall and toed about 20 degrees, ~8' apart, ear to speaker distance is ~12; left speaker is ~3' from the side wall (and there's a little outcropping in the room behind it...darn electrical panel enclosure...wish it were not there! I'll design the mechanical layout of my next house better!), right is ~5' from its side wall. The right is further away because there's a stairwell to that side...comes down from behind the listening position.

I'll provide a detailed layout later as I get time.

PK - I will have to check XPA-2 temp...hopefully it's still lukewarm! I look forward to seeing your MMG review!

Mark

[klinemj]

Dealing update, as quoted today: "I just got a call back from Sheila at Magnepan. They are building you a new set next week. Likely they will arrive the following week. When they get here, you can bring the set you have back here and we will swap them out with you."

So, I'll have the set with the gimpy leg for ~2 weeks, then I'll have my (hopefully) permanent pair!

Mark

[Deleted]

That's great Mark! It's never fun to have defective gear.

Btw Magnepan is like 30 minutes from me ;D

[pdaddy]

Aug 28, 2012 16:38:28 GMT -5 klinemj said:

So the dealer is working on the defect issue, but for now...I am celebrating the music! Here are my initial thoughts:

1) These are only 86 dB efficiency...are you kidding me? They get really loud really fast...and it's a GOOD loud...crystal clear, coherent, depth of sound. The XPA-2 must really like pushing 4 ohms. (Can't wait to try my nCores in ~1 month or so!)
2) These only go to 40 hz...are you kidding me? The bass is great! And, for now I am running them through my USP-1's hi/lo pass with the fronts set to go as low as possible and my sub volume down really low. But they still hit tight, low bass. It sounds lower than is possible for their specs and the USP-1's x-over setting.
3) Clarity...wow...so clear...at all volumes. Listening to Dire Straight's Private Investigations, the sounds of the shoe grinding into a gravelly pavement are just like my ear is right near the person. Amazing.
4) The DEPTH of notes...within Steely Dan's Black Cow, there's a guitar part early on that always used to sound like a series of notes all in the same front-to-back space...now it sounds like notes inside notes and notes behind notes in a hologram of sound. Super nice...
5) Even though I have not optimized setup at all, I am getting no sense at all of "where" the sound is coming from. It's just a stage...one that is wide and DEEP! I always detect more of a "flat wall" of sound from other speakers. This soundstage has amazing width, height, and depth.
6) While it doesn't make a difference from the listening position - it's just really cool to go stand behind the speakers and her the music coming out there, too. I knew it would, but...it's just cool.

PS...I am running ERC-2 to USP-1 (via hi/low pass...for now!) to XPA-2, and I don't have the tweeter attenuators in yet...breaking these in w/o them per dealer reco. Of course, I won't have this pair for long so I will have to repeat the process...but...what the heck.


That's all for now!

Mark

Mark,
Just jumping on the thread. I have been thinking about the 1.7's for a while and look forward to continued feedback here plus chatting more at Emofest, but so far, I am sold. Thanks for the great review insight so far. I will stay tuned.

[rclark]

PK, Maggies REALLY reveal the differences in amps, and simply explode with improvement as you give them better, and more power. If you have XPA'1s you really should try it at least once, just take them to the XPA's.


Mark, glad to see they are giving you the royal treatment, a brand new set.

[klinemj]

Yes indeed, rclark! I demanded the whole new set. The dealer had first said, "maybe we could get them to send 1 new one", and I said, "no...Magnepan sells these in matched serial number sets...whether it affects the sound or not, having unmatched sets could reduce resale value down the line, so I won't start with that risk". They said "OK" and worked it w/Magnepan. Had the answer been "no" I was going to tell the dealer they could just take them back and deal w/Magnepan on their own, then call up a dealer in one of the nearest towns (Indy, Louisville, Columbus) that carries them & order from them. I'm glad it didn't come to that!

Mark

[rclark]

That was smart. Don't worry, this time will fly by!

[klinemj]

Yes - and 4 days of it are Emofest, and the remaining days will be filled with me finishing prepping the cases for the nCores (I am down to prepping the back plates w/holes for the inputs/outputs & putting in the 2 I have already + doing the "grills covers" that cover the unfinished aluminum sides) and doing stuff with my family & my community activities (FLL Coach + Scout Leader)!

Mark

[rclark]

Oh wow Mark, that's a good life.