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

[klinemj]

Yes indeed...

And another good thing...just listened to James Taylor "Fire and Rain". OMG...never, ever, no-no-never-ever sounded so good, so rich...and the punch of the bass drum was perfect. It was like Sweet Baby James was right here, right now.

Wow - I made a great choice in these 1.7's...

Mark

[harri009]

LOL Mark am glad you are enjoying them so much.

[rclark]

Magnepan recently won speaker of the decade, for that very reason. Aren't they just amazing? They get so many things right, erring on perfect.

[klinemj]

I'm stunned...truly stunned. Recordings that sounded flat and lifeless before have life. Of course, if a recording is flat out bad (or a version in a really low bit rate or whatever) would surely still sound bad. But, these really "salvage" some music. Of course, the ERC-2 is really helping too. For those who read my review of my ERC-2 a couple months ago...you know I raved about it. The Maggies just build on that...exponentially.

I must say, it was the gain in sound quality I got with the ERC-2 that got me begging for more...and then I saw that thread about the Martin Logans which got me thinking...which got me listening in a showroom...which got me to...well, here.

Amazing...now...to go listen to some more.

Mark

[Dark Ranger]

I've gotta say all the comments from the Maggie owners here have me insanely curious. I've heard several 'stats from ML, but I've got virgin ears for the Magnepan stuff.

For now, ignorance is bliss...because I certainly don't have the room to give 'em proper treatment. I absolutely love what I've got, but I do want to demo a pair of planars one day. The closest dealer is 120 miles away in Tampa.

Enjoy your new twins!

EDIT: Love the pic you posted earlier.

[harri009]

Ranger, it's only a 2 hour drive. Don't you wanna take a day trip to the Bay?

I must say I have not enjoyed the logans during my few sessions with them, the planer sound is much different.

[dcg44s]

Aug 29, 2012 20:35:32 GMT -5 Dark Ranger said:

I've gotta say all the comments from the Maggie owners here have me insanely curious. I've heard several 'stats from ML, but I've got virgin ears for the Magnepan stuff.

For now, ignorance is bliss...because I certainly don't have the room to give 'em proper treatment. I absolutely love what I've got, but I do want to demo a pair of planars one day. The closest dealer is 120 miles away in Tampa.

Enjoy your new twins!

EDIT: Love the pic you posted earlier.

I'm in the same boat in that I would love to try some Martin Logans and/or some Magnepans but I simply don't have the room to set them up properly.So I have held off and hope that maybe some day down the line I will end up in a bigger place where I have room to play.

[Dark Ranger]

Aug 29, 2012 21:02:03 GMT -5 harri009 said:

Ranger, it's only a 2 hour drive. Don't you wanna take a day trip to the Bay?

I must say I have not enjoyed the logans during my few sessions with them, the planer sound is much different.

Oh, it's definitely doable under normal circumstances. It's not that far. However, due to ongoing health issues it is very difficult for me to travel distances beyond local right now (which is the reason I cannot attend Emofest this year).

I will make it out there someday...

[klinemj]

I would love to try some Martin Logans and/or some Magnepans

I had not really researched the difference much when I listened to both brands...just went in and listened. I thought they would both sound similar. Nope...completely different. The ML's didn't sound much different than typical "box" speakers to me. They were good - don't get me wrong. But they were not great. If you do try them - I'd love to hear what you think.

Mark

[dcg44s]

Aug 29, 2012 21:34:20 GMT -5 klinemj said:

I would love to try some Martin Logans and/or some Magnepans

I had not really researched the difference much when I listened to both brands...just went in and listened. I thought they would both sound similar. Nope...completely different. The ML's didn't sound much different than typical "box" speakers to me. They were good - don't get me wrong. But they were not great. If you do try them - I'd love to hear what you think.

Mark

Martin Logans have always been something that I have lusted after but just couldn't quite afford.Magnepans,well somehow I just didn't get exposed to those enough to develop that some desire.I have to admit however that reading your comments about them really makes them sound appealing.

[savjac]

Aug 29, 2012 21:34:20 GMT -5 klinemj said:

I had not really researched the difference much when I listened to both brands...just went in and listened. I thought they would both sound similar. Nope...completely different. The ML's didn't sound much different than typical "box" speakers to me. They were good - don't get me wrong. But they were not great. If you do try them - I'd love to hear what you think.

Mark

I own them and can say without worry that if they did not sound good, it is most probable they were not set up right. I have owned Maggies for many years and never regret it to this day. I have the ML's now and they are wonderful. A bit different than the Maggies but not nearly another level up or down, just a bit different...and No you will not want to give up your Maggies to buy the ML's but I hope you get to hear them set up properly some day.

If I were to think back I would say that the Maggies, the ML's and the Dahlquist DQ10's remain my favorite affordable speakers.

[harri009]

Mark you've officially got my copy of sweet baby james in my player for the next hour

[rclark]

Dont really care for ML's that much either, that curved face is too much a compromise, meant to fill the room with sound and improve off axis. The times I've heard them I wasn't too keen on em. The curved face also causes uneven excursion and wierd bending of the panel and affects the sound.

I think King Sound esl's are the only ones to get that right, with each facet basically a seperate panel. Of course, those are 40k...

[harri009]

ok track 11 with about 6oz of whiskey is blowing my mind lol

[GreenKiwi]

I've really liked some MLs, the problem for me was I didn't like them until I got well up into their range. I found that their lower models had a hard time blending between the woofer and the panel. I thought that they were actually brilliant for a lot of pop music that was either the panel or woofer, but found piano was a bit muddy in the middle. The same thing can happen with maggies, if your sub isn't right. I actually think that sounds coming from the stat portion sounded at least as good as the maggies.

In the end, it was $4500 for the maggies... or $12000 for the ML... and well, at $12000, I'd then be listening to the 20s

I agree with savjac, that different is the best way to describe them.

[sorbe]

The only thing I suspect would still be worth adding ot your Maggies is an XDA-1/2... I may try that myself since I'm not convinced my Denon 4311ci is actually doing *that* great a job on D-to-A.

Btw: I've heard both, and I'd rather get a better sub with the maggies than spend on the MLs. Like maybe a nice pair of Rythmik servo subs. Especially if they EVER release this.

[rclark]

Well so far the Legend is fitting the bill perfectly and I'm confident enough to fill my room up with some more. Waiting for AC to come back online before I post my review, which is pretty much done. Awesome sub.

That F25 looks pretty ultimate though. I'd estimate they'll want around 2500-3 grand for it and it should be worth every penny. Of course, adding multiples of those gets real expensive real fast.

[paintedklown]

Awesome Mark!

I am happy to see that all will be resolved to complete satisfaction. Good deal!

Well gang, I picked up my XPA-5 from storage today and put it back into the signal path.

It has been quite a long time since I have heard my XPA-5 (over 6 months now) and oh boy...I swear it was just like getting it new again. It was missed a lot more than I had even realized.

As stated, I have just been running the Maggies off my Yamaha receiver. While I knew that putting a proper amplifier on them would help, I didn't expect it to make the immediate and obvious improvements that it did. Not merely an incremental increase in performance, but a serious leap ahead for the MMGs.

I have spent the entire evening, and night really enjoying my new speakers. Playing all of my old favorites, and loving every minute of it!

I was talking to a good friend earlier and was mentioning that the MMGs seem to be a LOT more transparent than my B&Ws are. That is really the reason why I wanted to get them so bad after my audition. Tonight, I really got to experience that transparency again. It was nice.

I actually found myself enjoying the sound so much that I was wishing that I had saved for a set of used 3.6s, just so I could have MORE of the audio goodness I was getting.

One thing I am excited to do is put my XPA-1s in front of them. A solid 1k watts into 4 ohms...that should really open them up, and bring in quite a bit of dynamics that I am used to hearing as well.

My only quibble...bass, there is none. I have an ultra 12 hooked up as we speak and have spent a little (very little in fact) time trying to dial it in, but gave up and decided for my other one to get back from service at Emotiva.

Two subs just seem to "fill in" the sound more, at least to my ears anyway. I can't explain it, but it corrects and fills in the "shallow" sound that having one subwoofer seems to give me. I don't blame the Emo sub, because when they are both hooked up (and the phase is adjusted properly) there is deep, "thick" sound that I really like.

Anyway, I don't really have a proper review ready to go just yet, but putting the XPA-5 back in the loop was just the shot in the arm my system (and Maggies) sorely needed.

[klinemj]

PK - sounds like you are mostly experiencing what I am...looking forward to how the 1's sound w/them and I am sure you will solve the bass. Mine didn't take much room setup to get right. I am sure I can get it better, but it's very good right now.

Mark

[jackfish]

To maximize the bass from planar/quasi-ribbon speakers try positioning ala Cardas thusly: www.cardas.com/pdf/roomsetup.pdf This allows the backwave to propagate properly.

You would also be surprised how much better they sound with bass traps in all four corners and broadband absorption at the first reflection points, wall and ceiling. Then it really comes together with a couple of acoustic panels each on the front and back walls.

To reach that next bottom octave, I have a Rythmik F12 connected to the USP-1 taking frequencies below 50 Hz.