Ok gang,
I went to the local Magnepan dealer today and spent some quality time with the 1.7 and MMG models. Nearly an hour and a half with each model, and I was in control of the volume and had brought in three different mix discs that were jam packed with every single "reference" or "torture test" track I could think of, and contained a fairly wide variety of music.
The source was a Samsung BD player, HDMI into a Marantz SR7005 receiver. Yes, you read that right, the dealer was powering Magnepans with a receiver. I was shocked to see this as well. That is, until I fired it up.
I have to admit that I have never heard a receiver that sounded as good as this Marantz model. I was VERY impressed by the amount of control, and clean, clear sound this little beast could produce. In fact, I felt the performance was so good, that I equated it to how a smaller (than my XPA-5) multichannel external amplifier would do. Super clean, and it could get loud without really breaking a sweat. In fact, I played both pairs of the Maggies to what I would consider to be "a lot louder than my average listening volume" and I never felt the Marantz' internal amplifiers were going to give up... and they never did.
When I was finished, I spent a bit of time discussing the Marantz with the dealer, and stated that I had never heard a better sounding receiver, he shared the same sentiment and stated that he never thought he would be powering Maggies with one.
Anyway, enough about the Marantz. This is about Magnepan speakers, but to be honest, I was so impressed by the Marantz' performance that I felt it should not be ignored in this "write up" of my thoughts. If you are looking for a receiver that can drive fairly hard to drive speakers (such as Maggies) I think this may be just the ticket!
First up was the Magnepan 1.7 models. These were the ones with the anodized aluminum frame (at least I believe that is what the dealer said it was). Having not really spent much time with any Magnepan models, I wasn't completely sure what to expect.
I popped in one of my mix discs and sat back with the remote in hand to have a listen. I had such a wide mix of things I listened to that I didn't take many serious "mental notes" about what I heard, but more, I listened to how they sounded in relation to what I am used to hearing with my XPA-1s pushing my 684s.
I liked what I heard with the 1.7s, but I did feel that something was a bit "off" sounding to me. I can't really explain what it is, but there was a bit of an odd "timbre" or "tonal" quality that is drastically different than what my B&Ws have. (I apologize for the vague vocabulary, but I find it difficult to put exactly what I heard in to words that make sense)
Also, I found the lack of bass slam quite alarming. With certain tracks, I have auditory "cues" I listen for when doing critical listening, and with the Maggies, some of these cues (in the upper frequency range) were presented in a very different way, or (in the case of some bass) not presented at all.
Don't grab your pitchforks just yet guys, as I did feel that in the areas where the Maggies do well, they do it better than what traditional box speakers can do. In fact, while listening to the 1.7s I was playing a track from Jack Johnson that I am VERY familiar with (Losing Keys from "Sleep Through the Static") and I was literally startled by what I was hearing. And I mean
STARTLED!
I felt as if I had a
physical reaction to it. I was sitting there with my new GF (who I have only been "officially" dating about a week now) and I almost jumped up in excitement and shock from being so wowed by the Maggies seductive (and that IS the proper word here) sound.
For those of you that own this CD, you will note that this track is very mellow and not "exciting" at all. The opening of the track features a well recorded electric guitar being ran through a tube amp with tremolo engaged. It has a strumming of a chord and then he lets it ring out and decay completely before strumming the next chord. I am not sure if it was the presentation of what I did hear, or the presentation of what I didn't hear as the notes faded into the black, but I assure you that it was moving in a way that I had never before heard. If you own this CD, you owe it to yourself to play this track at a high volume and listen to that amazing silence between those notes. Breathtaking. No hype, no exaggeration, just simply breathtaking!
Continuing on, I played several more tracks and came to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" from her record "21". While I love this CD, I must admit that I haven't given it as much time in the player as I would like, due to the way my B&Ws handle her voice.
Adele has a powerful, and commanding voice IMO, and I always felt that my B&Ws just didn't give room to "breathe" as it should. I chalked some of that up to modern mastering techniques and too much compression being involved. On the 1.7s I felt that the compression had been lifted considerably, not completely, but certainly in a way that it allowed her performance to shine through as it should always have been. Nice, very nice.
With my love, Norah Jones, it was a similar experience, but to a lesser degree as her voice has a completely different tonal characteristic to begin with. Either way, I feel the compressed cabinet sound of my B&Ws was certainly out shined by the Magnepan's open, and airy delivery of female vocals.
Another test track I love to use (there are many and this review is already getting lengthy so I will try to be brief) is the Black Eyed Peas "Imma Be". This track was something of a hit or miss affair with the Maggies. First let me tell you the weakness. In a single word, it was bass. Imma Be is a bass driven electronic track that relies on that slam to add excitement and dynamics to the track. On the Magnepans, this slam was missing, and thus, so was some of the "fun" dynamic characteristic of this song, that I am used to.
On the other hand, I felt the strength of the delivery was in the upper registers. There is a synth part that kind of slides up and down a bit over the top of this song. When playing it at high volumes on my B&Ws it sticks out like a sore thumb, and becomes fatiguing and almost "irritating" to listen to. With the Maggies, it was smoothed out to the point that I actually had to listen for it, to even really notice that it was whirring away as always. Only this time, it was sitting nicely in the mix, not poking me in the ear drums. I was really liking the way the Maggies handled the higher registers of this slightly "hot" sounding disc.
I played a plethora of stuff through the Maggies and was generally impressed by what I heard. The areas I felt that really suffered was with bass or drum heavy music. At times, it felt like something was missing altogether, and some of the "fun factor" slipped away because of that.
In fact, with dubstep (Skrillex and Deadmau5) I thought the Maggies sounded boring and I became completely disengaged when listening to these types of tracks. Something that bothered me greatly, as I spend a lot of time listening to this type of stuff these days.
After about an hour and a half (roughly) with the 1.7s, I switched to the MMGs. First up was Norah Jones (mind you, we just listened to these very tracks on the 1.7s) and I was a bit shocked at how different these two speakers really are. Even my GF (who doesn't know the difference between an amplifier and a speaker) exclaimed that she noticed an immediate change in the sound when switching speakers.
Anyway, Nora came on and I was hit by a wall of beautiful, wonderful, and (I can't stress this enough)
intimate sound. Holy planar magnetics Batman!!!
Track after track, genre after genre, the MMGs were seducing me in a way I felt was nearly "magical". Detailed, clear, and (as my GF kept saying) beautiful.
I did feel that they were missing some of the dynamics I am used to hearing, but I chalked some of that up to the fact that these were inefficient speakers being pushed by a receiver, not average speakers being pushed by amplifiers with (seemingly) near endless headroom.
Having said all that, end the end, I have to say that I actually preferred the sound of the MMGs to the sound of the 1.7s. I am not sure why, but I felt their "tonal presentation", coupled with their intimate sound was more pleasing overall to my ears.
This is certainly NOT meant as a slam to the 1.7s, as I said, when I heard Jack Johnson on them, I damn near heard a choir of angels.
They are VERY, VERY nice speakers, and if I had to live with them forever, I certainly could. I just liked the presentation of the MMGs even more.
When I had finished listening I was talking about my impressions and feelings with the dealer, and stated how I surprised with the stark differences between the two Magnepan speakers. His response was "Yeah, the MMGs aren't as revealing as the 1.7s and have more weaknesses".
I wasn't going to debate the guy, but I thought they were both very revealing, and that their weaknesses were exactly the same. Perhaps my ears aren't as well trained as his, or I am not sure of what to listen for, or the music I selected didn't really push the Maggies in a direction that would reveal what he had heard.
To finish up, I went home, checked my e-mail and Peter Gunn had responded to my inquiry about what models to select. He was asking me a series of questions (reminded me of Ronnie's {Roadrunner} line of questions when recommending speakers ;D). I haven't got back to him yet, but from what he has already said, and the follow up post from RClark (coupled with my listening experience at the dealer) I am leaning heavily toward some MMGs, and later adding a Rythmik sub (or 2) as they seem to be the perfect mates for Maggies.
In the meantime, I have two Emo ultra 12's to utilize. While I understand that these aren't Rythmiks, they are sealed, tight, and musical, so I think they will be a great "stop gap" in the meantime, should I ultimately decide to get rid of the B&Ws and "go for it".
I haven't decided 100% that I am going to do it, the un-involving sound of the maggies with certain genres (that I listen to a lot) are my biggest "sticking point". However, I believe that these negatives can be overcome with the Magnestand mod and adding a couple of Rythmik subs....I am not sure though, as I have not heard this setup. Nor have I listened to Maggies with a sub playing.
Thanks for reading this ridiculously long post, thanks to everyone for your input, and thanks to Mark for letting us "clog up" his thread!
;D
I wasn't going to debate the guy, but I thought they were both very revealing, and that their weaknesses were exactly the same. Perhaps my ears aren't as well trained as his, or I am not sure of what to listen for, or the music I selected didn't really push the Maggies in a direction that would reveal what he had heard. 
