Magnepan 3.6r vs 1.6qr review

[harri009]

SO I just scored some 3.6's to replace my 1.6's. Today I sat down with the 3.6 for the first time. The first thing I noticed is that there is a house sound to the maggies, so they sounded a lot like the 1.6's. Then as I listended I noticed that the soundstage was a little larger and more defined. I decided to try out some bass heavy music "Jem". WOW the bass is night and day. I had unhooked my sub from the 1.6's a few months ago because I didnt like only have a single sub running from one side of the room. With the sub there was always a slight smearing of the midrange along with being able to localize the sub I just decided to unhook it. The 3.6's sounded deeper and stronger than that 10inch ever sounded . ;D So bass is officially a problem no more for me. Once again I changed cd's and decided to try a problem CD. I put in one that I had stopped listening to because the highs were a little to harsh with the 1.6's. No more, while the 3.6 ribbon is more detailed its also smoother so the problem cd was once again very enjoyable. AND THE BEST PART, I SCORED THEM FOR $1400 ;D ;D ;D

[cardiffkook]

That is a great price for such a fantastic sound. I have a 28 year old set of Maggie 3a's, and still love them as I rediscovered when I got my Emotiva mono blocks.

Question... The one weakness in the 3a's is that the image is kind of smeared or spread out if it is not either dead center or hard left or right. In other words, an image at say 1 or 11 o'clock is kind of stretched out. I am not sure if this is due to the wide midrange laterally separated from the tweeter, or due to placement issues or due to the speaker. Does the 3.6 share this problem?

[harri009]

I have not had any issue with that regarding the 1.6 or the 3.6's. In-fact thats one of the things that I noticed as being an upgrade over some B&W802D's I demos. There is a Jason Mraz song "I won't give up" where the background singers come in. With the maggies you could count the singers as they filed away from the center image towards the left channel. With the 802D's they were all stacked at the 11 o position.

[harri009]

Oh and these thing eat up current. The Pass is 250W 8ohm and 500W 4ohm. The front has a meter that shows current draw. Normal operation the needle does not move unless I get the speakers swinging. When I was playing Jem "Come On Closer" it had it up to about 90db average volume and the needle was almost maxing on the transient bass peaks, which I am sure were much louder but didn't measure them. So I would be guessing 400W on the big bass.

[spanishfly]

congrats...a steal at that price.

I'd never heard of Jem before....a big thanks Come on closer is Fab!!!
Enjoy your new setup. ;D

[GreenKiwi]

Congrats! Welcome to the 3.6 club. I made the same move a while ago and have enjoyed the 3.6s very much. And i actually found that adding a sub back to them for movie listening and some music wasn't bad since they go down solidly into the 30s, and then the sub can just fill in the very bottom.

Btw, that is an AWESOME price for those.

[cardiffkook]

Thanks harri,

I just "rediscovered" my Maggie's a few weeks ago and have yet to do much experimentation with placement, separation and toe in. I have them about 40 inches from the rear wall, about 8 feet away from me and about six and a half feet apart with tweeters inside and small amount of toe in. Any recommendation on what works best for you?

[AudioHTIT]

Feb 15, 2013 10:43:38 GMT -5 cardiffkook said:

Thanks harri,

I just "rediscovered" my Maggie's a few weeks ago and have yet to do much experimentation with placement, separation and toe in. I have them about 40 inches from the rear wall, about 8 feet away from me and about six and a half feet apart with tweeters inside and small amount of toe in. Any recommendation on what works best for you?

Just want to make sure you're taking about the single panel MG-3a and not the (harder to position) multi-panel Tympani IIIA?

[harri009]

Feb 15, 2013 10:43:38 GMT -5 cardiffkook said:

Thanks harri,
Any recommendation on what works best for you?

I don't have much give on where mine are located as its the main room. But they work very well luckily where I can put them. I just measured and its 3ft from the right, 4ft from the left but there is a foot deep book shelf so its 3ft from the book shelf, 3ft from the back wall, 8ft apart, and 9ft to my head from inside corner of the speakers. Also 12ft behind the listening chair to wall. I also use a slight toe in of about 10 degrees and I like it best with the tweeters out.

[cardiffkook]

The single panel Mg3a.

Sounds like you have considerably more separation. I will try moving mine a bit wider apart.

[bootman]

You lucky son of a gun.
Pics! we want pics!

[harri009]

One of the reasons he sold the set so cheap was due to a scratch on the wood which can be seen in the pic. There are also a couple holes in the sock. He included new socks he had just received from Magnepan and I called magnepan today and they would sell me a replacement wood piece for $100. They are also currently looking for the stain number for me so I can try repairing myself before just buying a new replacement wood piece.

[harri009]

[smithski]

Good find and a great price for 3.6's!!! You beat my deal by $100...found an oak pair on Craigslist two years ago locally (audio gear like this just doesn't show up much around here); wasn't looking for them but couldn't pass them up for that price after heading over for a listen. One owner and in near mint condition with literally no marks on the wood and only a couple of microscopic snags on the grilles. Listened to them for a week or so and they've been in storage since...bought a Sunfire Cinema Grand 5-channel amp to try them out actively biamped, but have been playing with other speakers and haven't got around to setting it up yet.