Evolution of a HT System

[eddiej]

Hi folks,

I'm a long-time lurker here and have made a few posts.  Last year I plunged into the world of Emotiva and bought some equipment (see sig).  Recently, I changed over to Magnepan's MMG -W & C from Paradigms Atom bookshelf speakers.  This has been largely influenced by reading posts of the many knowledgeable users here.  While my system is not complete just yet, I thought I would share my opinion of my new setup.

I had to rip open one wall of my newly built home to re-install A/V and speaker cable .  The installer did a terrible job - it was not to code and  had poor workmanship.  I prefer and my wife demands that the cables be out of sight, especially since this room doesn't have a lot of spare space to accommodate the myriad of cables.  So that was the first order of business.

Mounting the L/R speakers is straightforward and simple.  I followed the OEM's instructions of installing them at a height of 24 inches AFF to the bottom of the MMG-W.  They are on the narrower of walls about 12 feet apart creating an equilateral triangle to the listener after toeing in approx. 20°.  The MMG-C will be problematic and is awaiting installation pending arrival of a third XPA-100.  Maybe we have some members who can be more clever than me.  I will post pics later of our room and some of the installations.

Now to the brass tax...after temporarily hooking up the MMG-W and positioning our listening chair approximately where they would normally be and shoving some of the construction mess out of the way, we gave the MMG-W a test drive.  We agree on many things:  good detail and a wide but not quite open soundstage.  We recognize that we'll have to tweak the angling, perhaps run EMO-Q after we get things closed up and take delivery of the third XPA-100 and let them break-in.

The only worrisome thing we couldn't tweak out with the UMC-200 crossover was the "boxiness" of the vocals.  They were coloured as if they were coming out of a pair of cheap Home Theatre-Out-of-a-box.  The biggest appeal to me of the Magnepan's qualities mentioned by many of their owners regardless of model was that the vocals, especially female, were open, airy and out in front.  The initial outcome for me was the opposite.

We'll keep y'all posted as things shape up.

Hope everyone down south of us is having a great long Independence Day weekend.

E

[ludi]

Welcome to the Emotiva / Magnepan club .

I have the 1.7s and it took me quite some time to set them up to my liking. I'm don't know if the MMG-W also have left and right speakers, but the 1.7s do. I tried both ways tweeters on the inside and tweeters on the outside. In my situation the best results is with the tweeters on the outside. Placement and toe-in of Magnepans makes a big difference. In your situation you might have to try different options with placements and toe-ins to hear when the sound is the best. Even small changes can make big difference.

[eddiej]

Jul 6, 2014 12:34:13 GMT -5 ludi said:

I'm don't know if the MMG-W also have left and right speakers,

AFAIK, the MMG-W don't.  According to the documentation shipped with them, the only necessary placement is the diaphragm must face out toward the listener.  I think the mounts for the pins have to be on the inside so that speakers can be toed inward.  Otherwise, L/R can be swapped but the locking pin which normally is inserted at the top to hold in the speaker has to be swapped out for a friction pin to be inserted on the bottom.  These can be special ordered from Magenpan.  I chose the conventional mounting.

I disassembled my system to finish boarding the wall and terminating the equipment.  Once, the XPA arrives, I'll tweak it in earnest. So I will initially try to blend in the MMG-C using my UMC-200 to pick up some of the load in the 150 Hz to 2000 Hz range.  Hopefully that will allow the vocals to "get out of the box."  LOL.  Otherwise,  I won't be moving the speakers at all just toeing-in or toeing-out.

The title I chose for the OP was misleading.  I should have put 'Evolution of a Stereo System'.  That's my primary listening.  It does do double duty as a HT system but I am not as critical a listener when watching movies as I am listening to music.