Why no love for Magnepans? (1 Viewer)

[AlanZ]

I'm trying to put together a list of speakers to audition for when I finally getting around to upgrading my system....I realized that I have always just assumed that Magnepans were these expensive, high end speakers that weren't even worth considering. Well, now that I see how reasonable they are (you can get a pair factory direct for like $500!) and how well-reviewed they are, I just don't get it. Why don't I hear more about them on this forum?

From what I can tell, the reviews talk about how they kick the crap out of most anything else in their price range - at least for 2-channel music. Is it their size? Is it that people incorrectly assume, as I did, that they are out of reach price wise? I'm excited to demo them now that I know the story on them......anyone out there own these things, or what?

 

[Joe Casey]

Sure I like them. I own three pair, as do many others. Look here.

 

[Alan Pummill]

I love my maggies...look ar Mt HT Pics!!

 

[Tony Genovese]

Maggies require space, dominate a room visually thus having a low waf, are not cat friendly, need a lot of power to "open up", require a rather high crossover for their center channel, and have rather limited distribution.

I have owned Maggies and eventually sold them due to the cat issue (they're a great scratching post) and the fact that they never seemed to go loud enough for me, even with 300 wpc (and I owned the 2.7QSR which was the second biggest in the line at the time).

 

[Chris Quinn]

Tony hit the main reason- space. Maggies are great but need a lot of space and time to tweak the set-up.

Check out Planar Asylum if your interested in Maggies.

 

[AlanZ]

Thanks for the responses.....glad to see that those of you who do have them, appear to really like them.....well, except for Tony

Alan: I seem to remember seeing you post about upgrading a while back.....you had Paradigms, right? What do you consider the pros and cons of upgrading to the Maggies? Do they tend to "beam" as I've read, and have a relatively small sweet spot? Are they good for HT in addition to music?

 

[Jack Gilvey]

If you can work with them a bit, the MMG are the best $550 you can spend on speakers. I wasn't nearly as impressed with the $300 MMG-W, preferring the Athena AS-F2 by a wide margin.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I've owned them in past too and they're awesome for what they do well. Unfortunatly they're difficult to make work in most rooms...esp for 6.1 and 7.1 setups like i was trying to accomplish. Still I really miss the air that they gave for music and the realism as surrounds was astonishing esp for ambiencent noise

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Indeed. Pictured below is a full Magnepan 12.1 setup I enjoyed before WAF issues forced me to downscale.

 

[AlanZ]

LOL!!!

 

[Alan Pummill]

Alan,

When properly set up, they do both HT and music very, very well. I will be building a new HT room in our new house, and plan on keeping a HT for the family room. I may go with the MMG W and MMG C maggies for the family room.

 

[Sam A]

how are the wall hanging magies?

 

[AlanZ]

Alan, I'm encouraged to hear that.....I am definitely going to add the Maggies to my short list of demos! My main reservation is that while I have plenty of room in the front of my 15x25 listening room, I am limited with where I can place surrounds. Can you imagine the Maggies blending at all with something like a Paradigm studio ADP dipole surround? Or would that just stick out like a sore thumb?

 

[Alan Pummill]

Alan...As long as you use a maggie speaker in the center up front, (CC3 or MMG C), the ADP's should work just fine. I had a pair of ADP 170's for a short while, and thought they were really good speakers for the $$.

Sam...The MGMC1 wall hangers that I use for my surrounds are excellent sounding!!

 

[AlanZ]

I just saw at the site how you can order their smallest floorstander - the MMG - for $550 and try it out for 60 days in your home......on top of that, if you decide to keep it, you have a year to upgrade to a larger model and you get the whole $550 toward the purchase. I think I'm going to have to take them up on this deal.....that way I can play with them for a couple months while I'm saving up for the rest of my upgrades I just hope they don't suck

 

[Alan Pummill]

Remember...break-in, break-in, break-in. Maggies sound better and better as they get broke in!!

The MG1.6's that I bought were demo floor models. I saved money and got speakers that had already been broke in!!

 

[PomingF]

Interestingly, there's a German guy just started a post over at AVS with pics of his 3.6 setup driven by what looks like a Pathos integrated amp and Planet CDP. HT with Maggies can be great if you have the room size and equipment (amp and SW) to complement them.

PF

 

[Doug_H]

I love my 1.6's matched to MMG's in the rear. I spent the first 6 months being more blown away every day as they broke in.

I listened to the smaller wall mount units and wasn't impressed. they were very clear but just didn't sing the way the 1.6 and MMG's do.

Power is very important to these puppies. Without enough power they can really get shrill at high volumes. I started with about 125 watts and it was a huge difference when I got a 200watt sunfire. Night and day.

It seems like every time I listen to them I fall in love all over again.

 

[AlanZ]

Alan/Doug: Do you guys have any input on how high up an MC1 could be mounted on the wall for surround purposes? As soon as I sell a couple of my Outlaw M200s, I'm going to order the in home trial of the MMGs.....but I don't want to get too excited about a 5.1+ set-up if I don't have flexibility with the height of the surrounds. Would you mount maggie surrounds above and behind the listening position, facing each other, just as you may do with other types of speakers? Or is there a different configuration that works better? I know it's room dependent, but I'm talking about an ideal situation. If having them too high up on the wall would sacrifice sound quality, then I just assume get something different and hope it matches with the fronts.

 

[StuartRob]

I'm thinking of trying the MMG W's & MMG C center too. This should free up enough $ to get an svs sub and still keep the wife happy. My main concern has been the size of the room, approx. 5000 cubic ft. Does anyone know how well the MMG HT setup handles large spaces?

Stu