I have Aerius II's, Monolith II's, CLS II's and I love them all. The first two are hyrids with woofers. CLS are not hybrids so I supplement with separate subs. The Aerius are not that big... maybe 10" wide by 14" deep and 5' high.
I've auditioned flat planars and experienced the same issue most others do... extremely small sweet spot. The curve surface of the ML's eliminates this.
I've also found that the planars with supplemental ribbons cannot image well. It must have something to do with panel/ribbon integration. The ones without the added ribbons image extremely well and sound truly spectacular.
I've auditioned flat planars and experienced the same issue most others do... extremely small sweet spot. The curve surface of the ML's eliminates this.
I've also found that the planars with supplemental ribbons cannot image well. It must have something to do with panel/ribbon integration. The ones without the added ribbons image extremely well and sound truly spectacular.
I used to have a pair of Maggie MGLR1's. These were the first of Maggie's venture into home theater speakers. I think because they were taller and narrower than the MMG's, they didn't have as tight of a swet spot as the MMG's. The MGLR1's sweet spot was about 2' wide but it was a major PITA to get them positioned just right. Two tweaks I did to improve on them was replacing the stock steel jumpers with some Kimber Cable PBJ with gold banana plugs and built new stands for them that positioned them about 5" off the floor and perfectly vertical instead of tilted back and flat on the floor with the stock stands.
As far as suggesting anything that's close to the planar's quickness, presence and clearity, the only thing I can think of are large, good quality compression horns. For the lower midrange, maybe a line array of small, light drivers.
But all of this is sorta moot since the OP already went out and bought some MGIIIa's to solve his problem.
As far as suggesting anything that's close to the planar's quickness, presence and clearity, the only thing I can think of are large, good quality compression horns. For the lower midrange, maybe a line array of small, light drivers.
But all of this is sorta moot since the OP already went out and bought some MGIIIa's to solve his problem.
I do not know if I hijacked this thread, but I was not the original poster...
But the MGIIIa I bought have been modified a bit - first ripeed those ugly canvas socks (how the hell can those be good?) and reglued a few of the bass and midtreble viocecoil wires that were starting to come loose, and then a coat of Miloxane to both panels.
I then checked out those old polypropylene caps in both crossovers - the external crossovers actually had electrolytics bypassed with PP. Anyyway, replaced all the caps with Solens (didn't want to go overboard as many do). Then new sheer black socks. Thought about reversing the panels, but then decided to leave evertyything else stock.
I wanted to chuck the flimsy mdf frame and make a new, smaller and thicker Oak frame for the panel and ribbon tweeter, but, again, decided to go all stock until I knew I liked the way they sounded with previous mods.
Well, it sounds so much better. More open and bass is a bit more deeper and tight with new caps.
Next thing I want to do is return to the new smaller, thicker frame (should decrease the width by 4 - 6" and the hieght by almost a foot), and get rid of the external crossover entirely in favor of an active 2 way crossover (bought a Marchand 2 way xover) and another UCD400AD amp. The tweeter and mid tweeter panel will remain as is crossed over, since I don't want to get an active 3 way or get yet another amp for the tweeters.
All in all, I am very happy. Sweet spot issue is still there, but when I am in it, its heaven. Buying and upgrading those old MGIIIa were the best $650 I ever spent....
PANOMANIAC -> As you undoubtedbly know, anything that takes up warehouse or showroom space in Hawaii cost almost double (I lived in Kapolei for 4 years)
Only thing cheap on Oahu was Tuna, Spam, Poke and Poi. The Pakalolo was cheap too (although I hadn't bought any since my college days - wink wink).
But the MGIIIa I bought have been modified a bit - first ripeed those ugly canvas socks (how the hell can those be good?) and reglued a few of the bass and midtreble viocecoil wires that were starting to come loose, and then a coat of Miloxane to both panels.
I then checked out those old polypropylene caps in both crossovers - the external crossovers actually had electrolytics bypassed with PP. Anyyway, replaced all the caps with Solens (didn't want to go overboard as many do). Then new sheer black socks. Thought about reversing the panels, but then decided to leave evertyything else stock.
I wanted to chuck the flimsy mdf frame and make a new, smaller and thicker Oak frame for the panel and ribbon tweeter, but, again, decided to go all stock until I knew I liked the way they sounded with previous mods.
Well, it sounds so much better. More open and bass is a bit more deeper and tight with new caps.
Next thing I want to do is return to the new smaller, thicker frame (should decrease the width by 4 - 6" and the hieght by almost a foot), and get rid of the external crossover entirely in favor of an active 2 way crossover (bought a Marchand 2 way xover) and another UCD400AD amp. The tweeter and mid tweeter panel will remain as is crossed over, since I don't want to get an active 3 way or get yet another amp for the tweeters.
All in all, I am very happy. Sweet spot issue is still there, but when I am in it, its heaven. Buying and upgrading those old MGIIIa were the best $650 I ever spent....
PANOMANIAC -> As you undoubtedbly know, anything that takes up warehouse or showroom space in Hawaii cost almost double (I lived in Kapolei for 4 years)
Only thing cheap on Oahu was Tuna, Spam, Poke and Poi. The Pakalolo was cheap too (although I hadn't bought any since my college days - wink wink).
john65b said:
Ah, so you are not the OP. Sorry, I goofed.
One thing that concerns me is if you are happy with the bass, going to smaller baffles will most likely reduce that bass extension. Maggies are nothing more than standard OB loudspeakers, and if you reduce the baffle size, you'll also reduce the bass extension. Just a thought...
Sounds like a good set of mods on them so far otherwise. Updating/upgrading those caps were probably the biggest improvement. You may want to try raising them off of the floor a couple inches and see what that does for the sound. I know it helped mine out a bunch, especailly after I discovered the perfect height of 5" for the MGLR1's.
2' is an absolute bare minimum. Magnepans really require a good 4' spacing from the back wall before they can start performing as they should and I've found that I prefer 6'-7' worth of spacing. 2' for the sides is fine thanks to the figure eight dispersion pattern.
I've wondered about Magnepans and near as I can tell they cannot be following the normal rules for open baffle speakers. The larger models spec'd down to the low 30s are still only 2' wide, which violates the baffle dimension matrix I've seen for open baffles. Do these panels have a rising Q to counter the dipole cancellation?
- JP
Diogenes said:
This is true. I mainly meant a minimum of 2', eventhough Maggie recommends 4' min. I had mine about 5' from the front walls and 3' from the side walls which only put them about 7' apart from eachother. However, I only sat between 9-10' away as well, so it worked out nicely in my room.
I think the Maggies put out the kind of bass they have due to the sheer size of surface area of the driver used. Eventhough it's darn near impossible to see the planr's movement, it's still moving a decent chunk of air because of its overall size.
Mike1234 said:
LOL... And you goofed again as I did earlier. It wasn't the OP that bought the MGIII's. LOL
john65b said:
Yep, and Maui living makes Oahu look like a bargain.
(used to live in Honolulu). The Pakalolo is no longer cheap, but it's what's known as "excellent value for money." (wink, wink).I well remember the Tympani IIs. What a great speaker and my introduction to "high end hi-fi" back in the mid 70s. Been hooked ever since. The little Maganpan speaker was killer, too.
So thanks for the Martin Logan suggestion. I love the Quad panels and the Maggies, a pair of the little M-Ls could fit very nicely in my living room. Would make a great reference system.
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