Couple questions about Magneplanars...

[tnptruck]

Hey Andy...

I searched on that site and couldn't find the post about removing the socks... I was just gonna cut it off and hope someone could re do it later... Is there a way to save it and re use it?

thanks

[andyr]

Originally Posted by tnptruck

Hey Andy...

I searched on that site and couldn't find the post about removing the socks... I was just gonna cut it off and hope someone could re do it later... Is there a way to save it and re use it?

thanks

If you just cut it off, you probably won't be able to re-use it. However, if you are going to put them horizontal then you probably will want to make up some different socks ... as the bottom of the frame will be visible at either the inner or the outer side, and this looks ugly (many, many staples holding the sock on).

If you remove the socks, you may be able to re-use them - although it will still look ugly due to having all the staples at the bottom of the frame (in your case, the side). What I would do, if I was going to place them horizontal, is make up a new, wide sock - so the staples which fix it were on the long side of the frame (which is down).

To remove the sock:
1. take off the T-feet
2. undo the screws which hold the aluminium back-plate onto the frame and lift the material outside the back-plate
3. turn the panels upside down so the staples at the base are visible
4. use a flat-bladed screw driver to remove all the staples
5. turn the Maggies the right way up and lift the sock off the frame.


Regards,

Andy

[kevinkr]

I'd leave the socks on, install them in the room as previously suggested and per Magnepan recommendations and listen to them. (Your table proposal is likely to result in very poor imaging due to early reflections off of the table surface, as well as a probable hole in the middle.) If you are using them nearfield you probably will not need much more power than you have, and if you do there are a number of amps out there that ought to work well.

I've owned the MG-1.4 and the MG-1.7QR and liked both a great deal before running off to low powered SE amplifiers and large Onkens.

The bass from a properly set up pair of Magnepans is rather hard to beat even the SMGA should be pretty good in that respect.

Just listen first..

[tnptruck]

ok... ill plug em in tommorow... And listen.

[gootee]

Finally! I think that you will be quite amazed, and extremely pleased, and will start to greatly respect them, just as they are.

And if you were going to spend $70 on something, you could go $90 or so and get a nice used Adcom GFA-535 II power amplifier from ebay. They're rated at 60 W into 8 Ohms so will probably do 100 W or so into 4 Ohms. They are not quite what most people would call high-end but I could dispute that, and at any rate you simply can't go wrong, for the price. They are basically bullet-proof and brilliantly clean-sounding. I used one for a week or two with my MG-12/QR speakers and was very impressed. (If you watch ebay, you might even be able to get a GFA-545 or 545 II for not much more.

With your SMGAs, remember to play with the distance from the wall, and the distance between the speakers, and the toe-in angle, and the listening position location. An equilateral triangle formed by speakers and listener is probably a good first guess, with each speaker 1/3 of the way across the room, in both directions, i.e. 1/3 of the way from wall behind them to wall bnehind you, and 1/3 of the way from the side wall to the other side wall. That's not always possible but at least try to center them in the room, left/right-wise.

[a.wayne]

Originally Posted by gootee

Speaker differences

The Magnepan Specifications chart at the link above says my MG-12s only go down to 45 Hz. But there's no way they need a subwoofer. I have a TV/stereo cabinet against the wall behind them, centered between them, and also placed my Vandersteen 2Ce speakers right up against the inside edge of each MG-12 (front faces more or less aligned; The 2Ces just sit there unpowered, most of the time.). It turns out that the cabinet and the 2Ce speakers block the reflections from between the MG-12s, mostly, which (someone said) apparently keeps the bass from canceling itself out, which means I actually can get too MUCH bass, sometimes, and it seems to extend to very low frequencies (much lower than 45 Hz; even below 40 Hz).

The sound is exquisite, sublime, gorgeous, and maybe above all, accurate and realistic. The bass is by FAR the clearest I have ever heard. Once I realized that the bass boominess that I was accustomed to was an untrue ARTIFACT created by box speakers, I couldn't bear the thought of changing it by even a little (e.g. with a sub). And after I accidentally increased the bass amplitude by blocking the center reflections, I thought I was in heaven.

Actually, the time-aligned Vandersteen 2Ce speakers, that I bought just a few weeks before the Magnepans, are very, very good, too. I thought that I had found the best under-$700 (used) speakers, until the Maggies arrived. Only then did it become obvious that there was a slight but definite muddiness to the bass that I had not noticed, until I compared them to the Magnepans.

If you want to try more watts with your SMGa speakers, I can vouch for the Adcom 545 II power amps, which were cheap on eBay when I bought some. They sounded so perfectly-clean and effortless that I started using nothing but them, for a long time.

Bad speakers , when done right dynamic speakers are the most accurate for bass ....

Originally Posted by kouiky

Hi Andy, I already knew this but I had in my mind that the OP wouldn't be listening at levels much over 80dB at the seated position. I tend to draw the line around 70dB, 80 being my discomfort region, but we all do listen differently. For my listening levels, 82dB 4 Ohm speakers still see very little power, and 90dB speakers rarely see a tenth of a Watt. I had a 2.5 Watt amplifier that Still provided ample headroom for my hearing. I did mention headroom is good to have depending on distance and other factors, but I know I can get by rather well with a 300B or other low power source on 82dB 4 ohm speakers here. Best wishes.

Sorry .. 2.5 watt , maggies, ample headroom , ...

Originally Posted by owenhamburg

Magneplanars are exotic in the UK and germany, while Quad electrostatics are much more common, so my advice may be very wrong

I would suggest that building subwoofers is a large effort.

I must admit I like the idea of open baffle subwoofers but never got around to it yet.

My subwoofer story with the electrostatics was initially disapointing. I thought my efforts where boomy and poor. The sealed subwoofers seemed to ruin the Quad ESL 63's when played together. After some time I decided that the subwoofers go to ebay and I will live with limited bass as this is well known that its hard to integrate subwoofers with electrostatic speakers.

The truth was I had made my own active crossover, that sits between the preamplifier (again my own textbook design as I am not a pro electronics guy) and power amplifer, and give one amplifier for the Electrostatics and one for the Subwoofers. I had not sorted out the power supplies well enough in my home built preamp and in the active crossover. Many months later (As I did not realise these issues where related), after I had fixed the power supplies I retested the subwoofers (as they where on thier way to Ebay) and now I am very happy with the bass (and no one is getting these subwoofers unless I make a nicer box) and it does not ditract from the electrostatics sound. I am using just a 2nd order high and low pass filters set at 100hz, with the ability to adjust levels to match the speakers.

Im using 2 boxes one under each ESL 63, with 10" subwoofers, Peerless SDS model and these produce the best bass I have ever had. This said the box is hudge about 80L (with the drivers, bracing etc takign about 10 L from total of 90L) and enough bracing to make a volvo worry. I am convinced that one of the reasons I like these speakers is the effort spent clamping and glueing all the bracing.

Honestly a subwoofer is a lot of work, the music tracks that benifit are few but it does stop you worrying about listenting the internet where people often mix silly amounts of Bass in especially some review sites, and Movie explosions can be a little scary, as you wonder if your neighbors are going to fogive you after that explosion.

Ok I admit it, much to my suprise Im not a bass head

Good luck

Owen

Sealed enclosures are the absolute worst to mate with dipoles .....

[studiotech]

Ask 10 people, get 10 different answers.....

Take the socks off...seriously? Just to find the tweeter side? For someone just getting acquainted with this stuff? Come on guys, let's be a little realistic. The flashlight trick will do just fine to find the tweeter side.

About 3" of one side will look different from the rest. That's the tweeter. You can see that from this photo WITH the grill on.

http://img.usaudiomart.com/uploads/l...s_oak_trim.jpg

Just hook them up the way they were intended and use them for a while. See if you like it.

Greg

[a.wayne]

Funny , i thought one could actually hear the tweeter side ..

[studiotech]

Originally Posted by a.wayne

Funny , i thought one could actually hear the tweeter side ..

[gootee]

Originally Posted by gootee
Speaker differences

The Magnepan Specifications chart at the link above says my MG-12s only go down to 45 Hz. But there's no way they need a subwoofer. I have a TV/stereo cabinet against the wall behind them, centered between them, and also placed my Vandersteen 2Ce speakers right up against the inside edge of each MG-12 (front faces more or less aligned; The 2Ces just sit there unpowered, most of the time.). It turns out that the cabinet and the 2Ce speakers block the reflections from between the MG-12s, mostly, which (someone said) apparently keeps the bass from canceling itself out, which means I actually can get too MUCH bass, sometimes, and it seems to extend to very low frequencies (much lower than 45 Hz; even below 40 Hz).

The sound is exquisite, sublime, gorgeous, and maybe above all, accurate and realistic. The bass is by FAR the clearest I have ever heard. Once I realized that the bass boominess that I was accustomed to was an untrue ARTIFACT created by box speakers, I couldn't bear the thought of changing it by even a little (e.g. with a sub). And after I accidentally increased the bass amplitude by blocking the center reflections, I thought I was in heaven.

Actually, the time-aligned Vandersteen 2Ce speakers, that I bought just a few weeks before the Magnepans, are very, very good, too. I thought that I had found the best under-$700 (used) speakers, until the Maggies arrived. Only then did it become obvious that there was a slight but definite muddiness to the bass that I had not noticed, until I compared them to the Magnepans.

If you want to try more watts with your SMGa speakers, I can vouch for the Adcom 545 II power amps, which were cheap on eBay when I bought some. They sounded so perfectly-clean and effortless that I started using nothing but them, for a long time.

Originally Posted by a.wayne

Bad speakers , when done right dynamic speakers are the most accurate for bass ....

a.wayne,

If you read much more carefully, I said they are "very, very good". And the 2Ce are widely-acknowledged as such, even compared to speakers that are 5X their price, but insanely-so in their used-price range. I was only pointing out a very-subtle difference.

And apparently, then, no one has ever done a "dynamic" speaker right. (Did you mean "cone" or "voice coil" or "box"?) They all seem to have resonances that aren't supposed to exist in the source. Many people love them. I love them. But that doesn't mean they're the most accurate. On what data do you base that claim?

Tom