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Model: | Magneplanar 1.6QR |
Category: | Speakers |
Suggested Retail Price: | $1500 |
Description: | Planar Magnetic Loudspeaker |
Manufacturer URL: | Magnepan |
Model Picture: | View |
Review by jameskerry (A) on February 14, 2002 at 19:37:02 IP Address: 63.199.242.141 |
Add Your Review for the Magneplanar 1.6QR |
"The Magnepan 1.6QR" or "How I joined the ranks of Audiophilology without going broke"1. First allow me to submit my own two cents worth (to review my impressions
on the Magnepan 1.6QR pls skip to paragraph three): 9-11 has taught us that
life is very short. Fullfill your needs, take advantage of what life has to
offer. I do not consider myself to be a "audiphile" I do not have the money
or resources. However, I recently refueled my interest (since adolesence) in
audio gear. Myself (like many others) grew up reading the now defunct
monthly magazine "Stereo Review". It amazed me how every review (it seemed
to me anyway) of audio equipment was at the least adequate/never glaring or
negative. I guess it fell under the "don't bite the hand that feeds you"
principle (most equipment reviewed were also built by major advitisers of
the magazine). But alas, the periodical always satisfied and stirred the
interest of audio/hi fi gear in me. It seemed the world of (high end?) hi fi
equipment such as Revox, Meridian, Infinity (hey were're talkin' 70's
here!), Marantz, yes even Carver was far beyond my grasp.
2. Enter Ebay. Sure I'm aware of the caveats, shipping horror stories,
unwarranted items etc., but hey, you got to admit-you can't find some of
this stuff at your neighbor's garage sale! And isn't that what Ebay is
anyway -a giant (worldwide) flea market?! Plus there are certain safeguards
in place ie, safeharbor, etc. But to see some of the gear available from the
70's going for pennies! I a aquired a Marantz 1060 and 14 Integrated Amp for
$40 bucks each! Mark Levinson's going for 50 cent on the dollar used (of
course). B&W 801 Matrix considered by some to be the best speaker in the
World -pound for pound (a speaker a former roomate of mine "swore" he'd own
one day which at the time retailed for $5000!) on Ebay for $2300! Who cares
it the things weigh 300 pounds and special shipping/crating required? My
point is I succesfully built a-what I consider to be a high end system. I do
not make a lot of money (apprx 35k annually); but most importantly I have
(what my wife and I disagree on:) priorities! ie; the kids needing shoes
-vs-oh, say $200 interconnects for my speakers-that sort of thing! Well with
some sneaking and a little white lying (I keep telling/convincing
myself/her: at least it ain't crack!) I was able to come up with a very
decent "starter" audiophile system" on a budget! Preamp: $350 for Adcom GFP
565 (a stereophile recommended and now classic) Two Nakamichi PA-7 monster
amps running 200watts mono (I consider a definite giant killer) and
considered better than Adcom's GFA 555's at $400 each! A rotel RCD 965
limited edition CD player -$150. Finally a pair of Vanderteen 2c
speakers-$500. Try match this for under $2000! Apparently my Vandy's
challenged my kids to a duel (and lost) and had to be replaced. Since it's a
crime to disgard children, I opt'd for a new set of speakers. I did not go
the ebay route this time, instead I wandered into my freindly neighborhood
run of the mill high end store. I asked the salesman what he had in the
$1500 range. I explained I was not looking for quanity at this point in my
life; but quality.
3. Which brings us to Magnepan and his current masterpiece: the 1.6QR's. I admire Jim Winey and his "out of the box" concept of audio speaker design. I'm not a engineer or physicist and I do not know what makes a magneplanar speaker work; But I do know these work magnificiently! You could not buy these in a Circuit City or Best Buy or Good Guys etc. no, not in this age of home theater, satellite speakers, subwoofers, dolby this, dolby that, MP3's, DVD's, (you get the picture). Further, these are truly a high-end speaker in every sense. (Hey-you can't purchase a steinway at K-Mart can you?!) Nor can you purchase these, pluck em' down in the living room, fire up the ole' Fisher receiver and expect acoustic alchemy! Not that Maggies can't deliver HT (home theater) sound quality; see the MGCC2's on the Magnepan website : http://www.magnepan.com. I have not used the 1.6's for HT yet; I primarly purchased these for audio only playback. Which brings me to the sound. I knew from the first decible these were special. The best way to describe the sound was "ambient". They truly do disappear! The pro's and con's: These speakers are NOT as finicky as some would lead you to beleive. It's true they need power (they are inefficient by design; 86db!) but think in terms of quality vs quanity. Case in point: when my normal amp was down I ran the speakers using my old Sansui AU G99X an integrated amp rated at approx 200WPC at 8ohms; 250/280 in 4ohms. I play a solo saxophone piece by Mccoy Tyner. It ran well until Mccoy hit a lower octave on his baratone sax and it was shut down city! Conversely, I ran the same passage through my old stand-by Marantz 1060 at 60 watts and it played flawlessly!
4. Unfortunately the Maggies biggest attribute is also it's achilles heel: Their uncanning, crystal-clear clarity and their ability to reveal weaknesses in your system truly stand out! Be prepared, (if your serious about your system) to spend some time and money for these! You have to get the best interconnects, amps, preamps etc. It's true when my salesperson told me owning these are like being married (if Maggie says move the couch and does'nt like the curtains, you move the couch and get rid of the curtains!). Speaker placement however is crucial (although not as critical as some electrostatic's tend to be). I'm learning you don't necessarily aim the speakers as much as "designing" a soundfield in your room. Unfortunately, I'm learning big screen TV's and maggies don't like sharing the spotlight! So for serious listening the big screen is rolled out of the living room! Would you place a 6 foot diagonal black cube on stage while Miles Davis performed; well neither would Maggie!
5. I feel I made the best move purchasing the 1.6QR's. But they are not for everyone! I'm 41 years old, my kids aren't toddlers anymore, and NO cats around to climb on these! I grew up listening to rock, soul, (ok I'll even admit disco-but I was forced to via the airwaves!) jazz, and now classical. This is truly a magnificent speaker, capable certainly of reproducing any genre (although heavy metal and rapsters would be disappointing). But it's ability to reproduce the human voice -particulairly female- and piano's are uncanning. Listening to a cappella recording (try Livingston Taylor's version of "Grandma's Hands") is truly a remarkable experience! Listen to Stepen Marley and Erykah Badu sing "I'm in love with you" and you actually "see" Stephen facing Erykah, Erykah facing the listener! Or Jewel, singing the "morning song" she is there in your living room! For pure "wow" factor I play to unsuspecting freinds Pablo Sanchez's "cold sweat/funky broadway" guranteed to drop jaws!
6. The 1.6Qr's have a commanding presence, almost 6' high, 1 1/2 foot wide, 2 inch deep,dominating the listening room, (scoring a perfect 10 in the "wow" factor amongst freinds and relatives!). I'm amazed when in my normal sitting position I'm "enrapped" in sound rich, and full. However, when I stand and approach the speakers themselves, they actually "disappear" all that's left is music coming from the soundstage! By design the speakers are literally transparent, with sound flowing from the front and rear, thereby reflecting and projecting the room with a very convincing soundstage (Not to be confused with a similar and popular "direct reflect" concept). Much has been noted of it's lack of reproducing deep bass. Hey-there's bass; perhaps not the Arnold Schwarzenegger type of in your face explosion in HT but more in terms of a subtle, more acoustic/upright bass feel.
7. Well I think I've said enough already! Jim Winey obviously has a winner and at roughly $1600 this is indeed a standout. In fact, Stereophile magazine rated this pair a "class B" rating (often reserved for spkr's in the 2-8 thousand dollar range) But decide for yourself. Arrainge (if possible) an audition for these and be prepared to become addicted!
Product Weakness: | shows component weakness(s),spkr placement |
Product Strengths: | giant killer; cyrstal clear highs; blood line, price, modern classic, made in the U.S.A. |
Associated Equipment for this Review: | |
Amplifier: | nakamichi pa7 |
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): | adcom gfp 565 |
Sources (CDP/Turntable): | technics cd |
Speakers: | magnepan 1.6qr's |
Cables/Interconnects: | transparncies |
Music Used (Genre/Selections): | all but country/rap |
Room Size (LxWxH): | 30 x 10 x 8 |
Type of Audition/Review: | Product Owner |
Follow Ups:
Nice review, james. Welcome to the Maggie family as it were, as there is a someone religious enthusiasm that comes with Maggies.I also agree with you that once you commit to owning Maggies, you may have a long road of potential upgrades before you can get the most out of them. The initial money one spends on the speakers is much less than for box speakers, but the Maggies may get you down the road when you find it necessary to upgrade components, cables, etc.
Still, nothing really compares to the Maggie sound for those of us who believe....
Cetaele (aka Bob)
> > Not that Maggies can't deliver HT (home theater) sound quality; < <An oxymoron if I ever hoid one.
I think that people who use high quality speakers, especially ones that are as finicky to setup as the magnepans, in a HT atmosphere are way underutilizing them. They might do "ok" at double duty, but they will never sing with music like they should. How much quality does it take to reproduce car crashes, dino stomps, and the prerequisite background music of a movie soundtrack? Some yes, but as much quality as it takes to accurately and musically reproduce your favorite musicians? Hardly.
Ok, I'm done now.
Oz
Most of the audio is a movie is going to be as synthetic as the visuals. Neither of which really reflect reality. That's why the visuals are called special effects. Visual mock-ups that seem real. Same with audio. Many of the sounds are purely synthetic (foley editor created, for example), or synthetically mixed on a giant mixing board. Ok, t-rex roar front/right. car crash rear/center. people screaming front/center, sound of galss breaking.. - let's mix that slightly behind thaa car. Oooh, let's make the t-rex road LOUDER here. Good, good. Add quiet heavy metal background music.So yeah, you'd be getting increased sound quality, which is all well and good, but accurate imaging and maybe soundstaging, too, is pretty moot - since you'd be at the hands of a recording/mix engineer (or who ever). He's probably mixing the darn thing to pan from speaker to speaker in 5.1, 7.1 (or 10.2 ??) instead of across the soundstage. And it's kind of silly to strive for high fidelity with 1.) purely made up sounds (most explosions, t-rex roars (real reference?) or other effects) or 2.) a mix of real and synthetic sounds that are both synthetic placed (fake soundstange, fake imaging)on a movie in postproduction.
I'm not trying to be snobbish about this (saying audiophile setups are only good for audiophile recordings), since I frequently listen to VERY non audiophile material. One of my biggest beefs with with close-miked studio recordings. Many are hopelessly "chewed up" during the final "mixing" phase, or whatever you call it. Same thing with movies. When so much of the audio is "fake" and not intended for exact timbre and tonal reproduction, let alone precise imaging nor soundstaging.. -- It's almost like WHY BOTHER??!?
Movies can and may eventually WILL like up to the audiophile recording stanards, for in their present for the movies are no better that remixed, post-processed, close-mike studio recordings. But, moview, in their current form, fall very short of that ideal.
PS. what "bugs" me is when someone mistaken "blindly" says that stuff like "heavy metal" or movies DO NOT deserve hi-fi reproduction. that's an ignorant statement. Both are equally as worthy as classical, blues, jazz, or acoustic - as an art form and in content (somewhat, but debateable to a point). It's just the most "implementations" created by the post processing engineers (not the musicians!) limit the delivery somewhat. This is what I think most people mean when they say get "mid-fi." Except they come of as bashing the artform, though sometimes they are.
//exits soapbox
If you notice the music in a film, the director and/or the score composer has failed. I heard Danny Elfman say this during an NPR interview.I'll add that the sound effects are a little different; you are suposed to notice them, but if you find yourself listening for audiophile-type nuances, the film is a failure.
Based on my experience with a pair of humble MMGs, I say set them up for the best music listening you can manage. Add something passable for LFE and surround --- the HT will be just fine.
If you want to add more speakers primarily for multichannel music then set them up for that --- the HT will be finer still.
Summary: Set up you speakers for your musical preference and compromise on the HT aspect. Any film worth watching should take your mind far away from the audio. When Bogart and Bergman go thier separate ways at the Casablanca airport NOBODY gives a rat's ass that its all done in low-fi mono!
First of all, thanks to the original poster for the fun review of the maggies!I don't mean to change the course of the thread...but "Aroc" wrote some interesting things.
"Aroc:" I agree with much of what you've written (if I've read you correctly). Movie soundtracks are definitely synthetic - I know because I do it all day as a movie FX designer. We all try to keep recording/sampling quality as high as possible. Nonetheless there can be a large variation between the sonic quality of the sounds that go into a sound track - from high-fidelity recordings and samples to...cruddy fidelity sounds/samples which just sound "right" in some places, sometimes subtley mixed into high-fidelity sounds.
And yet...a great sound system DOES make a very positive difference in reproducing movie sound tracks. High fidelity, which of course includes the idea of a lowering of distortion throughout the reproduction chain, is a definite plus in making movie soundtracks sound better - richer, more "varied," more enveloping and realistic.
I hear my tracks played on many different systems - in my editing suite, in the various mixing theaters, in home theaters, and on humble stereo/mono TV sets. It still amazes me how much better, how enthralling, and how much more realistic the tracks sound when I hear them on the best systems (such as a good mixing theater or a great home theater set-up) vs. lesser systems.
So, my point is that, while movie sound may come together in a synthetic manner, better quality sound - high fidelity - reaps just the kind of satisfying rewards as it does for music reproduction.
Rich H.
i find that movies sound great with my system when its properly set up. Especially with tubes. You must be sure to ditch the centert and use a processor that can sum the center to the right and left. IMHO you do not need a center channel for any HT setup, if you heard my second system (not maggies right now) you would totally agree. The maggies are even better at this.
nt
> It's true when my salesperson told me owning these are like being married (if Maggie says move the couch and does'nt like the curtains, you move the couch and get rid of the curtains!).It is funny but has some truth in it. I have been a Magneplanar speakers fan for about 11 years. I have and had owned MMG, 1.5, 3.5 and 20 now. It is just like a relationship. You have to spend time and money on them to get them right, then you can get the best out of them. Too bad, a lot of people are wowed at begining but give them up later on due to many reasons.
Anyway, I can't say I have a lot of experience wit high end loudspeakers. But I have been very disappionted by those megbuck speakers, such as JMlab Utopia, Revel Ultima Salon, so on. If I have to give Maggies up to have some box speakers, I can only think about Merlin, Spendor and Audio Physic line. Magneplanar speaker does make me put a big question mark on many speakers, especially those gigantic "systems", for me. Can those things sound good?
An audiophile; should be one who tries to reproduce the gestaldt of the live music experience through his system. Price is not in the equation.
..
nt
Otherwise, we might still be listening to AR LSTs, Crown amps, and Pickering cartridges. :)rw
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