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In Reply to: Hot Potato posted by Peter Gunn on May 3, 2005 at 12:17:18:
Yes, as much as I, and all of us love Maggies there are a TON of things they could do different... or better at the factory. I'm not even gonna start the list, like I said this could be a whole 'nother thread, hats off to Peter for speaking his mind and bringing up the subject.
I like your idea too, about letting the patents loose for other's interpretation of the Magneplanar speaker topology, but then again I find it kind of cool that Magnepan is the "only one" of it's kind and to own them is special and unique. Sure, there were a few other companies that had similar designs- Polyplanar is one a long time ago, but not quite the real deal. Don't know exactly how their designs were, but they must have been just different enough to not warrant any recourse sent their way.
And of course, there are many, many things abouut Maggies that I would not change a bit if I had the chance. Quite a few factors on improvement would be model- specific, having to adhere to the performance/ price ratio, and in this area, Magnepan accels like no other. I think we would all agree on one area that needs improvement... general build quality. I'm not talking a complete makeover, not a massive re-designed platform, just some changes and tweaks here and there, and some NEW ideas. Jim still designs each and every model, and has done an excellent job on every one of them (not to mention inventing the technology!) but there comes a time to evolve a bit.
Follow Ups:
And I'm not usually thanked for it....... :^ )I can appreciate the uniqueness. It's the largest selling high end speaker of all time, yet nobody in the general public knows what it is, even when they see one. But it's due to zealots like us who show them to friends, family, or hell, anyone who's interested! Magnepan sales come from word of mouth principly, and the mouth is ours. I suppose that's why we feel they "owe" us. :^ )
But I'm not talking about letting it all go, just a license to a few select companies with the background, resources or good ideas to make the most of them.
And imagine if the poor long suffering europeans could have a maggie factory in Germany? The Lord wouldn't have had to come here, and they can call them BMW's (Bayerin Magnepanishe Werke)
Then snobs here can buy them, brag that they're better than US maggies, and Mart can chew them a new cornchute. Imagine the fun!
Perhaps I was tough on magnepan, but I'd just like to see obvious problems addressed (do they not have enough real work to do that they can waste time repairing bad coils, or is that part of the profit scheme?) and it would be nice to see them offer auidophile grade versions of the 1 and 3 series. (better caps, coils, wiring, terminals etc...)
I cannot see how the latter could possibly be a problem or cost them money. In fact, I wonder how much business they lose because people would have bought a tweaked 3.6 but are afraid or incapable of doing it themselves so they buy some pricier speaker instead.
Ahhh, like all lifes mysteries, we'll never know...
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