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Posts: 3082
Location: South FL
Joined: May 18, 2008
Contributor
Since: July 26, 2010
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Yes, I think that your are very correct in that many folks won't hear the resulting effect of such an approach. One wonders what would have happened if Magnepan had not chosen to do this. In other words, to not make them at all, or to make them "properly" & balanced but at a much higher price. For that matter, if Magnepan had not found similar engineering shortcuts for the other Maggies the planar speaker category would be much much smaller, LOL! Handicapped as they are, MMGs do offer a low-cost entry point to the world of planars. Furthermore, within a range, the darn things do reproduce music better than other more expensive speakers. That they still serve not just as an introduction to higher-end Maggies but also provide a DIY gateway to very decent music playback is great. For example, one surprising thing came up around the time I first measured my friend's 802D in 2009. I had just recently added "pseudo-frames" to my MMGs. (This was the prototype for what became my "Stixbees" frame reinforcemnt later on). With the P-F , when I compared distortion figures at the time, the MMGs were better or slightly better than the 802D (in the frequency range they share). I was so surprised, that I DID NOT believe it at first. As I remember it, even at 40hz the 802D were showing 8% distortion during a sweep (each speaker). Fainter as my MMGs were at 40hz they were at 8% (right) and <8% (left). This was dynamically, while doing sweeps. (I have not been able to do pure, single-tone, harmonic distortion tests on those 802D yet). To be sure, the rooms themselves -- and the corresponding ambient noise -- may have imposed a toll on the accuracy of distortion figures. Nonetheless, by the time the sweeps had reached 1khz, the MMGs were delivering <0.5% where the 802D delivered >1% THD. Given that I could repeat the results, in those days I was mighty proud of the MMGs. BTW, comparable distortion figures were depressingly high in my un-reinforced MMGs. The fact is that their original MDF frame is very THIN, about 1/2"; much thinner than current MMG models. Lower distortion, more clarity at higher SPL, and part of the deep bass improvements came from just the frame reinforcement. Yet, frame reinforcement was just one of several tweaks, the totality of which can be done for low or very low investments. I, for one, was not going to be able to get decent speakers at the time when my wife's illness was costing us so much money. These used MMGs allowed me to get a music system started again. Then they offered more...if I put the DIY work into it. Thus, I'd like to nurture general awareness of this potential. It is available to others who may fall in my situation, or just for the fun of it. Those who may want to extract more juice from MMGs (and other Maggies) may find surprising how little money it really takes. LOL, I am currently dreaming of the 20.7 or something similar! However, guess what? I now have to pay my own new huge medical expenses. Then I have to find even more money for a larger place to live in because setting large planars up in the patio simply won't do :-)). I reckon that this will take time...quite a bit of time.
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