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Maggies across the map Tympani 1U, Mg 1.5, Mg1a (improved), .7, and X.7i

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Posted on November 20, 2015 at 15:05:59
stellar1
Audiophile

Posts: 39
Location: SE PA
Joined: July 22, 2002
Apologies in advance since it has been a very, very long time since I last posted, but here goes.

My Mg 1.5s have been my front speakers for HT for many years now. For the last maybe two years they started breaking down and progressively worsening with heavy base passages from Blu-rays. (e.g. Dawn of Planet of the Apes). This led me to believe that they were delaminating. So, I purchased a pair of Maggie .7s. To break them in a bit, I replaced my Tympanis with the .7s in my mid-fi basement system. I was very impressed by the musicality of the .7s speakers compared to the Tympani and the Mg 1.5s.
I've put the .7 in my HT upstairs as front speakers and added a subwoofer. I've now moved my Mg1.5s downstairs and have been listening to these for a couple of months.

I've had the 1.5s in my downstairs Mid-fi 2 channel system and have not heard any audible issues. I have a powerful version of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, and this plays well on the 1.5s. From the sound of the .7s, I've decided I want a pair of at least 1.7i's for the downstairs system. I'm now convinced that the Tympanis are too large for my listening room. It is 13 ft. X 24 ft. The 13 foot wall is the front wall for my two channel playback.

Questions:
Does this sound like a reasonable explanation breakdown of the 1.5s during Blu-ray playback to wit subsonics? I wasn't using a subwoofer. I am now with the .7s and there are no deep bass issues.

Would the 3.7is blow away the Tympani 1Us?

Is there a market for the 1.5s? (These are in 8/10 original condition - second owner)

Is there a market for the Tympani 1Us? (I've made cosmetic mods: nicer socks, separated panels including wiring in screw connectors for panel to panel interconnect wires to allow all three panels to be lined up in a plane.)

Is there a market for Mg1a (improved)

If yes in any case, is it better to sell via eBay or AudioGon?

Thanks for any help.
Steve

 

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RE: Maggies across the map Tympani 1U, Mg 1.5, Mg1a (improved), .7, and X.7i, posted on November 21, 2015 at 12:15:25
DrChaos
Audiophile

Posts: 2063
Location: San Diego
Joined: July 13, 2009
I'm not sure the problem is delaminating in heavy bass, more likely just excursion handing limits when the membrane hitts the magnets if you get harshness on the loudest bass passages. Maggies have a resonance to counteract the dipole cancellation in bass. But this means that the excursion can grow quite large if you feed it bass too low and too loud.

The 3.7i would greatly exceed the vintage Maggie's in midrange and treble for sure and all but the Timpani in bass.

The most expensive mistakes I've made is not spending enough: I realize right away I'm making undesirable compromises, and then trade and sell at a loss with needless time wasted.

I would go for the 3.7s, if you've never heard the true ribbon, you haven't lived. It's still state of the art in high frequency reproduction.

Next I would think about a sealed subwoofer if you can get great room correction and blending.

iVe had good success selling on USAudioMart.

 

RE: Maggies across the map Tympani 1U, Mg 1.5, Mg1a (improved), .7, and X.7i, posted on November 21, 2015 at 15:39:25
Satie
Audiophile

Posts: 5426
Joined: July 6, 2002
The power registers of the music are better executed by the Tympani I. What they lack is the ribbon sparkle and detail. Your room might not be well proportioned to accomodate the Tympani but should do well with a split configuration (or a reverse split configuration - i.e. where the bass panels are up front near the center of the sidewalls while the tweeter panels are behind.)

You can have a better result than with the 3.7i by simply adding a ribbon tweeter to the T-1. There are a number of aftermarket ribbon super tweeters. The small Dayton AMT tweeters are also an option though they don't reach that high up (inexpensive too) and you could mount them on the tweeter panel.

http://www.parts-express.com/aurum-cantus-g2-ribbon-tweeter--276-402
is one solution and you can cross it over at 12khz with a resistor to lower the output (96db sensitivity vs mid 80s for the T-I). You can mount it beside the tweeter panel.

 

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