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General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

Re: Magnepan 1.6QR Speakers :Chameleons?

208.16.48.154

In my experience, and many others around here, that it's not so much the speakers themselves or the electronics that cause this, but it's the back raditaion of the Maggies that interacts a great deal with the wall and room. Maggies take a lot of care to setup properly and chances are that they won't sound good just thrown in the room with little thought to sound absorbtion and finite placement adjustments. These details matter so much more with Maggies than with other more traditional speakers that aren't so finicky.

I am almost certain that it was the room that was causing the pain with what you heard. Those electronics should work just fine with the 1.6s, actually probably very good. Was there any sound absorbtion panels on the back wall either in between the speakers or directly behind and slightly off to the outside? How much room was behind them, and to the sides? If they are too close to the side wall, you will pick up hardness from the wall reflection. If they are not out from the back wall far enough they will condense the soundstage and the imaging will sound flat. Also, how high were the ceilings? Were they dropped panels or drywall? It will make a difference in such a large surface.

Watch out for a dealer that tells you he used a formula to position the Maggies. While this may work pretty good with standard cone speakers, it usually doesn't work with Maggies. You have to just use the formula placement as a very general guide and experiment from there. Maggies interact too much with the room they are in. Toe in angles make a huge differences too.

Some people experiment with swapping the speakers, so the tweets are on the inside, this works for some people. I find in my room it confines the soundstage though. Some folks, like Mart, have closed up the back altogether by using a towel or something. This has a dramatic effect on the hardness. It's amazing how much the room sets it's impression on the final sound. But, again, I feel like this eliminates the "air" and ambiance too much for me. Right now I'm experimenting only covering the back of the tweeter, and leaving the mids and bass free to raditate out the back. I think I may be on to something here. I am liking the initial results. I need to play around with it some more. Another possibility is using resisitors for the tweeter. Did the set you heard have them in? Magnepan sends along a 1 ohm one, but you can get resistors of more or less resistance to lower or raise the tweeter output. This also makes a large difference in the upper registers depending on whether your room is too dead or too alive.

I'd get the dealer to loan you a pair before making any judgement calls on them. I wouldn't bother listening to them much at all at the dealer showroom, because in your own room they very likely to sound much, much different.

Good Luck.
NEIL




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  • Re: Magnepan 1.6QR Speakers :Chameleons? - NEIL 09:54:40 12/09/99 (0)


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