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In Reply to: RE: Planar speakers that can do rock !!! posted by Plinius_Fan on June 29, 2009 at 05:05:00
I don't care to classify a speaker as a good "rock" speaker, or a good "classical" speaker etc. Either a system in a room is true to the source or it isn't. Early Zeppelin recordings don't pack a whollup with Maggies because it isn't in the recording to begin with. All decent modern speakers are capable of reproducing a dynamic and extended frequency range when properly setup and driven in a decent room.
MMG and higher models in the Magnepan line can give you what you are looking for if setup properly and well driven. I will say that for the most part, the Maggie line is a bit on the sweet and polite side, but still fully capable of some chest pounding dynamics. What is required is a good size room (14x14 limits you to MG1.6's as the largest model I would recommend). A high quality power amp capable of driving low impedance loads. Proper room placement with the speakers vertical and in a true dipole arrangement with speakers in an equilateral triangle pointed at your ears. Also a pair of subwoofers usually works better than a single in this arrangement. Let the planars run full range and blend in the subs at a very low crossover point with a sharp cutoff slope. It may take a lot of experimentation to get the subwoofer placement dialed in, or, possibly require some outboard processing (delay, phase, eq, etc) of the subwoofer signal. For 90% off my listening, I just leave the subwoofer system off entirely.
The sweet spot for proper imaging and bass punch will be very small. Stray just a few inches from that point and much will be lost. But in that spot and you will be rewarded. Unlike cabinet speakers, the bass response of planars is still directional, and you need to be placed at the intersection of the two panels to get full bass impact. Upgrading the crossover and wiring helps a bit in this regard as will framing or stand upgrades.
Some of my favorite recordings on maggies are by Dire Straits, Floyd, Bela Fleck, Nickel Creek, large classical works and more. I will admit that some of the Stones and Zeppelin recordings come off flat sounding, but the speakers that those recordings sound good on usually sound like dreck with recordings I've listed.
I've had a few folks listen to my MG1.6 setup and comment that they'd like to hear them with the subs turned off, only to find out that they weren't on in the first place. I use no sound processing equipment (eq's etc) between the source and the Mg1.6's.
This can easily all be done under $5k.
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