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Hello Guys and Gals,
I recently had a guy send me out some all original in great condition Magnepan SMGa speakers. I have owned Magnepan 1.6,12 and MMGs. To be honest I did not know what to expect. Yes they are not at "bright" as the other speakers but they sound just more "right" magical if you will. I have read many posts where some SMGa owners say that they sound "magical", yes they do that is for sure. I even think that they sound little warmer rounder sounding than the MMGs, better bass and highs are not piercing but they are there. I am 45 years old and don't have the best hearing. Frequency response for the SMGa are 50-18 hz. Top end compared to the other Magnepans looks "lacking" on paper but in my living room sound 100% balanced. Like I said before I owned the MMGs for a while and sometimes found the tweeters to be little too hot, beamy. Not with the SMGas. Room is hardwood floor with glass sliding door to back yard on side. Speaker cable are better cables silver plated copper. Super impressed with these speakers, oh yes, no delamination, previous owner did this work himself. He had these speakers listed for $225.00 on craiglist, out of state and shipped them to me for, $280.00. The following is my current setup:
1.Vpi Nomad with Grado Platinum 1 cartridge.
2.Grado Rs2e headphones.
3.Better cables rca and speaker cables.
4.Pioneer Elite A-20 integrated amp, yes I know somewhat budget good sounding and reasonable, maybe in the future I might get a better integrated amp, 50 watts a channel, perfect for the SMGa due to them being 90db efficient unlike all of the other Maggies that are 86 db efficient. I have a feeling due to my age and less than perfect hearing I question how necessary or even needed speakers that have a top end that extends 18-20 hz?
Just a happy and surprised owner. Ger.
Follow Ups:
In other words just lucky on Magnepan's part.
It seems like the resonance would move up the hz until it imparts a midrange glow that the other Maggies do not have.
My guess is based on an old article about Soundlab speakers and how each panel is a different size to spread around the speaker resonance and keep them neutral.
It could be why beede likes the MMG too
my two cents...
Indeed, my experience to.
Sometimes manfacturers forget about the SOUNDBALANCE.
Just like the telephone 300-3000 Hertz is good, 300- 12000 for example sounds overbright, sizzling.
Have also the MG-1C in the livingroom, also very balanced, low and high same principle, some call it coherent sound, every tone, instrument, vocal sounds as one big ball of sound. I heard the new types with ribbons etc and cannot say they are as pleasing, high frequencies seem to live their own life.
Do not mistake overly bright sound caused by crossover/transientintermodulation distortion by bad transistor amplifiers. I use valve amplifiers, very recommended.
Happy listening.
Different strokes for different folks. :-))
I first heard my IIIas driven by a massive VTL power amplifier ... and fell in love with them. A couple of years later, I bought that exact pair off the dealer (they were his personal pair) when he switched over to becoming an Apogee dealer.
However, I always drove them with solid state amplifier s ('s' because they were 3-way active) and I assure you, even though they - and my current 'Frankenpans' - have true ribbon tweeters, I have never suffered from either:
a) "overly bright sound" or
b) "high frequencies seeming to live their own life".
Regards,
Andy
Andyr,
What is a VTL amplifier and what do you mean with "massive".
Just curious.
greetings.
Here are a pair of "Massive VTL Amplifiers"Pic includes massive Wilson speakers (6 figure price tag) for perspective. Note the similarity to Darth Vader.
Edits: 05/07/15
The one I first listened to my IIIas with, was at least 200wpc.
Regards,
Andy
Is, thank you very much
Awesome seeing you here Luke, love mine!
LOVE those 807s. They sound great, and really take about forever to wear out.
Must say, VTL amps are a whole lot prettier these days. :)
As I have posted before, I bought my IIIas in the early 90s because I had heard them at Mike Kontor's shop ("Leading Edge Audio", in Melbourne, Oz) driven by some large VTL amp and fell in love with them. :-))
(But I could never afford the amp!)
Regards,
Andy
Andyr,
Obviously you are in a different leagy, budgetwise.
My response to the SMG-a owner was meant to complement his vieuw with my "budget" system.
I tried various solid state amp's but returned to valves since 1978 and never looked back. Of course there are solid state amp's with good quality but imh opinion will never surpass a good valve amp regarding crossoverdistortion and transient intermdulation distortion, both inherent to solid state amp's because of the necessary huge negative feedback and class B or AB (mostly first milliwatt class A, so virtually class B.)
A neighbour of mine has a Musical Fidelity class A amplifier solid state but I still hear the stressed sound of heavy negative feedback. Very expensive besides and my valve amp is cheap,and even betters a class A solid state.
If you are happy with your gear: congratulations and I wish you happy listening without constantly thinking about upgrading. Beware of lousy CD's or vinyl with to much dynamic compression, alway's keep some good favorite recordings as reference to set your mind at ease. I know to many people constantly upgrading, tweaking, buying new stuff not realizing it is the CD/vinyl that sucks.
You talk like you've been stuck in a time warp for 37 years. :)
Solid-state amplifier technology has come a long way since then.
TIM and crossover distortion were essentially eliminated from well-designed solid-state amplifiers many years ago.
Do some reading, get yourself out of ostrich mode.
Cheers,
Dave.
Davey,
I'm not going to read anything because I know everything.
Many hifi books, magazines, advertisements just sell bullshitstory's.
I use my ears and that's why I still use valves, simple, best sound possible, no crossover/TIM/noise/large amounts of feedback.
I congratulate everybody who finds good solidstate gear and enjoy it. I never found it for a reasonable price.
The major setback's in sound/ "high Fidelity" in my opinion:
Stereo-quadrophonia-CD-Surround-DVD-transistoramp's-opamp's.
Stereo and multichannel is just a special effect, for me annoying because I'm a mono fan, good dynamics, earpleasing, no irritating phase effects, no combfiltereffects with 1 loudspeaker.
I totally agree that a good valve amp is magic ... however, not all ss amps use lots of NFB. :-))
I've used AKSA ss amps for many years, for several reasons:
1. I like my active Maggies but for WAF reasons, need to use ss monoblocs.
2. I can leave them on 24x7, so don't have to wait for 'warm up'.
3. the designer carefully engineers his amps to have:
** low NFB
** H2 higher than all other harmonic distortions, with the distortion profile monotonically decreasing.
Regards,
Andy
Nice! That's why I keep my pair of SMGa. The only Magneplanar that I liked better were Tympani-C from decades back--I still regret selling them. I find my MMG sound closer to the SMGa than to the newer QR models.
...j
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