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RE: Magnepan 1.7 high frequency harshness




Thanks to everyone who offered an opinion. I have tried all of the placement suggestions awhile back and have had the quilt on the wall for some time. My post was after tring some of these things. I tried the atenuators supplied by Magnepan and didn't like the drop in high end resolution. I thought using those was akin to simply adjusting the treble. I took them off pretty quickly.

I recieved the anticables yesterday and was naturally pretty eager to try them. Well, shut the front door! I may have just solved my problem. As with any new cable/wire, the first 5 minutes were pretty unimpressive, but by the 1 hour mark I knew these were vastly better than my el cheapos, even though these are a huge bargan as well.

My local dealer had allowed me to try some Audio Quest and Nordost models in the $500-$1000 range. Maybe I didn't give them enough time on my system to give them a fair audition or maybe I really didn't want to like them because I wasn't in the mood to drop many hundreds of dollars, but they didn't do anything for me. The anticables started working well after just a few minutes.

I haven't had but a couple of hours with these and they are clearly not reaching their full potential, and that belief excites me. I really haven't heard the hard bite in the upper frequencies that I was trying to explain. I'm not saying it has gone completely away but WOW, I haven't been this impressed with a simple system change since I employed a power conditioner for the first time.

I am going to give these the full burn in time and if they get even a little better I will be ordering the interconnects as well. My current interconnect is a Straight Wire Rhapsody S. If the interconnect doesn't seem to be an upgrade as well, I'll just return it. Paul Speltz has a fair return policy.

For those interested in the anticables I can already say that the upper frequencies are more exposed while seemingly removing the occasional bite that I was getting. I was using Axiom stranded 12 gauge OFC bulk cable. It was very nice and super flexible, but the sound I now know was average at best. I'm now hearing the transient ring in cymbols and other percussion instuments. On the bass side, I'm getting less boom and clearly tighter notes. The bass note pitch on the lowest that the Maggies can muster up is also now more identifiable. I don't think I'm hearing better or wider soundstage, but the individual instuments are better placed with more air around single players.

I know I'm sounding like product hype and I hate that, but I start out believing new stuff won't make any differnence rather than setting my mind to believe because I've spent money it should. I have to proven wrong so to speak. Fun, a new toy that does seem to help my problem, AND it has improved the sound. Double win. BTW, I paid for 24 feet of Paul's bulk wire and he sent me 30. I am using bare leads straight into the Maggies and into my McIntosh barrier strip. I have no need for the convenience of connectors and I've never heard anyone say that a connector improves the sound. Buying the anticable bulk saves the cost of the connectors and Paul's assembly time. The only tedious part is carefully removing the very thin dialectric to expose the leads. Judy, Paul's wife advised using a Dremmel stone as one way to do that.

I will look into the chokes that were offered up as well. Thanks.


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