Planar Speaker Asylum

Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share your ideas and experiences.

Planar Speaker Asylum

Of Maggies and Mid-Fi....

71.166.73.225

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Thread: Display Email Next ] [ Planar Speaker Asylum ]

Call this a "comming out" of sorts. This post is for Planar Asylum members and "lurkers" who feel that everyone else here has expensive gear driving their Maggies or Maggies aren't worth having without "mucho bucks" electronics.
My current system consists of a Sony ES series CD changer, an Onkyo pre, a Behringer EP1500 amp, and modded MMG's. Granted, my Maggie experience so far is limited the MMG's, but this humble system is the best I've ever had. The pleasure of revisiting music I've known for 15 to 20 years and hearing it sound better than ever is hard to describe. Yeah, I know some will consider this "crude" at best, but with decent electronics and "small" Maggies, you can have a killer system. I do plan on upgrading components as the ol' budget allows, but for now, thanks to modded MMG's, I'm getting a peek at what's to come ;^).

Follow Ups:

when I 1st got my 1.6's all I had... - Kiefer74.1 18:33:03 10/21/06 (0)
Was a Marantz receiver and a Marantz cdp. Though at the time I lived in a studio house that was so small all the room was given to the system (with an exception of the tiny TINY so called kitched I had.
Jon
AKA 'kiefer74'
10.1's.... - golgi 17:53:06 10/18/06 (0)
In the summer of 1998, I had begun heavily reading an audio forum (I can't remember the name). But things had started going downhill there and many forum members were jumping and ship and joining some other forum. A couple of these members told me that I should check out this new forum called Audio Asylum. So I did and have read it off and on since then.
Anyway, my point is that after reading Audio Asylum for a while, I started reading more and more about Magnepans and how people really liked them. I looked around for a dealer and found one within 4 miles of my apartment at that time. I began my audiophile system at that time with the purchase of the Maggie 10.1 QR speakers. To go with those speakers I bought Rotel separate components. My system is far from being high end but to me it was amazingly great to the bose speakers I had before. To make a long story short, I still have that 10.1 + Rotel system as my main system and haven't really felt any need to upgrade.
I did however, get a second system consisting of a turntable, tube headphone amp, and upper range Sennheiser headphones. As much as I love this system, I still spend a significant amount of time listening to my modest Maggie system. Just goes to show that you really don't have to spend an arm and a leg to buy a great system.
I'm sure you'll have many years of enjoyment from your system.
MMGs: Making Music Great. - Cory M. 21:08:35 10/16/06 (0)
That's all I've got to say. I couldn't count all the contented hours I spent basking in the wonderful music that my modest MMG system provided. I've got "better" equipment now, but if I had to I could go back and easily enjoy that system. Infact, there are some things that I miss about the way it made music and some areas dare I say more enjoyable.
Magnepan MMGs, NAD 3020 as a preamp, Adcom GFA-555II amp, Realistic phono stage and a old Yamaha belt drive turntable with a Grado cart. I had a Magnavox boombox hooked up via headphone outputs to play CeeDees.
Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - saltyflies 15:27:02 10/16/06 (0)
Congrats on finding your way. Fwiw, once heard 7k speakers w/ +9k of hardware produce more mud than anything else i've ever come across. And another time listening to vinyl in the backroom with a bunch of salesguys, while my friend was auditioning stuff in the big room. The backroom system was much more modest and magical in comparision. So getting it right is more about spending time (carefully selecting components) than money.
I think a lot of (at least mine are) the bigger, better, more postings are for those who have heard Maggies with better stuff and want more. It does prove what they are capable of (if one decides to go further), but does give the false impression that she can�t sing with less. Thanks for reminding me of that.

Believe what your ears say - not hearsay.
Jim Winey would be pleased - E-Stat 10:40:44 10/16/06 (0)
While Maggies are good enough to show subtle differences upstream, they are inherently natural reproducers using most any gear. I fondly remember my MG-IIs back in the 70s.
As bipolars, do experiment with placement and inexpensive room treatments to get the most from them.
rw
Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - JimOfOakCreek 20:36:39 10/15/06 (1)
Good for you. Save your money for a down payment on a house.
- Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - RickeyM 07:55:03 10/16/06 (0)
  Already a home owner, however I hope to have an audio room as big as yours in due time ;^). The aim of my post is let people know that the smaller Maggies be very satisfying with modest gear, so long as it can drive low impedence loads. The other great thing about Maggies is they're revealing enough to tell you when a component change is an improvement or not. For now though, any equipment upgrades are on hold. It's room treatment's time =^].
Reminds me of Turgenevs 'Fathers & Sons' - Peter Gunn 09:42:43 10/15/06 (0)
This whole class vs nihilism thing in audio is getting tiring already. If a Behringer amp is all you can afford now you don't need to apologise to anyone. I think the vast majority of us started out with gear like that. I had an Adcom GFA555 amp and thought it RULED at the time. Sure, it was a piece of crap, and I did eventually discover that later but until I did discover it as they say, the earth was still flat. But I didn't care, I WAS HAPPY, and that is what enjoying music is supposed to be about. It was MY first big amp in MY first stereo of my OWN and I LOVED IT. I might even have been generally happier and enjoyed music more than I do now.
The point is, would you like to travel by Greyhound bus with crying babies and dirty white trash families? If you could bring back Thomas Jefferson he'd be THRILLED to do so, he'd find the whole thing so amazing and beyond his imagination he would be transixed by it, and since he would never have driven his own Porsche he wouldn't know what he was missing. You know, you don't mind coach until you fly first class, and you can't miss what you never experienced.

The fact is maggies, unlike many high end speakers, will accomodate lesser equipment happily, but they can also take it up to the next level if you so choose and in fact their ceiling may yet to have been properly defined. So depending on ones tastes, knowledge, desires and income we can be all over the board as magnepan owners, and we can all be equally happy. YES, some people here are snobs, but most are just so thrilled at what upgrading did for them they want to share the love.
So there is no need to brag, or apologise. What does Red Green say, "I'm pullin for ya, we're all in the same boat here. Don't forget to keep your stick on the ice."

It's all about the music...
Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - Sebrof 18:19:51 10/14/06 (2)
I started with MG12s driven by a NAD 214 amp (80wpc)and an Adcom Preamp/tuner. Source was an Arcam Alpha7 CDP.
Current system is 1.6s driven by a Sunfire Stereo amp (325wpc), Quicksilver linestage preamp. Source is a Jolida JD100A CDP. I also have a small Velodyne sub.
Some will read this and say, "Much better system." Some will say, "Still a bit crude."
It's all relative, man.
Actually, the most significant upgrade I've done was to buy a new house and stick my system into a dedicated room, and set the room up with treatments and such.
- Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - Rod H. 20:12:54 10/14/06 (0)
  Ditto. The best associated equipment in the world won't compensate for a bad listening room IMO.
  Rod
- Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - gymwear5@hotmail.com 20:09:36 10/14/06 (0)
  Well Done. You can go through just about any gain stage electronics (not eq, electronic crossover, DSP) and not get near the CHANGE in your sound that the right room does. Remember, that the Bipolar Maggies are are both more imune to the effects of room reflections and the same time require some care to room placement than a traditional speaker box.
Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - Dawnrazor 17:14:28 10/14/06 (0)
Hey Rickey,
Glad to see you are happy.
Once you get a better pre-amp, source, and amp, let us know what you think of the current system.
If your experiences are anything like mine, you will be amazed at how much more improvement there is in those great speakers....and how you thought they sounded great and could never get better...but they do.
Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - Rod H. 15:50:38 10/14/06 (0)
Nothing exotic here either.
Rod
Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - Green Lantern 10:01:27 10/14/06 (1)
Very 'chameleon like' I always say. Meaning they're very adaptable and user freindly.
Started out with a Adcom 555II and despite what others have said; I enjoyed the hell out of em'!

____________ _// ________________
listen
- Second the Adcom 555II - Feanor 09:13:00 10/19/06 (0)
  I really enjoyed mine. I like my current amps better, (which are a great deal in themselves), but I found the Adcom really agreeable.
  Also, I payed $305 for it and sold it for $350 -- bonus.
  
  Bill Bailey
  _______________
  Good enough is good enough
Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - Neldog 09:43:32 10/14/06 (1)
Im still using a Hafler 100 & 220. Old school but it still sounds great. No Mods.
- Re: Of Maggies and Mid-Fi.... - Craigo87 18:02:57 10/29/06 (0)
  I'm with you Neldog. Got me some Hafler DH220's and a pair of SE240's. The SE240's are soon going to be set up in a vertically bi-amped arrangement to power my 1.6QR's. Very soon, but not soon enough. Right now one of the SE240's is powering my SMGc's and I love the marriage.
  Craigo
you aren't alone! For 4 years I used inexpensive Carver stuff I got when I was 17 - Enchantment1.6s 05:14:36 10/14/06 (0)
and always thought it sounded great.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Western Glow Tube Service

You can not post to an archived thread.