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My first intro to MAGNEPAN was a major disappointment.I actually heard them at a high end audio store which sold the top audiophile brands
unfortunately they had them hooked up to amps that were in no way up to the job
my first thought was " these sound like absolute dog excrement " and I wrote off the brand
about 3 years later they had them hooked up to a more powerful amp and I became somewhat interested
many years later I ended up walking into a store which had the LRS and did not even know what they were .... I thought "maybe I will give magnepan a try " I then looked at the reviews and though " holy cow these things are really backordered "
told the sales guy I would take them and he gave me a mean look and a sarcastic " thats wonderful news"
only after getting them home and hooking up to my high current amp only then I was blown away
was your first Maggie experience similar ????
Edits: 10/26/21 10/26/21Follow Ups:
Quite the opposite. I had already heard the Infinity Servo-Static I and ESS TranStatic I when in 1972 I visited a newly opened hi-fi shop in Livermore, California. That day just happened to be the same day that Bill Johnson was delivering and installing his complete ARC system in the shop of his newest dealer (Audio Arts, owned and operated by Walter Davies, later of Last Record Preservative fame): an SP-3 pre-amp and Magneplanar Tympani T-I's bi-amped with Dual 51 (midrange/tweeter) and Dual 75 (bass) amps. The source was a Decca Blue pickup mounted on a prototype ARC arm (which never made it into production) on a Thorens TD-125 Mk.2 turntable.
I bought that exact system (but with a Decca International arm) from Walter a few months later. Not bad for a 22 year old. ;-)
Flash back to 1992 in Edmonton, Alberta. I stumble into a place called "Audio Ark" curious but
secure in the knowledge that I have a great system featuring Bose 301 speakers. it is a mid-week
afternoon with no salesperson in sight and I am drawn to a room featuring a piano playing.
As I enter there is no piano present but I spy a pair of 6 foot room dividers with black sides and
charcoal cloth. The sound appears to be coming not so much from the panels as from the entire
wall. I then walk between and behind the dividers before realizing they are speakers. Duh!
I returned the next week and bought that demo pair of MG 2.6R. No more boxes for me!!
Definitely not a bad introduction to Maggies!
Heard MG-1s in a friends house maybe mid-80s or so.......
Took them home that day
Took me a week to Sell my RSL 3600 12" 3-ways....which were EXCELLENT copies of JBL 4311 or L100 models.
RSL is still around but no longer the same outfit.....
I've used many different amps but thw WORST was the Rotel RB1070 which simply lacked the guts.
Too much is never enough
First exposure was in a dorm room of a rich student; bad setup, but they made an impression on me...only took me 20 years to finally get a pair.
Was 1987.
There were 2 big dealers in ABQ back then. One had Magnepan, and one had Apogee. Oh - one or the other also had B&W.
At the time? I listened to Apogee Duetta (not a big fan), Scintilla (HECK YEAH!), and Diva (torn between Scinnie & Diva) - all driven by Krell amps. Listened to B&W 801 Matrix, also driven by Krell. And? At the other location, heard Magnepan MG3(?) driven by... possibly ARC solid state amps.
Maggies were a fair bit less expensive than the Apogees (or the B&W Matrix,) but I thought they sounded quite lively & "punchy."
The 801s sounded pretty pure, and? No matter how much you turned the volume up, they just didn't distort. Only way you know it was so loud was because you couldn't hear someone trying to talk to you.
Still? Favorites were probably the Scintillas (though? Divas were tri-amped with KRS amps, and... damn amazing.)
Only time I heard Maggies sound "bad?" MG-20s, in San Diego. Think it was ML amplification, and just seemed "bright" and no "meat on the bones." PRETTY sure they simply hadn't been broken in.
1975 at a store in Milwaukee.
The store manager took me upstairs to a small room.
Tympani 3c driven by ARC D150 huge tube power amp.
For the first time I heard realistic music from a stereo.
Could not afford that system, but bought MG IIa's and GAS thoebe and son of Ampzilla , 6 months later.
Magnepan lover ever since!
Magnepan is still new to me. Until the LRS popped up on my YouTube feed, I've never heard of them. Only until I was ready to move on from small but nice Klipsch on-wall speakers in my home theater did I have a chance to listen to a pair of .7s. I was looking for and wanted to upgrade to Klipsch Heritage speakers. Loved the .7s and ordered them on the spot.
Congratulations! I hope you enjoy them for a good long time!
my first experience with Magnepan might be a bit unique.
Mark Winey had a pair of MGII (something? B? C?) with a Phase Linear power amp (don't recall the model). I think they were new. I brought over a Hafler 101 pre and we enjoyed the music. So much better/different than the Cornwalls at the frat.
Not sure why he needed a preamp (he might have been using a Luxman receiver for a pre).
I don't recall the TT. it must have been 40+ years ago. We might have replaced the PL with a Hafler later. I know the power switch failed on the PL and we had to bypass it.
looking for some jazz and a little libations - joe strummer
and as long as the system was working well, I'd venture to say everyone else has also.
My first experience was with a used pair QR 1.6s, which I listened to in a seller's home and bought them.
Up until that time, I had been listening to a pair of well-regarded horn loudspeakers. When I got the Maggies home, I was simply stunned at how good they sounded, and that they had far less coloration and much greater detail than the rather generalized sounds coming from the horns.
Subsequently, I heard a pair of Quad ESL 63s and bought them. Ultimately, after lengthy comparisons, I was convinced the Quads were even less colored than the Maggies and I sold the 1.6s. But I must say, I could have lived happily with them forever.
They are very fine speakers.
Went into Sound Plus in Vancouver, early to mid 80's, to buy a CDP IIRC. I don't recall seeing them right away, but I turned around to find out what I was hearing.
I was "there", just didn't have the money or room at the time.
Similar experience, stationed in Jacksonville Fl in 1980. Found House of Stereo and they had a pair of 3.6s (might have been 3.3s) that just floored me with the depth and realism of what I was hearing. I vowed at that time I would own them one day (at the time I had Infinity RS1b's with Yamaha Separates and turntable I purchased in Sasebo Japan). Flash forward 20 + years, retired from military and moved to Jacksonville. Found House of Stereo in new location and bought 1.6s. A couple years later had them gunned and never looked back.
my first exposure to the room dividers was back in 1979, I was 19'ish and they blew me away, Knowing I could never afford them I totally forgot about them for the next 20 years.Fast fwd to 2001, I went into a small video rental place (remember those? lol) and the owner had various used vcr's and HT receivers. He also had a handful of speakers (mostly cheap, satellites with the plastic subwoofers). Over in corner he also had a pair of Smga's. I asked to hear them but he really didn't want to go through the trouble of hooking them up -but I insisted. Finally he hooked them up to an old run down receiver. After about 45 seconds I told him to turn them off and left totally unimpressed.
Shortly thereafter (around 2003) I joined the Planar asylum here looking for advice on 'flat' speakers after seeing a lot of buzz on Magnepans and Quads back then.
About 18 months later I wandered into a old brick and mortar audio store tucked away in the middle of nowhere.
I walked in looking for a pair of speakers which was going to be my military retirement gift to myself. This place- although small had an impressive inventory of mostly used 'high end' speakers: Quad, ESS monitors, etc., among them standing out like a sore thumb was a pair of Magnepan 3.3's. I asked to listen to the Quads and Magnepans.
The Quads were extraordinary and extremely realistic especially female vocals.
Next came the 3.3's, I can't tell you what amp they were hooked up to but I'll just say those boys knew just what amp to use. They put on a disc of a jazz trio and all of a sudden a piano appeared out of nowhere on the left, on the right was an upright bass plucking away...but what was going on in the center is what sold me: a drum kit was playing and keeping time with sharp, strikes on the snare....notice I didn't say just 'drums', no -this was a snare, kick drum and cymbal; a 'drum kit'. Again, the drummer was striking the snare keeping time, dead center stage. I looked at the Magnepans expecting them to explain to me how the Hell they were doing this but they remained stoic and continued standing at attention.
Up to that point I thought I knew a thing or two about stereo gear (been at it since age 11) turns out I didn't know squat.
Long story short- the used 3.3's were going for $1500, the same price for a new pair of MG1.6's. I chose the 1.6's and I've been a Maggie addict ever since.
Edits: 10/27/21 10/27/21 10/27/21
No, in my case it was love at first hear. Back in 1980 I had a Dynaco SS system with a pair of original Advents and an AR turntable. Sounded good to me but certainly I would never confuse the sound with anything resembling live music. I walked into a stereo store in San Antonio and they had these room dividers playing music, I sat down and damn, there was this guitar player strumming between the room dividers. It was so real sounding it was uncanny. I bought my first pair of Maggies MG-I imp right on the spot.
NoAudio Consultants in Evanston, IL. Simon had Tymphs driven with ARC - It was beautiful. Circa 1980?
Gsquared
Edits: 10/27/21
It was quite memorable and represented a major re-calibration of just how realistic an audio system could sound. This was in 1974 when I was 17.
System: Tympani IIIs tri-amped using EC-3 with Crown DC300a on woofers, D76s on mid/treble, SP-3a, Linn Sondek LP12, SME3009, Ortofon SL15E.
Soon after, I purchased a pair of MG-IIs to replace Braun LV-1020s.
It wasn't until 1976 that I heard JWC's Dayton-Wrights and my direction changed a bit. But enjoy a pair of MC1s today as surrounds in the HT matching Acoustat 1+1 mains. ;)
My first Magnepan experience was very similar to yours. I heard a pair of T-1Cs biamped with the ARC SP-3A-1, D76, & D-150 amps and the ARC XO. TT might have been a Linn Sondek, but the cartridge was most certainly the fantastic Decca MK 5. This was at Paoli High Fidelity Consultants in PA owned by Eugene Coggins, a friend of JGH's.
Like you, it was an experience I'll never forget. I'd never heard anything like it! Despite this, while I came to own Maggies for decades, I never seriously got into tubes until 10 years ago.
you are lucky that your first introduction to them was so good ... it took me years to finally hear them played correctly
" I told him to turn them off and left totally unimpressed. "
- the Green Lantern
Yes, I found SMG's completely unlistenable, harsh and bright in 1979...
Magnepan was a customer in the 1990's and I had a chance to revisit them a bit then.
I bought my first (MMG's) around 2002.
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