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Guys,
What can you say about MGIIb's? A pair is coming up for sale or auction. They look pristine, claimed to have been in climate controlled storage a long time and worked fine prior. I will not have the opportunity to connect and audition. At what point/price are they worth a flyer? Is there a comparison to newer models? Thanks!
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Bought them used in the early 90's! They have a very, very nice midrange, particularly with tweeters in, but are lacking in high frequency extension and are very low efficiency.
From there I upgraded to 1.6's (definitely more dynamic and better HF extension, though with a bit of upper midrange heat) and now 3.6R's, which are far better.
Old maggies delaminate with age, not just use/temperature. Would *never* buy without a sine sweep to check for problems. I'd pass.
I personally think you should go with something more modern that can scale up. My biggest financial mistakes were not spending enough, i.e. getting something which I later realized wasn't doing it and then needing to junk it.
Personally on a low budget starting today I would buy used 0.7's and then save up for quality room correction & subwoofer integration.
I heard 0.7's with two quality subs & microphone calibrated correction at an audio show and it was one of the best rooms in the show, regardless of price.
Wow Doc that last sentence has been on my mind since I read it yesterday.I'M going to take a good look into microphone calibrated correction.
Edits: 08/11/21
That was at the T.H.E. show I believe the year they introduced the 0.7s. There were two rooms, one Magnepan, and this other one (which was better!) from a SoCal maggie dealer.
The algorithm for room/bass correction matters tremendously! It is also essential particularly for magnepans to be able to stop correcting above a certain frequency (I found 500Hz-1500Hz cutoff) as full range correction with dipoles can kill the magic.
On algorithms, I use Anthem ARC with great success, and people tend to really like Dirac and RoomPerfect though I don't have personal expertise.
The use of ARC and sub (I still only have one) is by far the biggest upgrade I've experienced other than going to Maggies in the first place. I'm using an Anthem MRX 310 as a control/dsp/pre feeding to a power amp for my fronts, and using the built-in amps for (non planar) surrounds. Once the low frequency corner frequency to the 3.6's was raised to 70Hz (starting blending with sub there) the main weakness of the 3.6 was almost completely eliminated, i.e. the 42 Hz main panel resonance. There was previously a bit of an opacity (haven't heard the 3.7i yet) in the low-midbass which is eliminated. You get the dynamism of cones now with the immersion of planars.
The Anthem also has other great DSP features like Dolby Volume, level-aware-and-variable Fletcher-Munson loudness correction. And the surround synthesis from stereo using their own algorithms is tasteful and an improvement, compared to most implementations of that idea.
thanks, will look into that.
1. Magnepan has suspended parts for a while and these will need parts
2. at the 2 bills you mention they are already at the highest price that would make sense for the potential work needed
3. you have other speakers in mind
4. these are easily bettered by newer offerings
Expect they will need at least the banana peel repaired if the wiring is intact. That is something that can be done without needing parts but if any of the wires are broken, corroded, you need replacement aluminum wires from Magnepan and they are not doing this now according to a thread below...too busy making stuff or the parts guy is out sick, IDK. Hope they can resolve this quickly.
Rewiring is a bit of work. I did a pair of IIc years ago and they are sweet but the 2.5/R and IIIa that I had at the time were better. The IIc was a nice coherent sound, though.
Just not worth more than a couple bills. Chip's IIc were 150 plus the rebuild. Fortunately his wife likes em.
The closing price according to a post below of 700 is way too high for a pair this old considering what the new speakers can do.
If they work, that would be great. If they only need to have the banana peel repaired to make a fully working pair of IIb speakers, then the buyer got these 40-year old speakers for the price that some might spend for speakers with true ribbons.
I wouldn't buy site unseen, or sound unheard I guess is better (unless they are a steal and you are ready to potentially repair as needed).
What's the price? That matters plenty also. Are they a lot less than a pair of LRS's? And even if so, if you end up having to repair, are you inching up on the LRS price?
Unusual item showing up at an auction house we frequent for fun and sometimes pick up something. Feeling like a nice piece of audio history, and ok if acquired as such for fun, but seriously outperformed even by new products/versions.
I mean we are talking about a product from the early 80s.*Not saying you shouldn't buy a pair from the early 80s 'if' you auditioned them and they played well.
Having said that, if you do find yourself in a bidding war with them I personally wouldn't go over $300 for them.
Edits: 08/10/21
Already up to 200 with 17 bids and still a week to go. I think they are going to go for more than I would ...- kinda surprised there are a lot of folks around here that even know what they are.
That's fine ...- I'm going to get the 1.7i or used 3.7 regardless (different thread), and really don't have a room for these anyway. Still hard to resist the shiny object syndrome 😁
Question: are we talking about a site other than ebay? If so I'd be interested in knowing what it is - and I promise not to out bid you!
Yes, this is a local auction house here in New Bern. Scroll part way down the first page of this batch. They are up to 255 with 20 bids (bids not bidders, so may be a few people/idiots needlessly driving up the price a week before closing).
I am passing on these for some reasons offered here, and I don't need another 'something to play with' so focusing on the main and hopefully end-game acquisition.
So feel free to bid away! 😁
https://proctorauctions.hibid.com/catalog/299875/enc-consignments--90/?force=True
Any chance you can post the link here? I didn't see it under your name (unless I missed it) which means I'd have to open every post on this page until I find it.
Thanks in advance.
Oops ...- thought I did. Partway down p.1 ...- item 23
https://proctorauctions.hibid.com/catalog/299875/enc-consignments--90/?force=True
So bidding?😁
Kinda long drive to come get them.
Maggie fb page a while back.they had a kick with that one lol.
Could be the same pair you were looking at but I find it odd to have the same item listed on different auction sites.
Wanna hear something funny? I just looked at the location for those and they're about 15 min from me LoL...DON'T want/need them though, at any price.
Edits: 08/16/21
That's wild! Find it hard to believe same pair but who knows. I've done a lot of business with the owner of the auction house here (or should I say, my WIFE has), and he has known the consigner of these many years and trusts. If I were to bid and win, he'd let me bring in my own amp/source and test before taking, and he'd warrant them while they are in the building. He just didn't have the equipment to test himself, which he usually does.
If you are out, I may keep my eye on where the bidding goes.
Ended up going for 700 (not to me)
or not so happy. I'm hoping for the former.
Honestly, sound unheard, stored for many years... I don't think I'd pay over $150-200 unless prepared to rebuild and/or couldn't swing the LRS bill.
Whether or not you can observe a thing depends upon the theory you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed. - Albert Einstein
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