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Planar Speaker Asylum Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share your ideas and experiences. |
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In Reply to: Looking to leave the Maggie Fold? posted by audioNeil on February 18, 2012 at 12:21:00:
It's as simple as this - choose what works for you.
For the record, I moved from 3.6s to 3.7s and while I think the latter are quite a bit better, my impression of the 3.6 was much different from yours. Whether that difference can be explained by our different settings or our different preferences is impossible to say. One of the ways in which the 3.7 is an improvement is in the 'cut from a single cloth' level of driver integration - very ESL-like (but with better highs ;-), IMO.
Frankly, I think getting the bass satisfactory is a huge piece of the puzzle. Placing Maggies can be a frustrating compromise between the best bass performance and the best imaging. A recipe that I finally adopted which has paid huge dividends is to unload the bottom end from the Maggies entirely via an electronic crossover. That way, the Maggies can be located where they image best and a pair of proper bass engines can be located where they will serve you best - or, you could deploy a Swarm. The point is that separating the tasks can solve the placement dilemma. Furthermore, removing that energy from the panels results in a marked improvement in clarity. It also gives you better control over the balance of weight - unfortunately, I've found no way to avoid the need to vary my sub levels with different program material (for the most part, a few dB higher on older material - unless that deficiency was addressed in remastering). The upside to that activity, is that I can dial in the weight that's necessary to keep me connected to the music. There is another advantage to this approach - reduced power requirements, which can open the door to amplifier designs which operate on a different dollar/watt scale. I decided to give tubes a try - glad I did too.
I love my 3.7 based system. I think it sounds amazing. I even find The Mars Volta very enjoyable on that system - a first for Maggies. I also love another system of mine with an old pair of AR91s. They deliver music to my ears too. As Ozzy said, there is life after Maggie.
Maybe, the B&W sound is more to your liking. If so, that's the direction you should go. If you really prefer the presentation of the Maggies, then I'd suggest further effort to make them work - and I'm not implying that you haven't already tried much toward that end.
As wonderful as I think they are, I don't see swapping the 3.6s for 3.7s as a panacea. That won't buy you happiness if you are as disenchanted with the 3.6s as your post suggests. If you can't sit back and thoroughly enjoy long listening sessions, then your system simply isn't serving your needs. Ergo, a change is in order.
Pick your poison (it's all poison). Of course, there are other planars too.
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Follow Ups
- stone the heretic - wazoo 08:59:12 02/19/12 (0)
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