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In Reply to: Does my room rule out Magnepans? posted by HRSpear on January 25, 2021 at 11:08:00:
They can work well in that room. I'll explain my own personal experience and why I am certain that they will.
For the past 18 years I have owned Magnepan 1.6s as my primary speakers. I have been using them in a family room that is 16'x27' with a 14' vaulted ceiling. The room has hardwood floors and is acoustically bright. I have been very satisfied with the performance of the speakers in that room. I have the flexibility of bringing them way into the room away from walls to experiment with virtually any positioning I want. Life was good. Until ...
I recently decided to try a small spare bedroom as a dedicated room now that my wife and I are empty nesters plus retirement and a pandemic allowed more time for hobbies. The room is very small, only 12'x11' with an 8' ceiling. The room is much more acoustically damped than the family room. It has padded carpet over a concrete slab and has a microfiber loveseat against the short wall. I moved the 1.6s in there along with the rest of the system, fired it up with the speakers about two feet off the front and side walls and was immediately encouraged. It sounded really good! Just not quite as good as in the big room. It was time to start moving them around some to see how good they could get in there.
After several hours of experimenting, I arrived at their best overall position in that room. They are almost four feet off the front wall and two feet off the sides. The tweeters are on the inside and from their inside edge they are about five feet apart and about 6 feet from my ears while seated on the loveseat. In this nearfield setup, they completely vanish and the soundstage is as good as I've ever experienced. Their bass is dialed in so well that I shake my head thinking of the "Maggies have no bass" crowd. Any slight glare and brightness they had in the big room is now gone. Having the dedicated, properly damped room away from adjacent room interference has proven to be much more crucial in achieving a quite stunning, real-world experience than having a larger room the might allow "proper" spacing, but that has other detrimental issues. This was truly a wish I would have done this years ago moment.
Don't let your space constraints stop you. I believe that LRS, .7 or 1.7i speakers would all work quite well in your room. Moving up the line in panel size will give you more bass extension and impact as well as a larger soundstage image. If you have the willingness to get a bit creative on shuffling them around a bit, you can not only enjoy them in that room, but approach as good as it gets performance with the proper upstream gear without having to spend a lot more money. I still think Maggies are the best bargain in high-end audio. Good luck and of course YMMV.
-Joe
They're not that big!
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Follow Ups
- RE: Does my room rule out Magnepans? - Joe Schmo 13:21:09 01/25/21 (0)
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