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Magnepan Upgrade Program & A Question on Older Speakers

Posted by Barry (A) on October 20, 2023 at 09:29:21

In Reply to: RE: Magnepan 2.7i posted by Hasse on October 19, 2023 at 12:51:31:

Good ideas. I have made the upgrades Hasse referenced above to my 3.6 speakers' internal passive mid-tweeter crossover. I also eliminated the speaker contacts/fuses, and made the mid/tweeter to-bass crossover an active one. A significant increase in sonics resulted with a more coherent, seamless, presentation. The tweeter no longer "stands out" as sounding different than the rest of the speaker.

Closer tolerances on driver panels and ribbons will yield better imaging too. I found that matching the left & right drivers' acoustic outputs (the passively crossed-over mid/tweeter driver combination and the bass panel drivers) with REW, to about 3dB or less, using my active crossover's gain levels, with REW measurements, resulted in a way-better presentation.

My speaker imbalance situation may be unique, but maybe not. I had replaced 1 of the tweeters a few years ago. It's also possible that older speakers' mid-range and bass panel tensions change unequally over time resulting in different panel outputs. (Note: I measured at my listening position, but my room and speaker positions are very symmetric).

I'd be curious to know if anyone else has any comments on panel/ribbon output changes on older speakers. I have read that driver tension can relax over time. This would happen slowly, so it might not be noticeable by listening until things don't sound right. You can clearly see tension changes on older ribbons, but I'm not sure how much it changes tweeter output.

Has anyone disconnected older drivers and measured each of their outputs separately? What did you find?

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