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I just picked up my new MG 12s yesterday (Natural Sound, Framingham MA - they were nice enough to keep open late just for me because I took more wrong turns than right trying to find the place...). I've read a lot about break in but never owned anything which needed it so I've never experienced it. However, these MG 12s sound incredibly different from my used MMGs - bright to the point where it's almost painful listening at decent volumes and I find myself cringing at higher guitar notes etc.Not worried, just interested in others' experiences. Thanks :).
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What's the nature of the flooring beneath them, front and behind?
Carpeting as much as possible, sound absorbing room furnishings? Book cases; chock full of books, magazines, LPs etc., along the front sides will soften the highs, and then as mentioned try padding the tweeters with the resistors Magnepan provided. They used to be able to provide resistors of additional values. Call Magnepan directly; you will be able to speak with the experts, having about 40 years experience with all their speakers. The last resort; equalization to tailor the sound by ear)to your room and preference.
Use the resistors that comes with it on the tweeters if you do not have the luxury to leave them running while you are gone. Then, just enjoy it!My original 1.6 (two pairs, but sold one!) when new took 50 hours to settle. Brighter than the California Sunshine during summer at first but changes rapidly as I logged more hours. I would imagine that since you have the MMG before, then it is possible that the brightness that you were noticing is due to the fact that the 1.6 have bigger panels, thus bigger back wave projection. Assuming of course that your amp is not shouting for re-enforcement. Have you tried experimenting with positioning yet?
It could be how you have the tweeters inside or outside, it will make a difference. Of course there is always speaker placement, and the
room to consider.
My experience with SMGa, MG2B, and now MG12's they all set up differently SMGa's being the least critical of where they were placed in the room, MG12's being the most critical, but sound the best of the 3, my opinion.
My 1.6s took at least 60 hours or so before they lost their "edge". It took about 100-200 hours before they were in "full bloom". Considering the 12s are the 1.6s little bros, I would imagine about the same would apply. Have patience, you will love how they sound soon. When I first got them, I left them on all day for about a week.. I would either have music playing thru them at low volumes or I would set my tuner between stations to run pink noise thru them. At bed time, I would cover them with blankets to muffle the sound. When you leave the house, put a CD on repeat, turn the volume to a reasonable listening level, and just let them run in while you're gone. If you're gone 12 hours or so, you will probably hear a difference when you get home.
It may not be your speakers. It could be upstream components as Maggies will magnify any faults or strengths. If the problem continues after a few hundred hours, time to start checking interconnects, speaker cables and components.
Hello. Well, I know my front end is not exactly "warm" or anything, that's a whole 'nother issue which I plan on addressing as soon as my budget allows. However my point was these aren't my first maggies, they're like the big brother to the MMGs I was just using, so that's why the difference seemed so severe, because I had no such problem with the MMGs, so all other components being the same I wouldn't expect such a drastic change, so I wanted to know what everyone else's experience was. Thanks again.
The mylar is drawn tight, the caps and inductors and all the wiring, brand new. I've had refurbed 1.5s, brand new 1.6s, and had my 1.6s refurbed 3 mos. ago. All 3 times the sound was harsh out of the box. The refurbed 1.5s and the new 1.6s were downright shrill. This all passed with time. The very harsh, shrill aspect disappeared within 20 hours or so.
PS: I did search the forums so sorry for the probably redundant question, but mostly I saw people talking about bass, and even the high end getting even higher, no one complaining about it being _too_ bright so that's why I asked.
100 hours minimum before you even pretend to seriously listen, and expect them to get better from there.
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