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In Reply to: The pro's and cons of Magnepan??? posted by RGA on July 28, 2002 at 00:48:13:
I would guess that Magneplanars are by far the most popular planar speakers made. The company has been around for many years and has an excellent reputation among audiophiles. (The high-end magazine "Absolute Sound" absolutely adores them.) You might want to click on the "Planar Speaker Asylum" link at the top of the page for TONS of information on Magneplanar speakers.
I owned several pairs of "Maggies" years ago, and they really got me hooked on planar and line-source speakers. Your description of Magneplanars as "the poor man's electrostat" has some truth to it, but the planar magnetic design has some major practical advantages over electrostatics:1. A purely resistive load, making them easier for the amp to drive(even though they do require a fair amount of power)
2. You don't have to plug them into the wall
3. No risk of arcing
4. Relatively unaffected by dust, smoke, and humidity
5. Extremely reliable
6. Very thin and light, since they do not need a transformer, so you can easily move them to the optimal position for listening, and move them out of the way when they are not in use
7. Outstanding price/performance ratio, good trade-up policiesCompared with box speakers, the main advantage of planars (both planar magnetics and electostatics) is their dipolar planar/line source radiation pattern, resulting in a HUGE soundstage, amazing depth, and room-filling sound. (This is what got me hooked on the planar sound.) They also suffer from no box resonances or colorations, since there is no box. Finally, they are (IMO) very cool looking!
The disadvantages of Maggies are:
1. Despite their thinness, they are very large and visually imposing, meaning that spouse-acceptance factor can be a problem
2. They need a lot of power (IME, at least 150 WPC)
3. Their transparency means that they can really show up deficiencies in upstream components
4. Room placement is critical, and can takes months of exacting effort to get right
5. Need a lot a distance from the front wall (i.e., behind them) -- say, 4-5 feet
6. A narrow sweet spot, the "vertical venetian blind" effect
7. Limited vertical dispersion
8. Clean (but rather polite) low end; definitely NOT for fans of gut-thumping bass (OTOH, they mate well with good subs like RELs.)All in all, I think the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. When I bought my first pair of Maggies 25 years ago, I was totally blown away, and I've never been able to listen to box speakers since. You should definitely listen to a pair -- you may also become a convert!
PS. You might also want to check out some of the planar magnetic and ribbon hybrids that are out there (e.g., Eminent Technology, Newform Research [not a dipole design], VMPS [ditto], and Soundline Audio). They enjoy many of the advantages of planar speakers but also have a fuller, more visceral bass response. IMO, the better hybrid designs successfully avoid the problems associated with integrating a fast planar/line source with a conventional woofer.
Good listening!
Follow Ups:
Do the 3.5 or 3.6 suffer from the same limited vertical dispersion problems/venetian blind effect? I know the 1.6 do and the smaller models, but I am wodering about the bigger ones.
Thanks,
Bill
I heard the 3.6/R's at a dealer. When you stand up, the soundchanges dramatically. Night and day difference, too. It's like the music was suddenly 3-6dB quieter, and the soundstage collapsed.Chair in the sweet spot, butt in the chair == magic
deviating from the above == lost magic.
affect the sweet spot. The more powerful and transparent the amplifier the less deviation of the sound as you stand up and move around. I tried a little Cary tube integrated amp (80 watts pentode, 40 watts triode) which produced a smaller image that only sounded very good when I was sitting in a sweet spot in front of the speakers. I went back to a thirty year old 200 watt Accuphase and the sound held up as I stand up and is still very enjoyable when I am in the kitchen cooking. I have noticed with all three Magnepan models I have owned, the ability of the speaker (with the right amps) to allow one to listen at an angle, e.g., 45 degrees, and still experience a three dimensional stage that mimicked what I hear sitting at an angle watching a performance in my favorite jazz nightspots.
The amp that was driving the 3.6s in my demp was a B&K Reference 2220 ($1000 street). So it seems the maggies are very resolving of upstream components as most suggest (i.e., if the soundstaging of the amp come into play that much).
Hi, Bill -- I'm definitely no Maggie guru, but I'll take a stab at your questions. First off, I think that the problem of limited vertical dispersion isn't really a big deal for any of the Maggies. Basically, for the shorter ones, it's only audible when you stand up near them, but I personally don't listen to music standing up. Also, this "problem" may also have the benefits of reduced floor and ceiling bounce. The vertical venetian blind effect actually takes place in the horizontal plane (like venetian blinds turned 90 degrees) and refers to the phase cancellations that occur between the side-by-side panels. I think this is more of a problem and is one of the major reasons for the limited sweet spot of Maggies. Hope that this helps clarify my comments. Good listening -- Dave
great post!Generally agree with your observations re: my own experience with Maggies.
just that some box speakers can sound like 'a curtain of sound' too with proper placement, and with a slightly larger sweet spot.
David,IMO your post was very accurate and unbiased. I had box speakers for years then I bought a pair of ML Aerius which I enjoyed for 4 years then I sold them and got Magnepan 1.6's and have been really happy. The strengths far outweigh the weaknesses. When I listen to speakers now, I always focus on the vocals and so many box speakers have colorations like slight nasal sounds or just an unnatural "sound" although they may throw a great soundstage and disappear with great 3D imaging, I can't overlook the colorations and end up back with planar sound.
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