Starter rig (Grab these Magnepan MMGs?)

[liwei]

Are these a good buy at 380 used? I'm actually trying to save up for the HD800 but speakers have been on my mind recently. I probably won't be able to preorder if I get these but that gives me time to see the reviews I guess.

Since a lot of you have experience, could I get some information on how it will sound compared with the HD600/W5000? I'm running them out of flac/Musichall CD25, Northstar M192 and Gilmore Lite with DPS.

thanks

[grawk]

MMGs need an amp that's stable to 2ohms. If you have one, go for it.

[liwei]

Nope. I'll have to pick one up. Got any suggestions? I only care about 2 channels if that helps budgetwise.

[Fitz]

Are these a good buy at 380 used? I'm actually trying to save up for the HD800 but speakers have been on my mind recently. I probably won't be able to preorder if I get these but that gives me time to see the reviews I guess.

Since a lot of you have experience, could I get some information on how it will sound compared with the HD600/W5000? I'm running them out of flac/Musichall CD25, Northstar M192 and Gilmore Lite with DPS.

thanks

I have the MG 1.6 so I can only base my impressions on it and what I've read of the MMGs, but if the MMG is even half as good then $380 is a really nice deal for them and I'd grab them right away.

MMGs need an amp that's stable to 2ohms. If you have one, go for it.

Howzat? The impedance only drops a little below 4 ohms in the treble, for most of the bandwidth it's 4-5 ohms; an amp that can drive a 4 ohm load should handle them fine.

[melomaniac]

short version: grab'em!

long version: I have the MMGs as well as a pair of 2.5Rs. the MMGs are really nice, not just "for the price" nice but really nice. only thing you'll miss, depending on your playlist, might be deepest bass (I use a small sub that I can dial in if that's desired, but usually keep it out, in both rigs). as for a budget amp, the Outlaw RR2150 (internet deal) has juice and sounds good, has lots of inputs (even a middling USB DAC), though the headphone out blows. it's been reviewed well, too. I have neighbors with Maggies who keep trying to make me move to tubes, which is said to be good - but you need the current too, so that would be a pricey tube amp. not ready for that hit quite yet (the Bel Canto amp that powers the 2.5Rs does fine...)

[luvdunhill]

I drove a pair of MMGs and 12's with a early 90's Marantz stereo power amplifier that sure as hell wasn't 2 ohm stable (I learned this later when using this amp to learn how to do load testing). It was actually a sweet setup, and I realized at some point that I still had that amp laying and tried using it to power a Stax transformer and it worked beautifully.

[Sherwood]

MMGs (and most maggies) present a remarkably stable load at 4 ohms, in my experience. My MG12s never dipped below 3 in two months of listening. I don't see why the MMG would be different.

[grawk]

Great, I guess I misunderstood the load maggies presented.

[Dusty Chalk]

You're probably thinking of ribbon speakers, like the Apogees.

[mypasswordis]

My dad's looking for some speakers and of course I recommended something planar, like some Maggies. Is $100 for what is probably a pair of MG 1.5s a good idea? Any problems you think I/he might encounter other than need for significant amounts of power for amplification?

[grawk]

the big maggies need room and power

[Sherwood]

the big maggies need room and power

QFT. The more the better. My 17x12 room was insufficient for the mg12 I had, which were 17 x 51 x 1.5. I heard them later in a bigger room and they sounded much better. You want them well away from walls and corners, and well away from the listening position if possible. They are a pain in the butt to place correctly, IMHO.

[luvdunhill]

QFT. The more the better. My 17x12 room was insufficient for the mg12 I had, which were 17 x 51 x 1.5. I heard them later in a bigger room and they sounded much better. You want them well away from walls and corners, and well away from the listening position if possible. They are a pain in the butt to place correctly, IMHO.

... and avoid square rooms. I'd take a smaller rectangular room over a larger square room. Well, in fact I did make this trade off in fact with my mg12s.

[spritzer]

Old Maggies tend to delaminate which is supposed to be a real pain to fix but other than that... go for it!!

[Fitz]

QFT. The more the better. My 17x12 room was insufficient for the mg12 I had, which were 17 x 51 x 1.5. I heard them later in a bigger room and they sounded much better. You want them well away from walls and corners, and well away from the listening position if possible. They are a pain in the butt to place correctly, IMHO.

I dunno... I have my MG 1.6s in an approximately 15x13 room and they were so much easier to get positioned right than any box speakers I've ever used. The imaging isn't as good as the nearfield setup I heard them in at first (although I don't really like feeling like I'm that close to the stage), but they sound absolutely wonderful in this room.

[mypasswordis]

The room they will be put in is approximately 15x30 but with a large open space to the side that leads to other areas of the house, and has a fireplace that I'm guessing should be shut.

Looks like delamination is a significant problem but is a fairly straightforward fix as long as the damage isn't too bad.

[Sherwood]

I dunno... I have my MG 1.6s in an approximately 15x13 room and they were so much easier to get positioned right than any box speakers I've ever used. The imaging isn't as good as the nearfield setup I heard them in at first (although I don't really like feeling like I'm that close to the stage), but they sound absolutely wonderful in this room.

I'm going to have to phrase this carefully not to sound like everyone on HF... but here goes.

You might not be getting everything out of those MG 1.6s

I really strongly believe they need more room to reach their full potential than you are giving them. That is certainly not to say that they don't sound good, but they might be able to sound better.

Most important is distance from sidewalls, in my opinion, with distance from listening position falling after that.

Just something to consider. They're still a great bargain, and they scale awfully well.

[Fitz]

That's a completely different situation though, by no means am I suggesting they're running at their full potential, but that's a separate issue from being difficult to position. "Difficult to position" tends to give the impression that they're not going to sound that great unless in the perfect spot and need to be in a very large room, something that kept me from even considering them at all in the past. I've had a hundred times more difficulty getting ordinary bookshelf and floorstanding speakers positioned well enough to sound decent, whereas the Maggies sound great in the majority of positions I've tried. The only time I felt unsatisfied with their sound was when I tried having them angled back slightly; as long as I have them completely vertical they sound amazing.

[Sherwood]

"Difficult to position" tends to give the impression that they're not going to sound that great unless in the perfect spot and need to be in a very large room, something that kept me from even considering them at all in the past.

These are all solid points. In my mind they were difficult to place because very small changes in positioning resulting in major changes in sound. That constantly gave me the impression that I could be getting more out of them, but I am really anal that way.

Someone less obsessive than I could certainly achieve very satisfactory performance out of them in a variety of rooms.

[Fitz]

Yeah, I can see how they would be a pain for anybody who obsesses over getting them in the best position possible. That's how I always was with speakers before, because it was always a compromise between different sonic factors no matter where I positioned them (there would always be at least one major weakness or flaw in the sound). Fortunately I'm more than overjoyed with how the Maggies sound currently, so I don't really have much concern over tweaking the placement anymore.

[mypasswordis]

In case anyone cares, apparently someone got to the 1.5s before we did, and my dad decided to completely ditch my advice for planar speakers and get a Kef iQ3.

[Dusty Chalk]

He could do worse.