Hey guys, I made it to the event and just wanted to give a short report on my impressions of it and the speakers. After the event, I read an Absolute Sound review of the Magnepan 30.7s linked below that not only was very similar to my impressions of their sound but the picture of them looked exactly the same as the ones played at the event. The 4 sections, 2 panels per channel, were a very nice blue color with off-white cloth fabric covers. ttps://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/magnepan-307-loudspeaker-part-one/ Magnepan's Marketing Director, Wendell Diller, was there demonstrating and discussing the speakers in groups of 4-6 people each. His main emphasis was the Power Response abilities of the 30.7 speakers which was very similar to this You Tube video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-uw3KpxxE I noticed they used a newer looking Anthem amp to drive these but, sorry, I didn't catch the model number. It was black with a blue numeric digital volume display if that helps. The room was about 15' x 20' with the panels about 6-8' out from the front 15' wall. There were no sweet spot chairs so we were all standing and Wendell suggested we walk all around the room to listen, even behind them. They sounded great wherever I listened with better dynamics than I remember from the 20.7s. But they're $30K/set, so I only order one. Tim |
jdlynch: "Totally irrelevant, but nice to see people near Indy! I live in Floyd county (southern Indiana) but I’m in Indy almost weekly for work. I’ll be in Noblesville this Thursday. @noble100, your posts regarding sub-swarming have captured my curiosity lately. I’m considering diy and spreading around my room. I only have one submersive now, but it sounds awesome. Not sure if I want to change or not." Hello jdlynch, I was going to invite you over when you said you'd be in Noblesville last week on Thursday. Unfortunately, I wasn't in town then. But I'll be home this whole month. You're more than welcome to stop by my home in South Harbor (west side of Noblesville near Morse Reservoir)anytime you're back in the Indy area for a demo. I'm not sure if you're more interested in a distributed bass array for music, HT or both. Bring some of your music or HT content if you'd like. I've got a combo 2-ch and 5.4 surround system and can play anything on a disc (CD, DVD, CD-ROM, 1080p Bluray and DVD-A) or any content on a USB memory stick. I'm retired, it's just my wife and I and we're pretty flexible on the day and time. If you send me a pm, I think we could exchange emails or phone numbers and arrange an exact time and day. It's honestly no inconvenience at all. I think it would be fun. Tim |
My invitation to listen to my 4-sub DBA system is really open to any Audiogon member interested or curious about them. I know it's very difficult to even find a local retailer able to offer a decent DBA demo. Or we could just visit, play some music or HT and get to know one another. Maybe we could even discuss starting a local Indy audio group if anybody's interested. We could switch off meeting at our homes or wherever we decide. I've got plenty of time and interest now that I'm retired but realize many of you lead busier lives with jobs and younger families. Thanks, Tim |
don_c55: "If the Power Response was perfect there would be no “sweet spot”? The 30.7 does have a “sweet spot”. What does making the speaker prove, if not to sell?" Hello don, Yes, when I heard the 30.7s at Ovation in Indy, they did have the normal sweet spot when I stood in the middle between the speakers about 6' away, which remained as I walked closer to them. The interesting part was as I continued walking forward, past the front plane of the panels and between them, it seemed like I was walking straight into the middle of the soundstage. As I walked around behind the speakers (they were positioned about 8' away from the front wall and played at about 80-90 db.), the 3D imaging lost some of its distinction but the full, detailed and balanced full-range sound of all the instruments and single voice still gave me the impression I was among and surrounded by the musicians as they were performing. I think this is what Wendell means by the power response being very good. No matter where I stood and listened to the speakers in the room, the music sounded very full, detailed, dynamic and well balanced from top to bottom. But they still sounded best to me from the traditional sweet spot location between the speakers and several feet away, although I understand the exact number of feet away from the midpoint between the panels would be a matter of personal preference. My point being the 30.7s still have a traditional and generally accepted “sweet spot”. I expressed my opinion to Wendell that I believe a similar in-room sound quality could be attained by just simply using a single pair of the 30.7s' very impressive thinner midrange/true ribbon treble panels and substituting four relatively small high quality subs properly positioned in the room in a distributed bass array system or Swarm format for the very wide and tall pair of bass/upper bass panels he was currently using. I further stated that this would be less imposing visually in the room, the likely sound quality performance would be at least equally as high, the cost of production would be significantly less, resulting in the suggested retail price of the 30.7 speaker system to be significantly lowered while maintaining profit margins and b four panel with large and sales would likely increase. He didn't appear to be very welcoming to my suggestion but he didn't offer a reasoned explanatory response of why a pair of 6.5' x2.5' bass/mid bass panels achieve better in-room bass performance than two pairs of 1' x1' x 2' subs positioned in a distributed bass array method, either. I'm thinking of experimenting with the combination of the 4-sub Audio Kinesis Swarm distributed bass array and the Magnepan 1.7 and .7 in my 23' x16' room. I'm using the Swarm with a pair of older 2.7QR 3-way speakers now with very good results and I'm curious whether substituting either new Magnepan would sound even better. My experience with the performance of the 2.7s and the 4-sub Swarm bass system makes me wonder if the combo of the Swarm with the .7s ($2,800 for the Swarm and $1,400 for a pair of .7s =$4,200 total cost) or the 1.7s ($4,900 total cost) would perform, sound quality wise, like a mini 30.7 system with both being excellent bargains. Tim |
