Body for Maggies: Hegel Pass Sanders or Ncore?

"I like ultimate texture, body, image density, inner detail, solid 3d imaging and still very precise timing for a pair of Magnepan Mg 1.6 or 1.7."

That's all you want? Unfortunately you can't get there from here. Besides, 1.6 and 1.7 are totally different speakers.

Rrog, i chose magnepan because of coherence and speed and i am trying to get the best body out of it. Wont go back to dynamic speakers which suffer in coherence and bass-speed.

Would you share your opinion "dramatic" differences of the 1.6 and 1.7 and which one would suit better in my situation ?

From your list of wants:

Don't bi-amp if you go for the 1.6's.

I own 3.6's and have owned 1.6's in the past (liked them a lot). Haven't heard the new 1.7. Dramatic difference to some is a little different to others. You have to decide.

For amps (again, opinion but based that I do own the 30.5 and 100.5 fwiw): I like the Pass XA.5's. Get the biggest one you can afford but even the 30.5 will do fine unless you pound your eardrums.

I have heard the Sanders Magtech with the Maggie's 1.7 speakers and it was some very beautiful and realistic music. If I had room for panel speakers, that is the combo I would go with. I would also use a tube preamp, but that is just me.

Stereo5,
I'm with you on the tube preamp. I forgot to include that in my post. I tried 2 highly regarded ss preamps with my Pass and while they sounded very nice, the tube pre gave me something more that was to my satisfaction.

Zuio,

I know you have not bought anything yet, but have you heard a system with Magnepan speakers in it that sounds like you want it to sound? If so, what was the whole system?

The new Maggies are much better than the old Maggies; I would go sanders magtech but you do need to know, Maggies, as GREAT as they are, wil not give you that inner detail your looking for. Great (GREAT) speakers but thats not what they do.

Nor will they "breath " like an efficient speaker and acoustic music does,which is why I gave up on them after 4 pairs.

Hmmm, Maggies are often shown at dealers showrooms.... Before giving up on the brand, Why don't you take along your own Ncore NC400 devices at a dealer's place, and find out what the little things can produce driving a few well broken-in Maggie panels... Just to get an idea of the Maggie family sound when driven by 400w per channel worth of Ncore technology... You can then decide on your own if you hear music or sterilia... I suspect you might be pleasingly surprised. G.

ncore is awesome with maggies.

If you want more body go with 1.6. Also more musical on my opinion.

Mye stands - are a must have for Maggies to perform at their maximum capability. The improvement has to be experienced. 1.6QR with Mye stands easily outperform 1.7 without Mye stands in my experience.

Several friends and I all sold magnepan speakers in the 80's for the same dealer. They were stunned, amazed, etc., at the sound of 1.6QR with the Mye stands vs without. Midrange and HF sound quality has hugely improved, any trace of hardness in the upper mids was removed. The speakers absolutely disappeared,the soundstage could be wall to wall with added depth (dependent on the recording of course), and the highs sounded like that produced by a real quality true ribbon tweter.

If you want more body, go with the 1.6QR. I found that the 1.7 is more coherent, has more delicate highs, and is maybe a little faster on the low end, but also much more critical of associated gear and setup that the 1.6QR. That might mean they are more linear/accurate in response, but I never 'warmed' up to them.

Using a hifi tuning fuse also made a noticeable improvement on the 1.6QR as did bipassing the jumpers.

Try all of this before actively biamping. Also, I found that passively biamping the 1.6QR made little difference.

I drove the 1.6QR with relatively modest gear: modded Marsh 2000t pre, Krell KAV25a0a, modwright sony 9000, and cheap cables(MAC, Speltz, PS Audio). The Krell was an excellent match with the 1.6QR. And the 1.6QR easily handled that power and easily filled a large listening area 20x 28 and could play loud! Oh, I miss that room.

Your mileage may vary.

Good luck.