Can Magnepan survive Wendell Diller?


I bought my first set of Magnepans in 1976, and I currently have a pair of 1.7i's.

It is difficult for me to upgrade to the 3.7i's because their are so many things that the company can do to improve their product that they simply won't offer; upgraded crossover components, a solid wood/rigid frames and better stands are examples.

Other companies are now doing this, but Magnepan always says Wendell doesn't think that is a good idea.

Can a man who suggests using lamp cord for his speaker line really have that much control over an otherwise unique technological approach to speaker design? I must be missing something obvious when a product is hand assembled in MN and any of these upgrades would, in my mind, warrant factory upgrades. Who wouldn't spend an extra $1k for a 1.7i with a hardwood frame and an upgraded x-over? Adding a ribbon tweeter to the 1.7i would warrant an additional $1k, still bringing them in $2k under the 3.7i.

Is it common for one person to hold an entire company back in high end audio? 
william53b

Showing 2 responses by helomech

Spatial Audio labs open baffle speakers ,excellent build quality and sonics ,very efficient, and
don’t require a lot of space .

I owned the Spatial M4s, both Turbos and Triode Masters. Great speakers, though I now own and prefer the Maggie .7s. They’re not as detailed and don’t play as low as the Spatials but they disappear better and the imaging is tighter.

Magnepans are some of the very best at what they do well — remove box resonance from the equation. All speakers have trade-offs, no matter the price tag. Speakers in the ~$2K/pair range tend to have major trade-offs. That’s just the way the industry operates. What you sacrifice in a pair of Magnepans for $2K are bass dynamics and resolution, in exchange for an open transparency that rivals or surpasses some $50K speakers.

If Magnepan suddenly decided to use Mundorf or Jantzen caps and Mills resistors in the crossovers, the $2K/pair 1.7s would likely become $3K/pair 1.7s. The same sort of economics apply when you have your car serviced by a dealer. They’re going to charge double or triple what you’d pay for the same part if you were to source it yourself. Not surprisingly, most speakers employing crossover parts of that quality level, that are sold through a traditional dealer model, cost upwards of $5K/pair.

If you want better stands, buy the Mye Stands. If you want better caps, you can buy them from Madisound. Jeesh, you got panel speakers that were hand-built buy American labor for only $2K/pair. Quit the bellyaching and pick up a soldering pen.


The 1.7i's going down to 40hz, as per their specs, is a joke. They have a large bump at 70hz, then fall off to almost nothing.

Maybe in your room. Certainly wasn’t the case in mine.