Comparison of Magnepan 1.6QR to the 3.3R

Zaikesman...you are correct..the 2.7s were a QR design...maybe I was thinking of the 2.6s...at any rate...the cohesion of the 1.6s over the 1.5s and the 2.7s has to do with crossover adjustments(among other things I assume)...with the faster tweeter doing a bit more midrange work(600hz vs. 1000hz in the 1.5s)...this has resulted in a more seamless presentation that many have commented on...as well as the 1.6 being more dynamic than previous designs(assuming quality power)...

That could be entirely possible - as I said at the top, I haven't made this comparsion - but I just didn't want the blame to be laid at the feet of the ribbons when there are so many other factors involved, and I'm sure Maggie has refined their designs in more than a couple of areas since two model generations ago.

Thanks for all the posts, good comments. I'm going to audition some 3.3Rs tonight. I'll be looking for how well they present themselves as a single driver and how the ribbon compares to the 3.6.

Played with some room layouts last night and looked at speaker placement options. The top of a 6' tall 3.3R will be about a foot and a half from my 7'3" ceiling. Any thoughts on what effect that may have?

The ceiling height should have no particular effect on a line-source driver, which is why Maggies can start at the bottom with their driver surface in very close proximity to the floor. The reverberent soundfield of low-ceilinged listening rooms is never preferable to those with somewhat more generous boundary spacing (relative to the listener's ears) in my view, but in your room that would be the case no matter what speaker was used. (Like most of us, I have an 8ft. ceiling which isn't very different in height from your own, and would probably prefer if my room was a couple of feet taller.) The bigger question with dipole radiators is giving them adequate room to the rear, I would usually say a minimum of 5-6ft. out or more, and since flat panels must be toed-in to point directly at the listener's ears (so as to avoid severe HF roll-off), that distance requirement also affects how close you can place them to the sidewalls, probably 2-3ft. min. Compensating virtues are that you don't need to sit quite as far away from the speakers as with many multi-point-source speakers for the sound to be coherent, and yet you also won't lose the immediacy of the response as quickly when you move farther away either, plus the bass response is not as sensitive to boundary reinforcement effects. Which is important because with dipole panels, midrange interference effects can cause changes in where the speakers and the listeners sit to have a greater impact on the overall perceived spectral balance than is usually the case with conventional monopole quasi-point-source speakers. In other words, Maggies can sound pretty great just plopped down anywhere, but really fine-tuning speaker (and listener) placement can still be a bitch (no matter what the ceiling height :-).

Agreed...the Maggies have little vertical dispersion so ceiling height will not play a major role...the main thing is to have ample space behind them...3-4 ft. is not uncommon...most dealers dont even have them probably set up in this configuration since space is a premium...but that is what it will take to truly take advantage of their awesome soundstage depth...space=depth....