Life After Your Magnepan’s

There is one particular box speaker that I’ve heard at the Shows for the last several years that has caught my attention; the Paradigm Persona.   I’ve only heard the smaller floor standing 3F’s but was favorably impressed.

I wonder if they are similar in sound to the Aerial’s?  How does the height, width, and depth of Aerial’s compare to the Maggie’s?  I like the large sound field of the Maggie’s, especially the height.  Performers sound ‘real sized’ not 3 feet tall as is the case of many smaller box speakers.

I’m using Carver 305 tube mono blocks; about 400 watts into the 4 ohm 20.7’s.  I also have a pair of REL G-2 subs.  As minkwelder indicated, even with the addition of the REL’s the sound reaches a certain maximum that just doesn’t “fill” the room.  My room is approx 7,260 cubic feet!   

I used the 20.7’s for four years in a prior home in a dedicated room that was approx 4,095 cubic feet to much greater success.  

I need a speaker that sounds BIG in a big space and doesn’t cost $100k!

I am working on a multi-sub solution.  I’m going to try three SVS Series 4000 subs arranged in a “swarm” configuration.  The SVS subs are extremely adjustable allowing for simultaneous correction of both peaks and dips.  

We will use a high quality microphone and computer driven RTA software.  Thanks for the tips.  

Good news to report; using three SVS SB4000 sealed subs in a “swarm” configuration works exceptionally well in my large room !  Very please with the results!

Using the basic guidelines of the Geddes approach, Sub one was placed in the front center just behind the plane of my 20.7’s.  Using a good microphone and RTA software on a Windows laptop we adjusted one large suck-out and two medium peaks with the subs built-in peq  and set the cutoff at 60hz.  Volume was set at -16db.  Then we added the second sub on the left side wall about 2 feet in front of the Maggie’s with the woofer firing across the room.  Re-ran the test tone and made a few minor adjustments to sub one and set sub two.  Sub two’s volume was set at -15db.   Adding sub one was a noticeable improvement, adding sub two made a minor noticeable improvement.  Adding sub three made a larger difference than when sub two was added.

Sub three was placed on the right-hand rear wall against the wall and about two feet from the corner, firing down the length of the room.

Overall a very successful effort!  Bass is much more evenly distributed throughout the room, sound field grew noticeably wider and deeper, and bass is better extended, better detailed, better realistic decay, and just sounds more REAL! 
I’m done for now!