Thanks again to everyone who has taken the trouble to post responses, and also to those people who emailed me privately.
There are a couple of points that I wanted to revisit, particularly in response to Sean's post which was very informative.
Sean, I respect your input very much, I've followed your comments in other posts and clearly you have a lot of experience and are able to articulate it well to the benefit of the rest of us.
Firstly, in my humble opinion, the equipment is a necessary evil that often gets in the way of what this hobby is really about - music.
I've also been involved long enough in this 'hobby' to know that it is mostly about compromise. There is no rig out there that does everything well, each component has weaknesses regardless of price, the question is: 'are their strengths so appealing that we can live with their weaknesses?'
When I bought the Maggie's I knew I was getting on a bit of a roller-coaster ride that might not end up where I expected. However, my previous experience with Quad's, Apogees and ML's, plus what I have read in the audio magazines and on Audiogon, made me believe that these speakers had strengths that would appeal to me and that I could live with their weaknesses. So; 'earth-shattering' bass is not something that I'm trying to achieve, nor is 'extreme' levels of volume.
The 'dilemma' that I referred at the start of my post is that I haven't been able to unveil the strengths of these speakers in my listening room, and I listed some of what I expected from the 3.6R's in my first post in this thread.
Where Sean comments that I am not listening to peoples advice, well that just isn't the case. I have tried accommodating these speakers to the detriment of room aesthetic by moving the seating around and moving the speakers into positions that are not best suited to the room layout - as suggested in various posts. I've tried most of what has been suggested about placement, (given room constraints) and in fact, yesterday evening made some good progress which I will touch on in a moment. Also, please note that not all comments that have been posted are of a consistent nature, as one would expect given the diversity of input and the fact that no two listening rooms are identical. On the previous post I made about a week ago it was suggested that I move my chair back toward the rear wall, effectively putting more distance between chair and speakers, whereas the most common suggestion has been to close the distances down. Anyone who has tried speakers against the short wall of a rectangular room knows that there are certain sonic gains to be had from sitting quite far back from the speaker. Conversely, using a good pair of monitors in the nearfield for example, provides sonic virtues that cannot be achieved when the seating position is some distance from the speaker. And so it goes around.
My question was aimed at bringing out other peoples experiences so that I could perhaps benefit from an arrangement that was not a typical equilateral triangle arrangement but might lend itself to my particular room layout. In my previous home I had great results from monitors on the long wall of a 30X13 room, where I used the setup method suggested on the Audio Physic website, which worked really well for nearfield listening with monitors. When I moved to my present home a few weeks ago, it was clear from the room layout that I needed to have an arrangement whereby the speakers would be between 16' and 25' from the listening chair, and not a nearfield arrangement. So perhaps I should have researched speakers that work well in this arrangement, rather than assuming that the Magnepan’s would work out. However, I do own a pair of Apogee Caliper Sig II's that worked very well firing down a long room with a seat approx 17-20' feet away (I can't remember the exact dimensions of that room).
Anyway, on to the good news. I rearranged the room somewhat last evening and have an arrangement that is starting to sound really good (Hallelujah, I hear you all shout in unison!!)
I moved the chair a couple feet toward the speakers and the speakers a foot toward the chair, then separated the speakers by another 18" to move closer to the goal of an equilateral triangle layout. Though not quite equal on all sides it is as close as I can get given room constraints and the wife factor. I also received my new cable terminations yesterday and was able to install bi-wire cables which also helped. I’m getting a real ‘holographic’ image that has widened by more than the extra 18” I have between the speakers.
Finally I am starting to appreciate these fine speakers for what they are. I am hopeful that with a suitable choice of amplifier, some work on cables and power cords, and the impending installation of a dedicated power supply, I can get the sound that I initially set out to achieve.
(Sean, I take onboard your cable comments. I'm an Electrical Engineer by trade, and spent 3 years developing cabling systems for use on hi-tech printing equipment that were notoriously prone to EMI and RFI issues. My comments regarding cabling were ambiguous at best. What I meant to say was that there is, in my opinion, a certain standard of cable {components, design and assembly} that can be attained without spending thousands of dollars. Cables are often acting as tone controls, mostly due to their capacitance, particularly with bi-wire setups. If you happen to find a cable that effects the 'tone' of your system to your liking, then it might be that you can justify their expense. You could however recreate the electrical characteristics of a high price cable in a low cost design, or stumble upon similar characteristics in a low cost design.)
Anyway, again I thank everyone for their input in helping me out with my new Maggie's!!
There are a couple of points that I wanted to revisit, particularly in response to Sean's post which was very informative.
Sean, I respect your input very much, I've followed your comments in other posts and clearly you have a lot of experience and are able to articulate it well to the benefit of the rest of us.
Firstly, in my humble opinion, the equipment is a necessary evil that often gets in the way of what this hobby is really about - music.
I've also been involved long enough in this 'hobby' to know that it is mostly about compromise. There is no rig out there that does everything well, each component has weaknesses regardless of price, the question is: 'are their strengths so appealing that we can live with their weaknesses?'
When I bought the Maggie's I knew I was getting on a bit of a roller-coaster ride that might not end up where I expected. However, my previous experience with Quad's, Apogees and ML's, plus what I have read in the audio magazines and on Audiogon, made me believe that these speakers had strengths that would appeal to me and that I could live with their weaknesses. So; 'earth-shattering' bass is not something that I'm trying to achieve, nor is 'extreme' levels of volume.
The 'dilemma' that I referred at the start of my post is that I haven't been able to unveil the strengths of these speakers in my listening room, and I listed some of what I expected from the 3.6R's in my first post in this thread.
Where Sean comments that I am not listening to peoples advice, well that just isn't the case. I have tried accommodating these speakers to the detriment of room aesthetic by moving the seating around and moving the speakers into positions that are not best suited to the room layout - as suggested in various posts. I've tried most of what has been suggested about placement, (given room constraints) and in fact, yesterday evening made some good progress which I will touch on in a moment. Also, please note that not all comments that have been posted are of a consistent nature, as one would expect given the diversity of input and the fact that no two listening rooms are identical. On the previous post I made about a week ago it was suggested that I move my chair back toward the rear wall, effectively putting more distance between chair and speakers, whereas the most common suggestion has been to close the distances down. Anyone who has tried speakers against the short wall of a rectangular room knows that there are certain sonic gains to be had from sitting quite far back from the speaker. Conversely, using a good pair of monitors in the nearfield for example, provides sonic virtues that cannot be achieved when the seating position is some distance from the speaker. And so it goes around.
My question was aimed at bringing out other peoples experiences so that I could perhaps benefit from an arrangement that was not a typical equilateral triangle arrangement but might lend itself to my particular room layout. In my previous home I had great results from monitors on the long wall of a 30X13 room, where I used the setup method suggested on the Audio Physic website, which worked really well for nearfield listening with monitors. When I moved to my present home a few weeks ago, it was clear from the room layout that I needed to have an arrangement whereby the speakers would be between 16' and 25' from the listening chair, and not a nearfield arrangement. So perhaps I should have researched speakers that work well in this arrangement, rather than assuming that the Magnepan’s would work out. However, I do own a pair of Apogee Caliper Sig II's that worked very well firing down a long room with a seat approx 17-20' feet away (I can't remember the exact dimensions of that room).
Anyway, on to the good news. I rearranged the room somewhat last evening and have an arrangement that is starting to sound really good (Hallelujah, I hear you all shout in unison!!)
I moved the chair a couple feet toward the speakers and the speakers a foot toward the chair, then separated the speakers by another 18" to move closer to the goal of an equilateral triangle layout. Though not quite equal on all sides it is as close as I can get given room constraints and the wife factor. I also received my new cable terminations yesterday and was able to install bi-wire cables which also helped. I’m getting a real ‘holographic’ image that has widened by more than the extra 18” I have between the speakers.
Finally I am starting to appreciate these fine speakers for what they are. I am hopeful that with a suitable choice of amplifier, some work on cables and power cords, and the impending installation of a dedicated power supply, I can get the sound that I initially set out to achieve.
(Sean, I take onboard your cable comments. I'm an Electrical Engineer by trade, and spent 3 years developing cabling systems for use on hi-tech printing equipment that were notoriously prone to EMI and RFI issues. My comments regarding cabling were ambiguous at best. What I meant to say was that there is, in my opinion, a certain standard of cable {components, design and assembly} that can be attained without spending thousands of dollars. Cables are often acting as tone controls, mostly due to their capacitance, particularly with bi-wire setups. If you happen to find a cable that effects the 'tone' of your system to your liking, then it might be that you can justify their expense. You could however recreate the electrical characteristics of a high price cable in a low cost design, or stumble upon similar characteristics in a low cost design.)
Anyway, again I thank everyone for their input in helping me out with my new Maggie's!!