Magnepan 1.7

No, I am not a dealer, etc. I am on a quest for better speakers to complement the rest of my system. Therefore, my question.

Thanks for all of your responses.

I was also wondering if anyone uses bi-wire speaker cables with their maggies or do you all use full range speaker cables? Thanks again.

Looks like no one has the 1.7s in their home yet for real world evaluation.

Alpha, thanks for the insight. You are right about "the allure". I find the technology fascinating although I have no experience with Maggies.

Auditioning in my case is impossible without travel. I haven't given up on box speakers. I have travelled to four cities but what I heard so far was not impressive at all compared to what I already have, with one super expensive exception. All the driving gets old.

Without auditioning first, it comes down to chance especially in light of the fact that what I presently have works well in my room.

I notice from reading threads on this site that some use subs with the Maggies to fill out the bass with good results.

My search for a speaker upgrade has not been an easy process, especially living in a locale without any brands to audition or compare. I prefer to purchase new audio equipment. I'm sure this narrows my options.

Thanks again for the insight.

It has been a week since adding the Magnepans to my main system.

My initial impressions are as follows: It takes a day to get used to their size. Even though I was aware of their height/width, they look far smaller in the dealer's showroom.

I had to move them over four feet from the rear wall mainly to deal with extreme boominess in the mid-bass. I have pretty much run out of real estate to deal with positioning them out any further. Adding a subwoofer helped cancel out most of the mid-bass problem.

The speakers present a huge sound stage. More details in recordings are heard. These speakers in this system and room, etc make my secondary audio system in my family room sound small in comparison. Part of this may be due to the fact that my family room is far more damped/deadened than my living room. My living room is more lively/reverberant.

I listen to mainly jazz in all forms, contemporary gospel choirs, some rock and classical. I was listening to a choir recorded live and I ended up with the same feeling you get as if actually present at the event. Very moving.

My only real gripe with these speakers are with the attention to detail during the manufacturing process. The craftsmanship/workmanship on these are not done with precision and exactness.

One other issue concerning powering these speakers: After reading the post here on Agon I wondered if my amp would be sufficient. It is more than sufficient and the sound is spectacular. Of course there are always better products but I see no need to purchase another amp. The only reason for me to purchase another amp for these speakers would be for the sake of curiosity only.