Magnepan 3.5r Owners needed.... No bass

My first OBs (Open Baffles) some 20 years ago were Accoustat 2+2s, which I MIGHT still own but for the tube servo amps back then were unstable. Fortunately someone finally figured out how to make them stable. Anyway Im an OB lover, my next OB being 3.5Rs purchased used.

I had a several year love- hate relationship them. First I sent them to Magnepan as one of the bass panels was de-laminated 🙄. Once back I biamped, tried several different amps, had custom made silver jumpers between the XOs which were placed well away from the panels (are yours affixed to the panels?) moving on from there, I tried active XOs. I finally threw in the towel. Had a bunch of monkey coffins, which never threw the intoxicating sound stage I love. For the last few years I have been enjoying Emerald Physics 3.4s, which are only 41" tall, throw as huge of a sound stage, but are very efficient. EP also makes other versions that include 15" woofers. These come up for sale occasionally. (see my Virtual System for pics)

BTW nice to have a female ’phile in the mix 😍

hth

IME, although it is weird, it’s normal when only connecting the bass drivers of any speaker to barely make sound. I forget. does the back of the panel have 2 fuses? That's worth a check

Cheap actives are junk but you can buy a cheap one from several sources with money back, which would let you see if that would solve your issue, but for excellent active XO search Phil Marchand

Sometime the VS pages glitch. Try it again. ITMT: Copied from my Virtual page . I also have write up there in the comments

hth

OK. even if you inspect the fuses visually, you might not see a problem. They're cheap, I would replace them. Better still though I never tried it but many swear by bypassing the fuses all together (do a search).

I went through 3 Behringers and 2 DBXs- total crap, BUT, with money back you could at least determine what (if anything) they could bring to the table

hth

A couple years ago a friend came to my house he had an app in his phone which showed where the dead spot in my room is. If you don't have the app or a friend who does, get a pair of Dollys from Harbour Freight and keep experimenting with best placement

Not that this tip will solve your bass issue, but, there is a method for cryoing cables/fuses, etc in your frig and freezer. Do a search for the article

hth

@nevada_matt 

Physically I did not like the fact that maggies being about the size of most doors, cut my room off. My personal preference is for a much shorter speaker. enter Emerald Physics OB 3.4s which throw as big of a sound stage as my Maggie 3.5Rs, but visually opened up the room (see my Virtual System). Now, if you want more bass they made a version of the 3.4s with both 1 and 2 @ 15" bass drivers.

No longer made but they do come up for sale from time to time at super cheap prices

hth