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Magnepan 7.0 3.5R x 2 pairs vs Tympani

I just acquired another pair of 3.5R as I cannot found the Tympani in local market so I decided to create my own version of Tympani.

I studied the different versions and advantages of Tympani(in case you don't know, it's a 3-4 walls of magnepan for each speaker and used to be the flagship). The orginal 3.5R is very good(if you do bi-amp with some adjustments) but bass and soundstage wise is still not comparable to larger speaker like MBL 111/101. Also, if you have a wide room over 18ft, the middle soundstage tend to not as expansive as some other design. Magnepan's solution to this seem to be adding more "plane" of speakers as in the Tympani's case or increasing the size as in current top 20.1 case. My approach is similar yet the tricky part is how to angle them so that they produce co-herent soundstage and image.

Using Magnepan's recommendation on angle of the tweeter to the listening position with tweeter inward and outward, I calculated the crossing angle should be 5 degree for a listening position of 2.5M away. The image cast by the outer 3.5 should be slightly in front of the image cast by the inner 3.5 to form a 3D image where a single pair is difficult to achieve. My initial feeling is that this arrange benefit from wider/deeper soundstage and much co-herent bass enveloping the room.

Any Magnepan lover can share your thoughts on this?

My layout is in the below virtual system:

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vdone&1216824544

The room is treated with thick carpet, walls of book cases at the side and 2xRPG abfussor at the back.

Jeff
jefftsefu
jefftsefu OP
19 posts
 
Thanks Sgr - should it goes like viewed from top?

a.\_ _/

or

b./_ _\ with the listener at the bottom position when viewed from top.

Should the tweeter be closer to the lister or closer to the front wall(speaker wall).

Thanks and I waiting to try it out.

Jeff
sgr's avatar
sgr
689 posts
 
Sorry its been a while. I believe it was A but you might try experimenting. I believe we had the wing speakers up close to the mains too, but we did experiment with that paramenter also. I believe you'll be intrigued by your results. Have fun and keep me posted.
Steve
coolkane's avatar
coolkane
2 posts
 
In mysystem, I am running two pairs of Tympani 4s, with four Classe' monos, with an active crossover. Blows away anything I have ever had.
sgr's avatar
sgr
689 posts
 
Hey Coolkane,
Wow what a room you must have. I loved the Tympani 4s! They are an incredible speaker. I'm sure they rival the 20.1s and probably whup them in the bass. I've always wondered why Magnepan has not updated the Tympani line. They are legendary speakers and I'm sure they'd sell quite a few. I'm sure they're size might discourage many buyers though. Do you have any pics of your setup? Which Classe's do you have? Front end?
Steve
hdldrum
4 posts
 
I currently have 3.5Rs in combination with 1.6 placed as Steve suggested. I am not running them full range, just the bass panels. They are placed behind the outside corners of the 3.5s at 90 degree angle facing outward. I am running the 3.5s directly off of a Parasound A21 from the balanced outputs of an ARC LS16. The 1.6s are running off the second output of the LS16 through a Burson Audio buffer to a balanced electronic crossover to another power amp dedicated to the 1.6 bass panel. Crossover has a separate sub out going to an Alon Thunderbolt sub. The system had a major 50HZ peak and significant 200 HZ suckout with the 3.5s and sub. The addition of the 1.6 panels flattened out the in room response as anticipated, but also added a significant improvement to recordings where you can hear the acoustic character of the space where the recording took place. It is not present on all recordings, so it is not a psycho-acoustic effect. Live Studio recordings such as Brubeck's Take Five now have the addition of the space where the drum kit is set up, for example. The DWM works on a similar principal and ,as Steve said, Magnepan suggested the idea to their dealers. I too was in the business during the '70s and later. I am a skeptic that has always had to hear it for myself. This experiment truly blew me away!
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