Magnepan .7 Alternatives

Hello flasd!  The Maggies are telling you the truth. If the music sounds bad, it's because the music was badly recorded. Although dynamics are a bit compressed with Maggies, the details are what they are famous for. I'm on my third set of Maggies and a friend brought over his favorite CD. It sounded terrible. Genuinely unlistenable. It was a "rock" recording of a famous band. We were shocked! I immediately played some known good music and it was fine. Bad recordings will sound bad on really good systems. Be proud of those Maggies and get  few well regarded CDs as "proof."  Happy Listening.

I have had Eminent Technology LFT-VII(a) upgraded to (b) and thanks to your question will be up grading to (c) shortly, for better than twenty years. I am still extremely happy. One of the best deals ever. Why they are not more popular? Remember, audio is only half the battle, marketing is the other. Next time you read a review take note of the prominent full page ad that happens to be published in the same issue. It is a business after all.

I don't respond often on the forum here but thought I would try and help.

I brought home a demo pair of .7s for a 3-day trial. They sounded great and I decided tto order a pair from the dealer. I had the dealer hold onto them for 3 weeks after they were delivered. Since I live in an apartment they could break them in for me. Got em home and the first week was nothing much to write home about. They were just ho-hum. Didn't understand why the demo pair sounded so good and but the ones I brought home sucked. Thought maybe they weren't broken in completely. So, they were bound and gagged with several layer of blankets and comforters and taped tightly. I then ran them at high levels of pink, white, and brown noise and played music through them during the day. Signal was being pumped through them 24/7. They were being thrashed at around 80 watts of steady conditioning noise according to the meters on my power amp. Listened again after the 10 days so I could get a better read on them. Bass was better. Highs were better but they just didn't invite me in. Nothing compelling about them at all. My son lent me his REL T/5 subwoofer. His is the original, around 7-years old. It was immediately apparent the sub added much needed extension on both the lows and highs, rounded out the imaging so much more, and added much needed presence while expanding the soundstage. But, they still seem like they need a measure of clarity and speed to get them where I think they should be.

Still, I was impressed enough that I bought a new REL T/5x. It will be arriving around 9/20 or so. I will break it in per REL instructions and should have it in place next weekend to change out my son's T/5 starting with identical settings. Stay tuned to see what that brings. Since the T/5x is the third generation of this sub, there are many improvements over the original, according to REL.

Also to add, a life-long friend of mine has a room with similar dimensions. He is absolutely thrilled with his Magnepan LRS (original versions) using a REL T/Zero running them with a Willsenton R8 integrated tube amp. He has it running in the triode mode exclusively with only 25 WPC. Possible the .7 Maggie's may be too much for the size of your room? The room I am using the .7s in measures 24'x13'.

I'll post my impressions of the new T/5x sometime next weekend. Check back here later.

Cheers.

Your room is the obvious limiting factor, with both size & dimension issues.  A smaller Maggie might improve the situation, but not likely to cure it.

The safest approach is switching to nearfield monitors.  You've already got the subs, so they don't need to go deep.

If you live near Boston, are feeling lucky (or just experimental) and want to remain out-of-the-box(-speaker), I see there is a pair of used Linkwitz LxMini dipole speakers available online (check hifishark).  Warning - guaranteed negative Spouse Acceptance factor, unless they have a quirky sense of humor!  I haven't heard this design, but his larger speakers are spectacular.  The smaller form factor here probably works better nearfield.

Most of the time my .7 Maggi’s sound fantastic, just a little finicky.

I know my room is smaller than I would like, but unfortunately this is the room I have to work with. I certainly understand the “bloom effect”.

My (2) REL T5x Subs blend beautifully, they’re fast, musical and appropriately sized & placed for the room. The Maggi’s are 3’ out from rear walls & 2’ from side walls, spread is 6-3/4’ apart, After hours of listening and adjusting, I’ve tried them both ways and have opted on having them towed in with Tweeters on outer edge so every seat on the sofa is a sweet spot. Played a lot with placement as well as researched a lot on their nuances and I get it, but have to work within the constraints thrown at me. 

Think I’m going to try running the Blusound Node’s output to a better DAC… Being I mostly listened to vinyl prior, pretty sure it really wasn’t as profound an issue till I started streaming. I’ll be researching the speaker suggestions and trying to figure out how and where and I can audition.  All comments are read and appreciated. Keep those suggestions coming.

Thanks