I just sold my MG-1s, last November. Had them for over 20 years and thru 1 rebuild in White Bear Lake......
terrific in all regards. Not the highest highs or lowest lows, but fed enough power, they were credible.
lo-fi visitors were nearly ALL amazed and would walk around the back and put there ears up to them. The 'stand in front' demo usually wowed em, too, since the image was (sort of) unimpaired by that.
All these virtues are pretty much intact in my new MG1.6s.
Better highs and bass. downside? Tougher to place, need even MORE power and ruthlessly reveal poor upstream goods.
They are forcing me to upgrade the room, as well.
I kinda miss 'em, old school oak frames and all. |
I had MG-1's for 20+years and just sold them last November.
I'll kind of miss the old-school Oak Frames and cheesy black base. up to 6 or 7 years ago, Magnepan was more than happy to fix 'em, too...and install new socks.
Great imaging, marginal highs and lows. A little (lot, actually) power hungry. People visiting for the first time and people coming over to do some work were always wowed and curious. The stand in front demo and the fact that the sound comes out of the front AND back equally shook some up. No cones? No problem!
I think the new generation with the full and 'quasi' ribbons are a step up, but are perhaps more demanding of upstream components and setup.
If I still had 'em, I'd love to hear them with my HSU sub and find a nice aftermarket supertweeter....just for the sake of experiment. |
I have owned both the original 1's and the 1.6's. In every respect I think the 1.6's are better with the greatest improvement being better dynamic range, they do better low level information and can swing to the loud end of the spectrum in a flash. The original 1's were somewhat flat IMO (and I used an Audio Research D52 to drive them which was pretty nice) though still pretty good. |
I come from the opposite side of the this story. The first Maggie's I heard, and bought were 1.6qr's, then I heard the older models.
The newer models are better, but I don't think it's a quantum leap in sound, more a refinement. I bought a pair of IIIa's for a home theater (my brother's house) that were then rebuilt by Magnepan, and for 20 yr old speakers they hold up very, very well when compared to my 3.6R's.
When I have heard a rebuilt pair of the MG-1's I thought they sounded fantastic. They actually were being run off of a high powered new reciever, and Velodyne DD12 that was matched with them via the room equilization made the system sound nearly seemless. They sounded like Maggies to me, and the sub really integrated well. |
macdad,
the sub woofer would help improve the MG1's dynamic range, my major nit to pick with it...
I do agree - almost eveything Magnepan has made since the start has been at or near the top of it's class in terms of value and performance. |
The person who showed up and purchased my old MG-1s was very pleased. I demo'd them with a Rotel RB-1070 of 130x2 @8.
Even then, he was very happy and listened to a couple of CDs for nearly an hour.
I hope he is as happy with them as I was.
If I had them still, I'd be temped to keep them around and try them as BACKCHANNEL speakers in a 5.1 setup! I'll bet they are awesome in that context. |
Thank you gentlemen, some good interesting and informative points for me a complete Magnepan novice that would like to get into to the world of planars to learn.
I am loaning the MG-1's at the moment in the comfort of my listening room. I am enjoying them very much. Love the mid range, especially drums with 'snare' drum in particular sounding really nice. What freq should my cheap as chips sub SVS PB12NSD be dialed in? The treble is a bit wishy washy though. They are musical and provide enjoyment which is what its all about eh?
Thanks again for your replies. |
typically set the woofer crossover about 10hz below the bottom end of the speaker, since you probably do not have that option set it as low as you can. I imagine it would be around 60 to 80 hz.
I am a novice about subwoofers but have read there will still be output above the subs setting and below the main speaker's bottom rating - hence the 10 hz gap to minimize overlap. |
My sub's frequency range is 40-120hz, I have it set at 50hz, which is a low as the MG-1's go according to a spec sheet I have seen. I am tinkering with settings, lots of time as I have just bought this pair of well kept MG's, the missus is not to enamoured with them, the oak sides are passable (just), but the beige cloth is a no-no, I think some cloth covers are going to be made very promptly. Unless I buy a bigger pair in black! |
i have a pair of MG1, in excellent shape, i run them in a 3-way active crossover system, quad 303 as woofer-tweeter configuration and polk audio 10 inch active subwoofer, the sound is precise, clean and incredible,i rewire the tweeter 3 years ago with great result. it please my ears so much that never i will let go my sound kit. |
I enjoyed my MG1's for years, then I tried a pair of MMG's. In my opinion the little MMG's were better, even though they were much smaller in size. They actually seemed to resolve the bass better than the larger MG1's. Also consider my MG1's were re-built at Magnepan years ago, and as far as I know, they were 100% working properly. Later I upgraded to 1.6's which were in a totally different league. Again this is just my opinion, but the MMG was a step up from the old MG1's and the 1.6 was a huge step up. |
Have not a/b'ed directly but I think the latest and greatest Maggies including mmg have better dunamics overall than older MGs. |
Hi,
I bought a pair of MG1's and a pair of MGIII speakers today. One of MGIII's tweeter sound only no bass nor mid bass?
I really need your help how to fix the current problem! how to dis assemble that MGIII speaker to look for the cause.
Thank you very much for your help in advance.
Best Regards,
Sb |
