Magnepan Owners - Need Your Thoughts Please


Spent some time recently auditioning the Magenpan 12's and 1.6's; I was very impressed with the sound, especially when you consider their modest cost.

I've always had highly sensitive horn speakers so a Magnepan is a totally new direction for me. I will keep my Khorns and consider adding the Magnepans for even more fun! Here are some questions that I need help with. Of course, I will bring them home for a personal in-house listen before I buy but any thoughts that you Maggie owners could add will be greatly appreciated! Questions:

(1)Will a pair of 125 watt VTL monoblocks (EL-34's) be enough juice to drive the Magnepans to reasonable listening levels in my large room (17.5w x 26L x 9h). By reasonable levels I mean 85db - 90db (at the most). I don't want to 'blow-up' the VTL's! They are rated at 130 watts in Tetrode mode into 4 ohms.

(2)I assume that the larger panels of the 1.6's would be harder to drive overall than the smaller 12's?

(3) Setup advice: where do I start on placement? How far from the front wall and how far from the sidewalls? How far apart? Also, are Magnepans designed to be faced straight-ahead or with some toe-in? And, what about the ribbons, placed on the outside or inside?

(4) What are the appropriate listening distances? How far do you sit back from the panels?

Would love to hear Magnepan owners' comments and advice on these questions or any other Maggie issues that I am not thinking about. Thanks!
stickman451

Showing 8 responses by stickman451

I agree; 1'6's are a great speaker at a great price and I may just buy them. However, as some have mentioned above I will have to find a good muscle-amp to get the best out of them.
Everyone, thanks for the interesting feedback. I suspect that 130 watt tube amps are not the ideal choice of amplification for Magnepans but that probably won't keep me from trying them out in my room. If I like a little, I might buy, and then keep an eye out for a good buy on a used pair of SS with plenty of power.
My goal with the Magnepans is to have fun and try something that is a little different; not really on a mission to find something "better". Not sure if 1.6's can fill my room. Going to give it a try and see. 5.5 from the front wall sounds reasonable; 1.4 from the side walls sounds rather close to me.
Going to find out tomorrow; my local dealer has graciously agreed to let me borrow a pair of the 1.6's over the holidays, so I will have a good five days to try them out in my room. Will report results soon.
Okay, been listening to the 1'6's since last evening; overall I like them quite a bit. However, it is very apparent that my 125 watt VTL mono-blocks are not quite up to the task of driving them to fill my larger room (17.5 x 26 x 9)... They can handle 75db-80db but that is about all... I can definitely tell however that a good-size muscle amp would be far better in my room...

Great sound stage depth front to back with plenty of well-defined layers; vocals are great, real-sized and in-the-room real... Only in the bass do they falter a bit; they don't have the 'grunt' or 'weight' of the KHorns (really didn't expect them too)... On the other hand, a good bit more power might go a longs ways towards solving that.

Now what; i have to buy a new muscle amp too??? It never ends...
I didn't really expect the same amount of bass that I get from the KHorns; I think that I could live with the 1.6's bass as long as I had a beefy amp.

I started with the 1.6's 4'9" from the center of the panel to the sidewalls and 5'6" from the front wall; with a tab bit of toe-in... I also used one space for tilt to the back. I really haven't had much time to move them around yet for bass repsonse; will do that over the next few days.
Have moved on to Plan B... Pulled out my 20 year-old NAD 2200 PE solid state stereo amp (still use it for one of my secondary systems upstairs). This thing is rated at 100 watts continuous but can swing 600 watts or so for brief peaks; so far, so good. The NAD appears to have plenty of ba$$s to drive the 1.6's... Not as sweet, smooth, or 3-D as the VTLS but at least it hasn't blown-up! Going to spend some time listening with the NAD.