Magnepan Upgrades, Silver and New Crossovers!

I was very happy with Mike Powell's silver jumpers and fuse replacement, inexpensive (my set was $75 ) and almost instant install...

Take THAT, Danny Richie haters. ;-)

That is the best story I think I’ve ever heard on audio gone! Funny, I love it

Seems to me like the amateur marketing department at Dan Richie’s GR dustbowl in Tejas is in overdrive. Guess that with interest rates being high maybe there are delinquent mortgage payments piling up.

Did you rewire the speakers which is a big plus and installing a quality wire, also the frame forthe stock frames are flimsy and flex like a sail. Essential ifyou truly want to get the best outof them .

I have been listening to my MG IIIa’s since 1988. Peter Gunn generously advised me to screw as much natural wood to the back of the particle board frames as possible to absorb vibration and he shared the schematic for his crossover. I installed 36’ of 2"x3" studs per speaker and built his crossover ($900 in parts). Major improvements.

Recently, Peter advised me to place a screen behind my listening position to enhance bass response. I constructed a frame to hold a 2’x4’ piece of plywood covered with 2" of Rockwool that is mounted horizontally 34" from the floor and another piece of 2’x4’ plywood covered in Rockwool that hangs over the listening area at a 30 degree angle. I had been using an 18" sub with a low pass of 35hz. The sub is no longer necessary, unless you want sub 25hz support. The over all sound is cleaner without the sub. The overhanging panel helps eliminate sound bouncing from the ceiling. It’s like having a folded horn located behind you.

My room is 35’x25’x14’ (tray ceiling). I installed a diffuser on the middle of the front wall and the sound stage bloomed. The Maggies are powered by a Devialet 220. The Devialet replaced a Pass Labs 250.5. The amp is connected to the speakers via sixteen 5’ 0 AWG copper cables.

I highly recommend you consult Peter Gunn and consider buying one of his modified 1.6 QR’s. Unfortunately, Peter does not modify the bigger models due to shipping constraints.

An Audiogon poster, b4icu, recommended the speaker cables. Shocking results as I added one cable at a time.

I have had many box speakers. They sound good, but they don’t have the magic.

Good luck.

Tell me how magnepan speakers are considered a great speaker when you have to completely rebuild it to make it sound good? Why can’t they put good parts in it to start with? 

@ronboco +2

Mike

@ronboco The story seems "interesting".

The Magnepan (I own the 3.6R’s) sound great out of the box, people have claimed rebuilding the crossover with better quality parts, adding stiffness to the frame help the sound, but I rather doubt it; and reviewers have tried all of these things with no effect other than the usual effects when you change something and you really want to hear a difference. The existing stands could be sturdier, but the third parties making replacement stands want $500 which is preposterous.

The only real downsides is their power demands are tremendous and you have to fine-tune placement more than with other speakers (and the 3.6 line is about 6 feet tall). But the flip side is that even played at high volume the sound says clear and well balanced, which I can’t say for a lot of speakers.

To each their own. 

Magnepans sound great as is...but can be improved with various tweaks or rebuilds, some of which can be quite expensive, though some are cheap...sometimes have to decide between tweaks and stepping up a model or two...and after years of debate, Magnepan now offers upgrade stands for some of it's models...

Even though Magnepan emerged from the primordial soup of early 70s HiFi virtually joined at the hip with Audio Research Corp., Wendell Diller, who helped guide the company from the getgo, is a man of the people. His world view is closer to Hubert Humphrey’s than Thurston Howell’s. He has resisted inflating the cost of the speakers beyond what’s necessary. He is an evangelist for boxlessness and wants people of modest means to be able to enjoy. 

It's being circulated around Hi Fi Land that the LRS+ was a mistake....It is Toooo good for the $ and the "new" technology they used must now have to be added to All their models.Some say it's the "best sounding Maggie yet."

@tomrk 

I am definitely not disparaging Magnepans. They are very popular and must be a great value for the price. It just seemed odd to want to upgrade a speaker as soon as you buy it. Listen up in Denver sells them and I think it’s time to go have a listen to them. 
 

Regards

Ron

@ronboco I didn't take it that way at all.

I bought my Magnepans used in perfect shape for a fraction of what you see them typically sell for used, so it's not like I have some allegiance to the brand.   I think they're cool, but I don't think they're the best thing I've ever heard;  they' simply fell into a price/performance range that made them worth trying.  They work for me because my time to listen is on weekends, work is just too busy.

@audioman58

Yes, I gutted all the old wire, looked like aluminum wire... I’ve got all 12 gauge .9999 silver wiring now to WBT-0710-Ag-B Nextgen Signature Binding Posts.

Jl35 +1 Has anyone bought what they considered to be a great car,  at least for the money? Would its performance, looks or comfort be enhanced by some aftermarket shocks, struts, tires, larger rims, carburator, spark plugs and wires, or even a turbo or supercharger kit?  Extra cupholder? Same difference. 

I have read elsewhere of Emotiva products destroying Magnepan speakers (sorry, no source, some other forum about bypassing Magnepan fuses)  I have not read of any other brand identified as a problem.  So maybe there is some sort of incompatibility. Maybe someone needs to say it, no offense to Emotiva.

Another tweak for Maggies is to get some weight on the top edge of the speaker.  Since the whole panel pushes in and out with low frequencies, and the panel is a large portion of the surface area of the speaker, low frequencies can start to move the less stabilized portions of the speaker, i.e., the top. Some custom stands try to stabilize the top edge of the speaker with braces.  I have lived with bags of sand on top of my Maggies for months.  What you will notice is tighter and stronger bass response. Especially with the lowest frequencies.

I have always wired out the fuses and tweeter attenuater jumpers, including on my MG-IIIs for 15 years with no problems.  Mostly using Rotel and Anthem amps without issue.  My understanding is the fuse is there to burn out in order to control heat building up in the wires during extended loud sessions. The heat will destroy the glue that binds the wire to the mylar film. Normally you can wire out the fuse and extra jumpers without a soldering iron or permanent changes.  A better choice is to replace the mounting plate and binding posts to avoid magnetic/steel parts.  You can also use the extra jumpers or replacement binding posts to bi-wire the speakers. 

Replacing the simple crossover components (especially the capacitor) is also a big improvement. The crossovers only involve a inductor and capacitor on the lower models, so cost is reasonable. I have contacted Magnepan to discuss the crossover upgrades with them directly and they confirm it is a good place to invest in improvements.

Magnepan is definitely about bringing the speakers to market at an affordable price. They sound great out of the box. But manufacturers have to make choices about little items that save millions. Using a $1 capacitor instead of a $30 capacitor for the 2 caps in a LRS, would only increase the cost by $58.  But if they sell 100k LRS speakers, they will save $5,800,000 in the cost of making the speakers without charging the consumer any more money, and they still sound really good. ALL MANUFACTURERS do this. Ford sells 1M pickups.  If they save $10 on tires, they save $40,000,000 on one part.

How loud would they have to have been played to melt anything???

Sheesh...some people just deserve what they get.