My New Magnepan 1.7i's sound dull and lifeless on the top end...why?


First time Magnepan owner - 5  days old 100+ burn-in hours on them
Associated Equipment:
-Denafrips Terminator Plus
-Holo Audio May KTE version
-Pass Labs X22 Pre-amp
-PrimaLuna EVO 400 Pre-amp
-Pass Labs XA100.8 Monos
-PrimaLuna EVO 400 Monos
-AntiCables interconnects and speaker cables
-Stock tweeter attenuator jumper replaced with AntiCables level 5 spade jumpers on the 1.7i's

My spectrum analyzer indicates both speakers highs are falling off beginning at 1.25K and are 9db down from 2.5K on
Been playing around with speaker placement and room treatments for 2 days now without any remediation. What am I missing? Suggestions appreciated.
128x128nayls02

Showing 1 response by william53b

1.7i's sound like they have a head cold because of where the inductor is placed in the crossover. 

If you don't want to mess with the insides, the easy solution is to buy a Shiit Loki or Lokius and bump the frequency you are not hearing properly. I bought one as an amusement and not only does it do that well, but you can also bump the bass, as they will produce a significant amount more than their stock configuration. Same concept as a plate amp for subs. Box subs don't go that low naturally, their bass is intentionally overdriven. Not talking about open baffle or horn subs, just boxed ones.

Let the naysayers descend like rabid wild animals while they mic measure their rooms and let a computer do the tampering for them, all feeling safe on the streets knowing there are no tone controls on their preamps.

Everything else that offers a significant performance increase is major surgery that requires removing the panty hose, starting with a million staples.