You should include as a third choice good deal on a 3 series .... used pair of 3.3 at less than $1500 or 3.5 at less than $2k. |
If you have a large enough room and plenty of amplifier power, I'd go with the Tympani. |
If you have the space go for the T IV
With a little work the T IV can fit into a 13X15 room. But easily go into my 17 X 19/20 room.
They are great speakers. Nothing much lost vs. MG 20.
Then there is the upgrade potential. The fact that the bass panels are separate helps substantially with the midrange and trebble.
If you are more adventurous, the modification to bi/triamping and taking out the passive crossover components to put in high grade parts or active crossover can bring these to world class at a modest investment. |
I've never heard the Tympani so can't give you an opinion there but I would endorse Jayfox's sentiment & suggest you check out one of the older III series. IMHO they are the current sweetspot in the $'s versus SQ tradeoff. |
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I`ve owned the Tympani 1D`s and have listen to the 1.7`s. The sevens don`t come close. |
I have owend the Tympani 1 D's mg 1 A , 1c, and now have the smg,s with the magnestand Mod . I also and have a buddy that has the new 3.7's that I hear about every two weeks, the 3.7's sound much much better that the 1.7's, but the
Tympani 1 d's are much better than the 3.7s .
I dont have the Tympani's any more I sold them to my brother who WON'T sell them back to me, I only sold them because I was making a H.T. room with a 120" screen I have a big room "40 + 30' but with 8' of speaker and 10' of screen my setup was about 20' wide speaker tip to speaker tip and they would no longer image with the big space between them.
I know this is about the Tympani 1V's but I am asuming the 1v's would sound a little better than the 1 D's. imop I think the 1D's are one of the top 5 speakers in the word for a combo of Large LARGE sound stage ,detail , and real not fake bass Impact. with two bass panels that are not 1/4" away from the high end driver. The wide panel's help to block out the rear signal of the bass speaker so it does not come around to the front of the speaker as much as a narow panel would preventing the bass from going out of phase as much, making much tighter bass. e.g. Wide panel open driver speakers shuch as PHY speaker's would use as compaired to narrow panle open driver.
Yes Tympani only went down to 38 hz but I STILL think even the 20's can not realy come close too them. so it would go without saying the 1.7's is just kids stuff even though it's a fine speaker." please no hate mail from you 1.7 fans. yes the 1.7s are a fine speaker I like them too.
So you may ask if the Tympani sounded So good why did Magnepan stop making them?
Well I asked the same thing when I went to "T.H.E. Show" in Newport Beach in So. Ca.
When I went to the Magnepan room and talked the the Magnepan rep. I asked
" Why don't you make a large three panel speaker like the Tympani I think it sounded better than even the 20's" and he bowed his head in acceptance of that statement and then said "yes but who would buy a speaker that big now" and then went on to tell me how everyone wants small speakers now, hence the motorized wall hanging Magnepans. And I wanted to say I want Big speakers, big sound stage that is, yes it's big on the 20's and big on the $25.000 M.L. or even any of the $230.000 box speakers From wilson but no were near what the Tympani,s would do.
Yes today almost all the speaker co's are making smaller speakers, Magnepan ,M.L. and even MBL makes a speaker that fits on a stand. Even the M.L. rep told me at Sunnys audio in So. Ca. before they made there larger CLX Art speaker that most of there customers were in europe and they wanted smaller speakers over there because of the smaller homes and apartments, not ones with a big foot print and a very real and very large sound stage. No they are happy with the 3 foot tall box speaker that images at your kee caps not above your head like it does at times when you are front and center at the Hollywood bowl.
In other words, Yes Tympani's over 1.7's or almost any other speaker bar none. |
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I know a guy who acquired a pair of the Tympani IV. Myself and another friend overhauled them with premium crossover parts and wiring for the guy.
We've since compared them to everything from the 1.6/1.7 to the 3.6/3.7 to the 20s. There is no question, the Tympani IV can still be considered SOTA, especially for anyone who prefers the planar advantages.
My advice to anyone who has the option of getting a hold of a pair of Tympani is to definitely do so. As long as they are in good working condition they will be worth the effort. And if you ever feel like upgrading the crossover parts you will actually be amazed at what they can do. |
The 3 series suggestion is an excellent one. In the end, it may come down to what works better in your room. |
This may be redundant after all the other posts, but as an old 1-D owner who now has a pair of IVa's, I'll add my voice and say go for the Tympanis! It's a no brainer, if you have the space. I don't know of anything that will touch them for the price. Some of what they do no speaker does as well to this date, e.g., the amazing midbass. The rest of what they do is still pretty well up there. And as Schussor points out, if you get the urge, you can bring their performance to even higher levels for not that much money and work. |
Re upgrading crossovers, can anyone please advise on how to best do this on a pair of Tympani IVas?
Does this mean simply replacing the external passive crossover box with higher quality components?
Or using an active crossover and biamping?
I know I know I know I can go over to the MUG site, but would rather not spend hours somewhere else to then get pitched on $10,000 worth of garage built weirdness.
Thank you for any sensible, readily available upgrade ideas.
Oh and further to the original post, yes, the Tympani speakers are really amazing, but not only in terms of mid bass, but expansive depth and imaging.
I am enjoying them with a new DAC - an Antelope Zodiac plus - in a newly redecorated room.
Will try to post updated photos later..... |
Just a wild thought here-- Why not shoot Peter Gunn (magnestand) and email and see if you can get him to bite on a pair of Tympannis? |
Cwlondon, a few years ago I rebuilt a pair of Tympany IVA xovers for a friend with no technical skill and who was willing to sell me a set of tube mono's at a fantastic price in exchange for the work. I had previously rebuilt the xovers for my MGIIIA's as well as his.
First of all, understand that not all xover components are in the external box; the mid to tweeter xover components are in the midrange panel behind the sock and metal plate that holds the connectors for the cables to the external xover box. The components in the panel need (should) be replaced as well; in fact, IMO, the parts in the panel will have the biggest impact after upgrade. What I did was to house ALL the xover parts in an external stained wood box with an acrylic lid. Stock components were replaced with Solen air core inductors, MIT Multicap capacitors (per my friend's request). Inductor coils were oriented at right angles to each other to minimize interference and all caps were placed on dampening pads.
You should know that as significant an improvement as upgrading xover parts was, IMO just as significant was hardwiring the new xover parts directly to the panel using the same Siltech cable that he uses for speaker wire; thus taking all those steel connectors out of the signal path including the fuses which were bypassed. The six foot length of wire going to the top of the ribbon tweeter was replaced with a single conductor of the same Siltech.
The results are stunning. He drives them with Jadis mono's, and to this day one of the very best sounding systems I have ever heard, with an expansive stage, beautiful tonality, and the best (natural) bass that I have ever heard. Highly recommended. |
BTW, I second Brownsfan's suggestion to contact Peter Gunn. And yes, I
should have written Tynpani, not Tynpany. |
Thank you and interesting to learn more about the Magnestat website and modifications....
However, not so sure I like the looks of the larger frames, and I already have Myesound stands.
Grant was also very helpful / responsive and to my ears they made a significant improvement and reduce the worry of anyone knocking them over...
Frogman, the internal and wire mods sound well worth while, and would love to hear your friend's system.
If anywhere near NYC (or any city I might reach for business) please do tell him I will treat to dinner in exchange for a demo!
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I think that could be arranged. He is, in fact, in NYC and I suspect would enjoy this. Send me a private message with your email and I will pass it on to him (Bill G.) |
Cwlondon,
I don't think there's any one way to upgrade the crossovers. The best results, as with any speaker, will be with bi- or tri-amping. Many advantages -- you can use the best components, the amplifier is always connected directly to the load and seeing a beautifully non-reactive impedance, you can select amps that are best for each frequency range. Of course, it's also the most elaborate approach.
In an unmodified IVa, I believe it would probably mean an active crossover rather than a PLLXO, since we're talking high order crossover slopes. Another possibility would be to use a digital crossover. That's what I'll be doing with my own IVa's, but all my sources are digital -- I know that some people want to stay in the analog domain. The best and most practical way to go digital is probably DEQX, but the crossover can also be PC-based.
Of course, the simplest approach is to upgrade the quality of the high-level components. Upgrading the caps seems to have a bigger payoff than upgrading the chokes, that at least is what some people say. |
