Positioning Magneplanars for Optimum Performance

I found that going to a really powerful amp like an Innersound ESL, will liven up a Maggie in an unbelievable way. Those speakers never have enough power. Give them at least 500 watts with tons of current, (if you do not have that already) see if you like them then.

Any scientists, engineers, or Tympani owners reading?

It seems that moving the V shaped bass panels closer to the rear wall diminishes the bass, which is counterintuitive to me.

I am now getting reasonable, although not staggering, amounts of bass with the bass panels about 4' out into the room and about 10' apart. The tweeter mid panels are on the inside, about 8' apart and I have found that not angling them in gives more air and depth to the imaging.

Perhaps I am imagining it, but I somehow perceive slightly more weight and snap when I straighten out the V shaped panels so that the surface of the middle bass panel is more or less aligned with the surface of the inside tweeter/mid panels. (This is contrary to advice from the factory who suggested that the bass panels could pretty much point anywhere in a feel free to put the subwoofer under the sofa kind of a way.) Could some time alignment issues be at work here?

And funny, no big change in my perception of the low end if my listening chair is in the middle of the room -- practically a near field position -- or pushed up all the way against the rear wall.

Even before dialing them in, this is clearly a magical speaker but I find the ribbons can sound a bit hot if the bass is thinned from imperfect positioning.

I know this is mostly to do with the room and therefore impossible to guess but it is still interesting to hear of other Maggie experiences.

Thank you for your thoughts.

I found that placing my 3.5s so they fire diagonally across my room yielded some good results

This may not work with the tympanis but, with my 1.6's I know that if I move them farther into the room (out to 5 feet instead of say 3 feet) the lower bass will be more apparent in relation to the rest of the spectrum. This seems more natural to me in my setup.

I think the magazines liked the tweeters on the inside in their reviews.

I hope this helps,

please let us know the results.