Received your Magnepan 30.7’s Yet

Don, they've been a success and that while they're in production there's a wait list to get them. Wendell had told me that he wasn't sure that they'd make any money from them and thought they might just have flagship value, but they've been delighted to find that they're selling well and there's now a wait list.

Their listening room may not be ideal, but would you want it to be? If you go over to ARC, you'll see rooms set up with diffusion and bass trapping, but ARC is listening to amplifiers -- Magnepan has to know how the speakers sound in a more typical listening room and most listeners don't have diffusers or bass traps. Again from talking with Wendell I know that they're aware of the modal behavior of their room and use close measurements and listening in a variety of environments to tune their speakers for the average room. Even so, bass typically swings 10 dB from room to room so with any speaker you have to work carefully with placement and ideally use bass trapping and EQ. It seems to me that dipoles are more susceptible to this than omnis because most of their energy goes into the z-axis axial mode. This means there are fewer rooms modes but they have more of an effect. I've seen this with Quads as well as with Maggies. The solutions are again some combination of placement, bass trapping, and EQ, and in the smaller speakers adding diaphragm area in large rooms with the DWM.

Otherwise, if you look back in the Planar Asylum I think you'll see that there have been complaints about dealer demos of Maggies for years. They're seldom shown at their best. And also that those of us who own them have to mess with their position quite a bit to get them to sound their best! This of course is true of any speaker, but it seems to be more true of dipoles.

The consensus among the few who have heard the 30.7's set up properly, mostly critics, seems to be that you have to spend more than $100,000 to equal the sound of the 30.7's. I haven't heard them yet myself, but as someone with Tympani IVa's I can easily believe that, as the IVa's are already remarkable speakers despite their age and every single component has been improved in the 30.7.

Like Stickman, I'll be curious to hear from people who have them at home.

Don, I don't know how many have shipped. I only know that they are coming off the assembly line.

Wendell is a friend, yes, but that doesn't make me a Magnepan shill. Rather, since we speak and email frequently, I hear a lot about what's going on at Magnepan and pass that information on when I can.

As you undoubtedly know, I'm also the Planar Asylum's informal go-between with Magnepan, since Wendell doesn't participate in the forums directly. Sometimes if he sees something he feels needs addressing he'll email me and ask me to do so. My responses are always my own unless I pass something on from him, in which case I say so.

I am glad to say that my $1600 rebuilt IVa's and cheap amps are sounding wonderful, thank you. Indeed, they rather make me feel sorry for those who spend $100,000 and get sound that in most cases isn't as good. That's the benefit of 50 years of experience as an audiophile and audio engineer; you know what to buy and how to get the most out of it.

I would point out, by the way, that my main amplifier, which drives the mids and highs, is rated Class A by Stereophile; that the monoblock version of my midbass amplifier is also rated Class A; and that my DAC was rated Class A+. There is no need to spend vast sums of money to get good sound: knowing what gear to buy and how to set it up and treat your room matters far more than cost.

Of course if you want to send me a pair of 30.7's and three Pass amps, I won't object. But if you think that after years spent building million dollar rooms, designing pro audio products, and listening to master tapes in the studio I'm doing this because I need to impress people with fancy faceplates, think again.

I have owned Maggies continuously since the late 70's, when I bought my Tympani 1-D's. Later, I had a pair of MMG's which I bought for my home office and used temporarily in my main system until I was able to score a pair of IVa's, which, unlike my 1-D's, fit in my current listening room. Which is to say that I've owned as many Maggies as you have for as long as you have, for whatever that's worth. And of course I've heard many other models over the years. 

I haven't yet heard the 30.7 but of course it's a step up from the 20.7, with a new high performance midrange, a four-way design, and much more bass radiating area. To assess the difference you would have to hear the 30.7 in good circumstances, which few have had a chance to do yet, hence this thread.

You would have to ask Wendell why you can't hear a pair yet in the Twin Cities. I know that there are three prototypes in circulation, one of which Wendell has with him on the tour, one of which is at the Absolute Sound, one of which last I heard was at a dealer's on the West Coast. I assume that initial production will be allocated to dealers, reviewers, and customers on the list but I have no idea in what order; again, you'd have to ask Magnepan. I honestly don't know why this matters; it's a new model and it will be in short supply for a while as the factory catches up with the backlog.

"The critics that reviewed the 30.7 only listened for a few hours."

That's incorrect, and a good example of why I take the time to make these posts. Julie Mullins of the Absolute Sound for example had a pair on long-term loan for their reviews, and last I heard she still has it.

"Magnepan said the 30.7 would ship in January of this year."

There were some production delays. The one I know about occurred because a supplier provided a metal part with curvature that was out of spec. This sort of issue is common when a new model goes into production, both at Magnepan and at other companies -- another major speaker manufacturer had a similar delay at the time Magnepan did.

Of course, it's understandable that people would want to hear about the experience of others before shelling out $30,000. In a case like this, I think the question isn't going to be so much "is it good" -- we already know that it is very, very good -- but rather "is it enough of an improvement to warrant spending the money, and is it a good match for my listening preferences?"

I understand that Magnepan will be making special arrangements so that prospective buyers can hear them under good circumstances, but details haven't been announced.

I just heard more from Wendell. He writes,

"BTW -- I would not call the first speakers 'prototypes' since it implies changes might be coming (which is not true).

"Since the 30.7 is so big and complicated, the safe process is to take one speaker through from start to finish. If there is a hitch (which there always is), there is little wasted effort. Large quantities begin after all the bugs are worked out. A flagship model has to be perfect from the start. It is better to have the criticism for it taking so long than to hurry."

I asked Wendell if he could say anything more, and he said ​"It will be between the dealer, Magnepan and the customer. So, he would need to contact his dealer to get started."

Faxer, minor technical quibble -- while it is true that copper is a better conductor than aluminum, it is a worse conductor *per unit mass.* That, not cost, is why Magnepan and most other speaker manufacturers use it instead of copper, which would cost pennies in the amount used in a planar speaker.

Interesting that they used it to reduce resonances, though. I'd asked the guys at GT about why they'd use it at a show and as I recall the guy I spoke to didn't know.

That said, according to press reports, Magnepan has reduced the resonances in the new high performance midrange of the 30.7 via other means. (The true ribbon tweeter already had low resonance.) I'm looking forward to hearing it (and the GT, which wasn't playing when I saw it).

Hi Greg,

I won't be at the show, alas, but I hope someday we'll be able to have that discussion, sounds intriguing!

Stickman, I don't know anyone who has a pair or how many they've shipped, but I know they're shipping now. Wendell asked me to pass along a message and some pictures on the Planar Asylum. He writes,

"Another 30.7 was shipped today, and three more pairs are being packed to ship out soon. We have been super-cautious and would not allow the pressure to hurry us. A mistake on a flagship is remembered long after delays in delivery.

"We were gone virtually all of July and August, so we are ahead of schedule on the North American tour. Forty-two demonstrations so far with 42 different sounds. Great sound was only achieved about 20% of the time. But, the attendees had a lot of fun. Most people recognized the shortcomings of their dealer's showroom.

"A special thanks to Wazoo for giving accurate context in Macon, Georgia. It is a HUGE space with poor acoustics. Leland Lee (the owner) regrets that he no longer has the old store. To survive, many dealers have had to move to less than ideal facilities. I saw it repeatedly--the world's best speakers can't fix so-so sound rooms. And diffusers are one of the best investments in audio gear.

"Many hundreds of attendees have heard the 30.7s. Only a tiny handful care to participate in chat rooms. I wish more attendees would speak up so it was more representative."

https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=mug&m=233509

I'm sure he'll be delighted by rugyboogie's post. Can't wait to hear them myself, though even if I had $30,000 in my piggy bank, they wouldn't work in my pathetically small listening room because I have to accommodate a projector...