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Review: Mye Sound speaker stands Magnepan- MG-20 Tweak

Category: Accessories

In hind sight I have no rational or sane reason why I did not purchase a pair of Mye Sound custom stands for my MG-20's, to replace their stock footers, along time ago. I had read on different websites scores of glowing reviews regarding how the Mye Sound stands dramaticly improved the sonic performance of any Magnepan model. I had never read or heard even one negative comment regarding these custom stands. Well, better late then never.

The Mye Sound stands are beautifully hand built by Grant VanderMye in Kelowna, B.C. Canada. Grant and his wife were a delight to work with and made the purchase a very easy and pleasant experience. If you can handle working with a total of 12 screws/bolts it's a breeze to install these stands on your Maggies. They replace the stock footers with a very heavy and extremely well built stand, which come with very high quality carpet piercing brass points, and a pair of struts which lock the speaker panels into an iron fisted triangle.

I have gone through many upgrades and tweaks over the years, haven't we all, but nothing prepared me for what took place when I placed my dearly loved MG-20's on these stands. The improvement was not subtle or slight but a significant transformational change that brought the already reference level attributes of the 20's to even a higher level. If I had to try to give this a percentage rating I would say at least 25%, which is quite remarkable considering the performance level of the MG-20's with the stock stands to begin with.

Here's the details of what took place sonicly with the Mye Sound stands:

1) I have always found the MG-20's to be sonicly "seamless" and speak with one voice in a very cohesive fashion. With the Mye Stands this quality was taken to even a higher level.

2) The level of transparency/clarity was vastly improved so microdetails and decay trails become more apparent in a very natural/organic way.

3) The location of each individual player became more precise in the soundstage, with greater air around them and a yet still blended in with the rest of the music very naturally.

4) Bass became much faster, more dynamic/powerful, and accurate and blended with the lower midrange in a much more realistic way.

5) Overall timbres became more lifelike in their harmonic structure and tonality.

6) The final change seems the most paradoxical to me. The Mye Stands totally energized and made the MG-20's come "alive" and at the same time made the experience of listening to music through them a more relaxing/emotional situation.

To say I'm enthralled with what the Mye Stands did for the performance of my MG-20's would be an under statement! All this for a total of $600.00. If you own any Maggies, regardless of the model, you really owe it to yourself to put them on Mye Sound stands. My experience now is that you really don't know what sonic performance Magnepans have to offer when used on those dinky stock footers, unless you cement them away from performance killing vibrations with Grant's custom stands!

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teajay

Showing 5 responses by teajay

teajay OP
1,655 posts
 
Listener614, your question regarding how the Mye Sound stands dramatically improved the sonic performance across the entire spectrum, is very easy to answer.

The weakest link in all Magnepan speakers is twofold:

1) The passive crossover regarding the quality of its parts effect the performance of the speaker. In my system I use an active Bryston X-over and bi-amp my MG-20's, so I never had to deal with this aspect.

2) The stock footers or stands allow massive vibrations and spurious frequencies to "muck up" the performance of the ribbon tweeter and panels in a drastic negative fashion. Any speakers performance will be harmed because of acoustic vibrations, but when your talking about a seven foot tall frame housing ultra-light transducers, ribbon tweeters and mylar membranes, you can see why the Mye Sound stands allow the MG-20's to really perform to a much higher level and max out their abilities.
teajay OP
1,655 posts
 
Listener614, here's some information regarding your questions:

1) In a very interesting conversation with Grant he shared that he owned a pair of 3.6's and believed that the stock footers were impairing the performance of his Maggies. So, he first experimented with stands and struts made of wood and discovered that it actually sounded worse then the stock stands. He then built both the stands and struts out of high grade steel which was a vast improvement, but then he kept the stands/platforms steel but changed the struts to airplane grade aluminum and this combination was the charm. As stated in my review, and just amazed now as I was a couble of weeks ago, all the tremendous changes in the quality of the performance of the 20's without any downsides at all.

2) Regarding your question about the heavy metal frame isolating both the membranes and ribbon tweeters, you could easily feel the whole frame vibrating by lightly putting your fingertips on the front,back, or side of the frame even at low volume levels. I'm no acoustic engineer, but this would have to have a negative feedback loop resulting in not allowing the drivers to perform to their fullest. I believe Theaudiotweak's post makes alot of sense regarding a more specific way of explaining how the Mye Sound stands/struts work.

3) I respectfully and passionately disagree with your opinion that the cost of Grant's stands are "pricey". First, if these were manufactured by some of the well known brand companies I bet they would charge a ton more for these. Secondly, the craftmanship and quality of build and materials is top notch. I'm surprized he does not charge more then he does. Now, that I have these stands and know what they have done to the performance of the MG-20's, I would gladly had payed alot more. These stands are a freaking screaming deal, in my opinion!
teajay OP
1,655 posts
 
My sincere apologies to you, Cwlondon, when I posted late last night, I meant to address my remarks/comments to Listener614's posts, not your excellent comments. I bow my head and ask for your forgiveness!
teajay OP
1,655 posts
 
Cwlondon, I have chosen, until now, not to respond to your increasing silly posts on this review of the Mye Sound stands. First, you have been given very reasonable and rational explanations how these stands would empirically effect in a very postive way the performance of a Magnapan speaker, but you have some weird aggenda to write this off as some hocus/pocus or just a subjective placebo effect.

Very recently a representative of one of the largest retailers of Magnepan speakers in the US came by to audition the Mye Sound Stands in my system. He immediately heard the effect of these stands and became more impressed the longer he stayed. He will be ordering these stands for the Maggies for his shop. Well, he must be under the influence of the placebo effect, like the rest of us "true believers".

So why don't you be a good skeptic, instead of a silly one with some ridiculous agenda, and test out your assumption regarding why these stands effect the sound of Magnapans as placebo or objectively explained with facts to how they work. Come on, I'll give ya the Six hundred bananas back if you try these stands, don't objectively here the difference and with integrity tell the truth.
teajay OP
1,655 posts
 
Sorry Dave B, the stock feet are no beefier then they have been in Magnepan's history. You are also mistaken I believe in that you think you have to "screw bolts" into your 3.6's for the Mye Sound stands, the bolts go into the exact same position on the frame of the speaker as the stock stands and holes.
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