The Magnificent Magnepan 30.7 speakers....wait, I don’t like planars!

I can't speak to the 30.7s, which should be awesome, but my love affair with maggies ended when I owned 3.5Rs for a few frustrating years. In my large room I had to add subs. I used a 4 channel amp 2 for the ribbons, 2 for the bass panels. I bought a full set of pure silver jumpers for the XOs, and finally bought passive XOs

i could never get a seamless integration. I replaced them with Emerald Physics KC IIs; not only are they super efficient, they integrate well, throw as good or better sound stage and have more lower mid loveliness. Plus at only 4ft tall and tapered, they don't block the room

@tweak1

In my OP, I stated the new 30.7’s are ’not your father’s Maggie’s’
Your description of your older model was exactly what I and many others had experienced with these speakers. Frustration was the word. OTOH, the new 30.7’s seem to have addressed the integration issue, the somewhat limited soundstage and the mid bass resolution. Unfortunately, they still need a very large room and plenty of upstream stick to drive them well.The biggest difference, IMO, is that these Maggies actually no longer need subs!!
I am pretty sure that 'if' one can accommodate these speakers, no other competitor anywhere near its price range is going to beat these guys.

I missed the demo in San Diego (my hometown), had no idea until too late.

I've been a maggie owner for a long time, and contrary to 'conventional wisdom', I haven't found them that hard to set up. What I do:

1) Four feet or more of air behind them.
2) Play a monophonic signal, maybe even pink noise.  Move speakers and ears until the virtual image is a stable immovable dot or line that doesn't change with volume or frequency.  I.e. the minimum possible, most absolutely boring 'soundstage'.  Turn on stereo: maximum realistic soundstage. 

I've never needed room treatment or anything to get them to be good. 

"At 14’x28’ with a 12’ vaulted ceiling, I think my room may even be large enough for the 3.7i s." 

Plenty, in fact the problem with large maggies in smaller rooms is more aesthetic than acoustic above the bass: smaller rooms have more bass modes in psychoacoustically relevant frequencies. 

I also haven't found subwoofer integration that difficult---with a sealed sub of course.  On its own, I ran the sub with a very low crossover frequency (35 Hz?) and the speakers full range.  Also try pointing the sub so the driver is 'across' the room, e.g. from the right speaker pointing to the left or vice versa. 

But substantially superior was moving to high quality measured DSP, namely Anthem ARC.  (Algorithms are quite audibly different, some are better than others significantly!)   If you're having trouble integrating a sub, try one of these: Anthem, Dirac, RoomPerfect.


It's truly amazing. I plopped the sub in the middle, followed the procedure with the included mic, and with only one change to default parameters (maximum correction frequency at 1000 to 1500 Hz instead of 5000 Hz) it sounded fantastic.  Seemingly perfect sub integration, and what's more the common weakness in my 3.6's (slightly fuzzy low-midbass) was eliminated and it sounds more "dynamic", to my ears, no loss vs a very very good conventional speaker.    

Bonus: the Anthem proprietary algorithms for surround synthesis from stereo work very well (much better and more tasteful than Dolby etc), plus transparent calibrated Fletcher-Munson correction for lower volume listening. 


btw, I bought some KEF Reference 1's (top reviews & perfect measurements) in mind as an upgrade---nope. they're good speakers but not magic. 

Other planars I've heard:

Some Emerald Physics at the T.H.E. audio show---to my surprise, major and obvious midrange coloration/tonality problem. 

Spatial Audio M?:  nice, well above average, better than unsubwoofered Maggie (1.7 or lower) in bass, but not as clear above bass. 

Sanders 10D or 10E:  utterly perfect, best recorded sound I've ever heard---in the 9 inch sweet spot. 

(A.Asylum: DrChaos)

I just heard the 30.7’s at the Denver ListenUp store last night.  I was a bit disappointed but can’t decide if it was the room, the setup, or the 30’s, or all of the above.  To my ears the lower mids and down to the bass were a bit bloated and for lack of a better term, ‘boomy’.  

The room was Absolutely too dead and took the sparkle off the top end. I have the 20.7’s and I know that the top can be extended, clean, and very real sounding with the right amps.  The sound from the 30’s last night was a bit dull on top, very little shimmer or life or air; it was all sucked-up by the overdamped room.

The room was also Too square for my tastes; 20 w x 23.5 L x 10.5 h.  That’s a width to length ratio of .85.

Also, the amps and the front-end were all McIntosh. This surprised me since every other Maggie demo that I’ve seen by Wendell used Bryston amps.  I think that the Mac amps were the big MC1.25KW. In any case I’m not convinced those are the best amps for Maggie’s.

Overall, a bit disappointing.  But, dealer demo rooms can be a mixed bag.  Following some of the conversations on previous 30.7’s demos around the country I have heard some other complaints on too much lower mid and bass energy in the presentations.  

Were you at a demo in a better room? A bigger room or perhaps one not quite so square?  

‘And, for those that have heard the 30’s demo, what are your thoughts on the minimum sized room necessary to get great sound from these large panels?  I thought that the 20’ width was a bit too narrow in the demo.  Another foot or two of width would help spread the four panels better.  The length could easily stand to be 26’ to 30’ feet or more.

@stickman451

I also heard the Maggie 30.7’s with Mcintosh gear...which I don’t feel is the best synergy with these speakers. ( although the amps do have the necessary drive to power the panels well)
I asked Wendell what is the minimum size room for this model, his answer was that a minimum of about 15’ wide and length...depending on user preference. I would think that 25’+ would be required. The room I heard it in was 19’ X28’...which seemed pretty good. Did you happen to notice if there was any acoustic treatment behind the speakers, because I think this is pretty crucial. Although from your description of the room, it seems that the acoustics were definitely sub par in that space.