Thinking of Magnepan ... finally!

Oh, and by the way:

For anyone with a Maggie model that includes an outboard cross-over box, the First Watt B4 can be used in place of that box. While almost all other loudspeakers have cross-overs that included driver-compensation networks, the cross-overs in Maggies are purely "textbook" in nature: 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-order, with no driver compensation elements. The First Watt B4 is capable of creating the same filters are do the Magnepan outboard boxes, but in superior quality. Not to beat up on Magnepan, but everyone knows they use junk parts in their cross-overs.

Good point @ketchup, highlighting a mistake I hadn’t realized I made. Yes, a high pass filter must be used if one wants to relieve any loudspeaker the duty of reproducing low frequencies. That filter may be installed in between a power amp and the loudspeaker it is driving (in the speakers internal cross-over, aka high-level), but if it is instead installed in front of the power amp (aka low-level), the amp will ALSO be relieved of that duty (the point I was focused on). Doing so benefits both the amp and the speaker, a win-win.

A simple 1st order filter (just a single capacitor) may be soldered onto the input jacks of the power amp (on the amp’s interior), but a higher-order filter (which will create a steeper roll-off) containing more parts will require an outboard, active crossover. Some powered subs contain a high-pass output on their control panel, but that filtering is always (to the best of my knowledge) accomplished with an opamp or integrated circuit, not discrete parts.

A great budget-priced ($1500) 2-way crossover was for a while offered by First Watt---the B4, but is now available only as a DIY kit. It provides 1st/2nd/3rd/4th-order filters (6dB/12dB/18dB/24dB per octave), for frequencies ranging from 25Hz up to 6375Hz. And does so using discrete parts.

The B4 has two pair of outputs---low-out and high-out, and each filter may be configured independent of the other; the high-out may be 1st-order and the low-out 2nd, or visa versa. Very flexible, and the B4 a great cross-over for those wanting to bi--amp MG.6 and earlier Magnepan models. They have parallel crossovers, while the .7’s are series. Of course if used for subwoofer applications, that doesn't matter.

Adding a sub or two to almost any planar will result in improvements in a couple of ways. Most importantly, relieved of reproducing bass, the Maggie "woofers" will now reproduce the midrange in a noticeably improved manner. The speaker will also play louder, with less strain and distortion. And if you employ a high pass filter in front of the power amp (removing low frequencies from the input signal) the amp itself will produce less distortion, and more power will be available for the midrange frequencies.

The problem is---as Wendell Diller has been saying for decades---that monopole subs simply do not blend well with dipole loudspeakers (there are technical reasons why that is so). Quad owners have been trying since the 1950’s, with no success. The Finnish company Gradient introduced an open baffle/dipole sub for both the original Quad (aka 57) and the 63, sometime in the 80’s iirc. Robert E. Greene wrote a TAS review of the 57 model after auditioning it with his Quads. The Gradient was well designed, but not terribly well constructed, leaving a lot of potential unrealized.

Once again, Danny Richie to the rescue ;-) . Danny had already designed and was selling an open baffle/dipole woofer/sub (sold only as a DIY kit, the market he targets), when he heard about a new servo-feedback sub being offered by another company located in Texas: Rythmik Audio. Danny and Rythmik designer/owner Brian Ding put their big brains together and came up with the world’s only servo-feedback, open baffle, dipole sub/woofer in the world. THE sub for any and all dipole loudspeakers, including of course Maggies. Availlable only as a DIY kit, but there are a couple of pro woodworkers making the required ob/dipole "frame" in flat pack form. Details available on the GR Research website.

If you think Danny Richie only modifies the designs of others, you are mistaken. He also offers his own loudspeakers, long available (since 1995) only as DIY kits, but some models now offered fully assembled and finished. To see Danny’s ultimate offering, check out the virtual system of Audiogon member "jaytor", which includes the 3-woofer version of the OB/Dipole Sub, as well as a tall line source loudspeaker using multiple NEO-3 and NEO-10 planar-magnetic drivers.

So @jjss49, did you watch the video? I’m guessing not.

Danny Richie is not the only one who has taken a close look at the Magneplanar’s and done some serious modifying. Members of The Magnepan Group on the Planar Speaker Asylum have gone much further than Richie, who changed only the crossover and speaker wire connectors (everybody knows the Magnepan connectors are junk. I replaced the stock ones on my Tympani T-IVa with Cardas binding posts, and bypassed the fuse blocks, very common in the DIY speaker community.).

Bruce Thigpen of Eminent Technology was impressed with the early Maggies, but was not fond of the single-ended design of the drivers. So he took Jim Winey’s basic design and set out to improve on it. His LFT drivers are all push-pull, and constructed quite a bit better than the Maggie diaphragms (imo), except for the wonderful Magnepan ribbon tweeter. Whereas Maggies have conductive wire glued onto the Mylar (the wire causing the Mylar to move in response to the signal), a vapor-deposited conductive film is applied to the Mylar of the LFT’s, the film then chemically-etched away in all areas except for the grids of conductive traces. The result is lower moving mass drivers.

There are longtime Tympani owners who have replaced the midrange driver in the T-IV and T-IVa with multiple NEO drivers (also a planar-magnetic), creating a line source with them. Another "mod" (not really) is to brace the Tympani panels to the wall behind them, which increases bass output and clarity (those big panels can really move when pumping out low frequencies). For single-panel Maggies the Mye stands are a must.

And then there is "Peter Gunn" (a pseudonym) who takes the Maggie drivers out of the stock MDF frames and installs them in solid hardwood frames, as well as completely redoing the crossover. I’ve never heard a pair, and his work is highly controversial. Danny Richie’s crossover is designed in accordance with well-established engineering principles, nothing radical at all.

It’s been a long time since Jim Winey did any design work at Magnepan, and I have no idea of Wendell Diller’s engineering education and background (his longtime position at Magnepan has been head of marketing). I eagerly await his upcoming dipole woofer system, a great idea that has already been put into production at Eminent Technology. The LFT-8c differs from the -8b only in having a dipole woofer (the 8c) in place of the monopole (the 8b), as well as power for the woofers and DSP for signal management (as will the Magnepan dipole woofer).

I’ve loved Maggies since the first time I heard the Tympani T-I in 1972. I bought a pair that year, bi-amping them with ARC amplifiers. I later owned a pair of T-Id’s, and now have T-IVa’s (using a First Watt B4 crossover in place of the stock one).

I have heard the MG1.7’s and didn’t think much of them. I compared that model with the Eminent Technology LFT-8b (like the Maggies a planar-magnetic, but with a dynamic driver for 180Hz down), which I found to be considerably more to my liking (I bought a pair). Some guys prefer the LFT-8b ($3200/pr) to the MG3.7i ($8000/pr), which I have not heard. Speaking of the 3.7i, here is a video made by Danny Richie of GR Research regarding a pair of that model sent to him for evaluation and possible upgrading:

https://youtu.be/_bpDP0jxj4k

Even if you don’t agree with Danny’s opinions of the 3.7i, and the "fixes" he designed for it, the video should be of interest to anyone considering a Maggie purchase. I just checked the video post, and it is for some reason starting about 2/3rd’s of the way through it. Just click on the far left end of the red line and the video will play from the beginning. The comments in response to the video are also worth reading.