Tweaking the Magnepan 1.7s

Just took a look at the razor treatment! Scares me to death. I can just imagine trying to explain to Magnepan what I was trying to do as I cut through the Mylar or put a foot or hand through the panel.

Any less intrusive tweaks that you can recommend?

By the way, I got the wood inserts instead of the aluminum so mine look almost exactly like the old 1.6s. I wanted the beige color and the dealer talked me out of the aluminum trim (which I wanted). The only way you can tell that they are 1.7s is that the speaker grill appears to be ever so much more transparent than the 1.6s and the speaker connectors are different.

Would you say the Mye stands were a $600 improvement? I want to get them but I am a little turned off about the price. It would have to be a big improvement for me to make the investment.

Were you able to hear the difference with the wire hook up instead of the metal bar? You reminded me that I purchased some short jumpers for my 1.6s years ago and will dig them out and replace the standard jumpers. If I remember correctly, I didn't feel I heard any difference with the 1.6s.

How about the switch in fuses?

I will definately try reversing the speakers to hear what it sounds like. I never heard about this for the 1.6 or 1.7s. I imagine I will get a few stares when people come over and ask me why I have my speakers facing the wall!

About the few comments on various sites about the 1.6s sounding better than the 1.7s. Some of the comments come from people listing for a few minutes to about an hour at an audio dealer. All I can say is that I had the 1.6s for 5 years and now have had the 1.7s for several months. I would never go back. From top to bottom the 1.7s are clearly superior. Add that to much more detail than I have ever heard before. By the way, I have over 400 hours on the 1.7s and they keep sounding better. The most recent change is much better low volume detail.

I want to thank all those who, so far, have come up with tweaks that I never heard before from flipping the speakers front to back to the razor treatment. Great stuff.

I am looking for some decent speaker connectors to replace what comes on the speaker and will bypass the fuse as my next step.

Working on my "man cave" new listening area which will take a little time. Will be using some sound treatment in the room, moving out a lot of crap to make room for the speakers and dedicated seating area and upgrading power backup and electric filtering.

I am driving my Magnepan 1.7s with a Bada MA-3MKII hybrid preamp and Bada MA-100MKII amp (about 200 to 250 watts into 4 ohms) connected to a Wyred 4 Sound DAC1 and Netgear 9150 music server. Wiring is Xindak.

The Bada combo is a fantastic value for the money and drives the Magnepans to whatever volume levels are needed. Great bass and, overall, laid back presentation with detail. The Wyred 4 Sound DAC1 provides incredible detail and seems to mate well with the Magnepans.

I just found my jumpers and replaced the Magnepan jumpers. We'll see if that makes any difference.

Crom

Thanks for the reminder about the jumpers. I dug through my stuff and switched out the Magnepan jumpers and replaced them with the Mapleshade jumpers (way oversold on the Mapleshade records site, but they do sound better than the standard Magnepan jumpers.)

The funny result was that it makes 44.1 music sound better, more slam, but now the diffence between the 44.1 kHz and 96 kHz recording is not as great as it was before. Part of me thinks that they jumpers somehow exaggerate the leading edge of the sound making regular CD sound more exciting. Could also be that I am dreaming!

Recorded CD does really sound better, even more detail and I am getting close to the slam that you get from really good traditional speakers which Magnepan usually lacks.

I don't know if I am going to have the time in the next 30 days, but I am really looking forward to bypassing the jumper and fuse. I have to believe that it will sound better without all the jumpers and fuse in the signal path.

I am still grapling with the Mapleshade jumpers. Makes rock music jump compared to the standard jumpers provided by Magnepan but I do find putting the Mapleshade jumpers on the Maggies seems to make the music just a tad more harsh. This was my opinion of the Mapleshade digital cable - initially it sounded like it gave life to the music, but ultimately I had to remove it because it became too irritating.

Can't wait to bypass the jumpers AND the fuse. I have to order a soldering iron and solder (I assume that the connections are soldered). Anyone have suggestions as to brand and type of solder?

I am in the process of moving furniture and creating a significant space in my basement for my system which is currenty in my masterbedroom. I haven't officialy reversed the speakers for serious listening other than to listen behind the speakers. Seems to have less treble behind the speakers but I wasn't doing critical listening.

You have convinced me to give it a try tonight. I can just hear my wife's comments when she sees the speakers turned around. She already thinks I am crazy . . .

OK, here is the update on turning the Magnepans around . . . no difference! I couldn't hear any difference after a week of turning the speakers away from the listening position. In fact, I felt they were slightly better detailed in their proper position but I doubt I would be able to pick out front or back in a double-blind test.

Took off the back speaker connection panel to investigate the wiring. Was a little surprised how cheap the panel was and the wiring didn't look like anything special. It looks very easy to bypass the fuse and jumper. Need to find my old soldering gun or get a new one.

Also I am looking for some new copper speaker connectors to replace the standard issue. I like solid copper speaker connectors so you don't have copper wiring to brass/gold speaker connectors to copper wiring. I am going to try to find some that will replace the existing ones without modifying the back plate.

By the way, I agree with Utley1 that the speakers sound so realistic and musical and not to be overly concerned about the modifications. I will complete these minor modifications and then sit back for the next couple of years and enjoy the music!

I do want to mention a "tweak" that is not specific to Magnepan that has worked incredibly well. I ordered 4' x 2' x 2" sound absorption panels. I place one on each side of my audio system (which sits between the two speakers). I find the best set up when the two panels, one on the right and one on the left, are turn at a 45 degree angle facing the listener.

There is an immediate increase in clarity due to the reduction of reflections off of the audio equipment rack. The music is much more focused and instruments are more easily located in space (although, I have still not gotten the 3D effect of musicians spread out behind the speakers to any major degree).

I have been incredibly lazy and not finished off my new listening area, as yet. Have to paint the room and remove a rather large rear projection TV out of the space. When I have it set up, I will try once again with the reversed positioning.

One final note, I believe the Magnepans continue to get better over time. I have had them for about 5 months and for the first time the other evening, I heard a very familiar Rodrigo Y Gabriela CD but with a difference. For the first time the two guitars in several of the selections seemed to be floating behind the speakers about 3-4 feet. Most of the time, I get very realistic and natural sounding instruments without much depth. This was spooky real and what keeps me "tweaking" my system.

Just ordered XLR cables from BetterCables to connect my Wyred 4 Sound to my Bada Preamp. This is my first test of XLR cables vs. RCA and I didn't want to spend too much money if it wasn't going to make a difference. We'll see.