Utley, I am driving my 1.7's with an Audio Research SD135 amp. |
Ron, my 1.6's were black with cherry trim but I like the look of the aluminum trim better. Although it may just be cosmetic, I think the aluminum stiles add a little stability to keep the mdf from doing any flexing whereas the wood stiles are plainly cosmetic. As far as the value of Mye Stands, that would be up to you. I plan on having my 1.7's for awhile so I think the Mye Stands are a good investment and they definitely improve the sound. As for jumpers, the first thing my dealer said was to get rid of those crappy metal bars. I had some jumpers and installed them without any comparison. The fuses I used are HiFi Tuning 4amp fast blow (gold)fuses which are on sale right now. If I used one word to describe them it would be "cleaner." Like I said before, I decided to keep fuses in while still under warranty and using a better quality fuse gets me closer to no fuse at all. |
Ron - Crom- & Audio
May I ask what you are driving your speakers with?
THANKS |
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? |
My 1.7's are black with the black aluminum trim and can be seen on the Myesound website. The Mye stands provide more stability than stock stands. Bass is tighter and better defined. There is more clarity across the entire frequency spectrum with better focus and low level detail. |
Hey Crom, did you get the aluminum version of the 1.7's? I got mine in the aluminum trim (not sure if all of them are aluminum?) ANYWAY, can you explain to me what effect the Mye Stands had on your 1.7s? Wondering if I should take the plunge on them... |
Ron, I have had 1.7's for 4 months and had 1.6's previously. The 1.7's are definitely a better speaker all the way around. Since you are over 400 hours you definitely know that the bass improves dramatically. I use to run my 1.6's with tweeter out and listened to my 1.7's that way up to the 200 hr mark. I then swapped positions of the left and right speakers putting the tweeters in. Everything seemed to gel with the tweeters in. All the tweaks I have done on 1.7 are reversible atleast until the warranty period is up. So far, I have Mye Stands, replaced metal jumper bar (tweeter atten) with 3" wire jumper w/bananas and replaced stock fuses with the HiFi Tuning fuses. You can take backplate off and easily bypass fuse and tweeter attenuator too without any expense. |
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 have mitigated the 'brightness' by flipping the panel so I am listening to the pole piece side, NOT the mylar side.
Magnepan made the swap some years ago and I have yet to hear a plausible reason. Maggies USED to be pole piece to the listener but they changed. My original MG-1s were this way and sounded fine.
After the 'swap' my panels are now better balanced, bigger sweet spot and tremendous center image stability.
I believe part of the change is due to the fact that the bass part of the driver and the tweeter are wired electrically out of phase. The low pass is first order and the hi pass is 2nd order crossover, which is 90 degrees apart. So, when I put the tweeter IN, I changed something.
I could check this by swapping the panels left / right while leaving the mylar facing away from me. That's next! |
Hello,
I know of no known tweaks yet for the 1.7, i'm sure they will require something and while i have not done a/b testing , i have heard the 1.7's and can only say i do not believe it to be better than a modded 1.6 ..
You have to mod the 1.6 to make them work, especially the x-over, a resistor upgrade at least is needed without such they are 2 bright and unlistenable....
regards |
I heard the 1.6's side by side with the 1.7's through Ayre equipment.
1.7 beat it in regards to air and clarity. Even to the untrained ear their is a big difference there. |
My 1.6 'tweak' has be limited to rotating the panels in place. I now have the mylar facing away from me and the pole piece is facing me. I feel this has evened out any hi-end stridency, so I don't even think about the resistor in the tweeter and the sweet spot is much larger. I don't know when....or WHY, but Magnepans once were this way, but probably about the time of the QR tweeter, they rotated them to 'mylar front'....
Tweeters on the 'inside' didn't hurt, either, though one day I'll swap 'em side to side and see how tweeter OUT works with the panels rotated...... |
I have 1.6's.
My minor tweaks:
*) 1.5 ohm resistor in series with an inductor (choke tweak).
*) Maggie Rear Wave Attenuators (google/ebay search). Not too well known. Should be.
|
They are very different animals. Even with out putting them side by side you can hear it. Sometimes they feel sharply focused- other times all over the place because of the crossing points. I thought them slightly clearer. A friend had them. I find the 1.7's more pleasureable when listhening for long periods of time and a little bit closer to the old Martin Logan Clz 1 (1987)(which I once owned) in making a balanced sound. If you have the 1'6's they are great. And the 1.7's are much harderto tweak if that is your thing. But people seem to be giving them away? |
I thought the general consensus is that the 1.6 sound better than the 1.7. I've heard this from a number of people INCLUDING a local dealer who's handled Maggies for over 30 years. Why then are people dumping 1.6 to go to the 1.7??? |
to ron wills.. a certain cable expert recommended i use my mmgs for a year before bypassing fuse which i did. in that year my 11 yr old son got a bit overboard and blew a 40 dollar fuse. he paid. since then i have bypassed the fuse and he no longer gets the remote. ha. i don,t know how long you have had your speakers but the sound imo gets better as you use them in the first few weeeks to a month thanks john |
sorry i havn,t got back earlier. the razor treatment i did was 1/2 so far. i,ve been listening to these mmgs for 2 years trying many tweaks such as getting them off the floor and building a brace to make them more stable. this was fun to do but no wow factor. then i applied the dynamat to the front of the speaker and in very thin strips to the rear. all i can say is i would recommend this to those brave or crazy enough to void their warranty. i.ll give one example. i,ve been listening to alejandro escovedo.s new cd Street Songs of Love and in the song bruce springsteen adds a vocal solo. with the razor treatment i just listened and now realize that he is singing harmonies too. when people write about congested details my mmg.s are now much improved. i understand the reluctance to tear into 2000 dollar new speakers. mine were 599 but the sound is very much improved with this modification. |
What shortcomings in your panels are you trying to address?
Do you have crossover schematic?
My 1.6s improved quite a bit just by rotating them in place.....
That puts the tweeter 'in' and the mylar facing the rear wall. Apparently, the mylar to the rear is how all Magnepans were made up until fairly recently. Maybe when the QR tweeter was introduced? I have yet to hear / read a convincing reason for this change. |
Cwlondon,
Here is a link to one of the primary posts about the "razor" treatment for a Magnepan speaker that is in the planar speaker section of Audio Asylum:
http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=mug&m=155318
There are other posts (e.g., see JBen's posts) about the razor on this same forum. There is a search function within the planar section to find these. |
As we are already in an audio forum, I would appreciate further information on the razor treatment.
The answer above is a bit like saying:
For suggestions to tweak the 1.7s, search around on Google.
Thank you, |
(((Have room treatments. I am a bigger fan of sound absorption than sound dispursement.)))
Have you tried installing the 1.2 ohm resistor first and Room diffusion?
You may just find you preserve the overtones and harmonics in the music.
Cheers Johnnyr |
Hotmailjbc,
Did you do the "half razor" or the "full razor"?
I am considering doing the razor myself. Was the razor only positive improvements or are there trade-offs?
Thanks! |
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? |
i did the razor treatment as described at audioasylum to a pair of mmg.s. i will never change this adjustment as it has been the best performance enhancing tweak i,ve ever done in 40 years of being an audio enthusiast. it is under the planar section for you to investigate. enjoying music right now. dire straits. i myself would tear into the speakers but new 1.7's look pretty nice. good luck |
