Magnepan .7 Alternatives


Looking for suggestions…Currently I have Magnepan .7’s and am generally happy but at times they just don’t do it.

I find these speakers to be schizophrenic, sounding great on some tracks and other tracks leaving me wondering what the hey !… I’d say probably 30-40% of the time I’m feeling this way. Either too much treble, not clear or not tonally balanced. I’m no expert but just my opinion, it often comes off as the midrange being pushed to it’s limit trying to be treble. I assume I feel that way being the speaker’s lack of accuracy, although what Maggi’s do they do well, just not an accurate speaker.

I experience this pretty much no matter what source or style of music I play, certainly a non forgiving speaker. Yes, I’ve played around with Toe-In, tried various resistors & jumpers…sounds great on everything I adjust, just not a consistent sounds great.

Lets get it straight, I’m not a “Magnepan Hater”, there’s certain qualities I truly love about my Maggi .7’s, the open sound, the transparency but hoping I may be able to find a speaker that’s not as finicky and can give me the open feel, transparency and clarity that I seek.

My set up consists of:

Odyssey Khartago Extreme Amp

Tubes4hif SP-13 Preamp

Bluesound Node

EAT B Sharp TT w/Sumiko Moonstone Cart

Pro-Ject Tube Box S Phono Pre

(2) REL - T5x Subs

 

Room dimensions: 11.5’ W x 12’ L

10’ Ceilings -

Listening Distance from Speakers

8.5’ - 9’

Carpet, Curtins, (4) 48” x 12”Acoustic panels on wall behind sofa facing my set up.

Not a fan of bookshelf’s and rather would prefer recommendations on

Floorstanders but will listen and research any suggestions you feel would work.

Note: I’m just starting my search, so don’t beat me up if I don’t go right out and purchase your suggestion as others have done in the past.

My Budget is around the $3k mark.

Thanks

🔊

128x128flasd

lots of good comments here, valuable reading not just for the op, but for many having or interested in the smaller maggies

key points:

-- room appropriateness and setup for any speaker choice is always critical - the dipole maggies illustrate this in spades

-- subs are needed for little maggies and many work well, despite wendell saying they don’t (god bless wendell but he is salesman and he is trying to sell his new bass panels lol!)

-- maggies are very very revealing, and like any truly hi-rez transducer, the resolution can be a dual edged sword -- poor recordings are revealed to their full extent

Problem with system interface!

the amp has a10 k input impedance 

tube pre amps are not at their best here

Get a real amp with a friendly 100 k input impedance 

or get a matching pre amp for your solid state amp

in the meanwhile take the Bluesound directly into the amps rca inputs and be sure to activate the nodes volume control.

just to test please respond asap

 

 

JohnnyR

Magnepan dealer

NJ

If a low input impedance in the power amp is the problem, there are four tube pre-amps which will drive a load as low as even 600 ohms: two from Atma-Sphere, and two from EAR-Yoshino. EAR's Tim de Paravicini did a lot of work in recording studios, where 600 ohms is the rule, not the exception.