Magnepan “X” upgrade program


Magnepan has an upgrade program here.  For the new 2.7i it’s around a 4K upgrade.  Not sure if upgrades apply to already purchased speakers.  I’m posting for the many Maggie fans on this forum 

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kennyc

@arnold_h 

I’m curious as what they could be upgrading as to almost double the cost of the speaker?

The MG___x program

The general idea is to take the existing design of a given speaker, and simply, almost one-for-one, replace all of the components leading up to the driver, with superior ones.   This yields a noticeable, graphable, and customer-awing improvement.   Up to this point, every person who has received an “X” upgraded speaker, or even their unmarked predecessors and early partial upgrades and tests, has provided glowing reviews. Thus far the program has been unanimously well received across the board.  There are certain model-specific features, but the MG___X Upgrade Program is at its core characterized by the following factors:

Better Capacitors:

            All capacitors that aren’t already, are replaced with high quality, copper-rich, polypropylene capacitors [banks].   Each capacitor [and bank] used is individually tested to the hundredth such that left and right crossovers’ capacitances are within five thousandths.   With the increased level of testing and decrease in tolerance, minor value tweaks are employed in some models resulting in fewer capacitors used and a smoother response overall.

Better Coils (Inductors):

            All coils that aren’t already, are replaced with high-gauge, copper wire, air-core, bobbin wound coils [arrays].  Each coil [array] used is individually tested to the hundredth such that left and right crossovers’ inductances are within one tenth.  Model depended: with the above capacitance changes in mind, some values are minorly adjusted for smoother response overall.

Better Wiring:

            All wiring (aside from the green (+) and yellow (-) wires for True Ribbon Tweeters) is replaced with 15ga or higher solid copper wire.  Excess wire (for ease of assembly, for instance) is completely removed.  Careful attention is paid to design, layout, and pathing of the crossover components such that wire lengths are short and the overall wire-mass is significantly reduced.   Left and right crossover and nameplate impedances are ensured to be equivalent for ideal balance.

Better Connections:

            All connections within the circuit, from the solder lug attached to the terminal screw on the nameplate, to the crossover board, to the driver terminal block, and back are soldered connections.  Besides the terminal screw, solder lug, and jam nut connection on the nameplate, there are no mechanical connections used

Better Inputs:

            All nameplate components are gold rather than nickel.

Appearance:

            The appearance of an MG___X is not intended to be visually really any different from that of its non-X counterpart (aside from the gold nameplate components in situations where that wouldn’t already be stock).  The crossover of some models may be visible, such as with the MG1.7x, and as such that will be noticeably different in a side-by-side test.  The nameplate will also have a small red “X” after the model to denote that it is a part of the X Upgrade program.

Peter at Magna stand was doing this far superior many years ago 

with beautiful hardwood frames ,custom wiring, and a very good quality Xternal Xover miles better then anything maggi can offer .

Curious if one could send in a pair of LRS’s for the x upgrade or if it only applies to newly purchased speakers?

This still seems very high to me. I mean how many capacitors and coils do they have, several hundred? Even adding wire and connections, they are not adding 100 feet of wire.

I'm a little foggy on why the X program would cost the same across all the models? Or do I have that wrong? How can the upgraded parts possibly exceed $500.00? I get labor and profit margin, but wouldn't parts be more expensive as you move up the range?