Anyone hear the 30.7? Impressions? Make sense to spend THAT Money on a Magnepan?

Anyone actually hear this speaker?

 

Steve, I would be very surprised if most folks here in the US can accommodate these speakers. The room we heard them in was apparently 19 x 25 x10. Wendell did tell me that the 30.7 could work in a room as small as 15' wide, but I suspect that would be pushing it.
As to value, well I agree, that is a personal decision. I think the 30.7's deliver a huge amount of SQ for the $$. That is where the value lies. I do not think, like I said, that they are particularly well built...quality wise. I don't quite agree with you on the Linn table of yore, it always had a very costly to manufacture platter and bearing system. The two-piece platter ( inner and outer) was machined to a very close tolerance ( not that cheap to do), plus the plinth was a real wood plinth that I know cost the company in excess of 100 pounds each! ( Yes, even back in the day!) Nothing in the new Maggie strikes me as that expensive to manufacture. If we look at some of the competing products, from the likes of Wilson and Magico ( their low end models, LOL) or even YG ( their lower end models) I don't see their cost to manufacture the boxes and drivers as being anywhere near as low as these Maggies. ( I could be proven wrong here, but that's just my overall impression)

Your point about the SAT tonearm is well taken. OTOH, it brings up the question of whether that product makes any sense to bring to market, IMO. If you have such a restricted market for your product due to complexity and cost, and as such you have to bring your product to market with an enormous price ( one that will rule out 99% of possible consumers!) and to add to that you cannot make enough profit to make it that effective from a profit stand point, is it worthwhile to do the endeavor regardless? That's a question that Marc Gomez has apparently asked himself and answered. I'm not so sure that many others would have come to the same conclusion. Instead, they may have tried to bring to market a more widely appealing product that could be marketed at a far lower price, thereby insuring far more sales and a more lucrative end result. OTOH, I do see that Marc is trying to bring to market a lower priced arm that has much of the tech distilled into it ( and possibly sounds even better!)-- that makes a lot of sense IMHO.

I suspect his lower price arm model will be out of reach for most also. It seems that the real factor for high prices of some of these items is based on the small sales and still high cost to produce and promote. In the old days, Madrigal offered cables as an accessory, while expensive not crazy. The market has morphed into one with lots of vendors making only cables. Those cable only companies have all the overhead of a Madrigal which must be born by the sale of wires only. 25K for a show, 15K for a full page ad, 150K each for principals of the company, etc. Someone in the industry once explained how these costs mandated a push to higher prices for things like a power chord at 3K and up. When folks complained of the 3K and were asked if they'd buy it at 1.5K the answer is typically no. That goes to show that if the price was lowered, they wouldn't sell proportionally more. Perversely, it's the opposite. well-heeled audiophiles will look at a 3K chord and ignore it because it is so much less than the 7K chord. One can only hope that the folks, who own/run businesses, who buy 7K power chords don't actively fight to keep the wages of average workers pitifully low.

 

I suspect his lower price arm model will be out of reach for most also. It seems that the real factor for high prices of some of these items is based on the small sales and still high cost to produce and promote. In the old days, Madrigal offered cables as an accessory, while expensive not crazy. The market has morphed into one with lots of vendors making only cables. Those cable only companies have all the overhead of a Madrigal which must be born by the sale of wires only. 25K for a show, 15K for a full page ad, 150K each for principals of the company, etc. Someone in the industry once explained how these costs mandated a push to higher prices for things like a power chord at 3K and up. When folks complained of the 3K and were asked if they'd buy it at 1.5K the answer is typically no. That goes to show that if the price was lowered, they wouldn't sell proportionally more. Perversely, it's the opposite. well-heeled audiophiles will look at a 3K chord and ignore it because it is so much less than the 7K chord. One can only hope that the folks, who own/run businesses, who buy 7K power chords don't actively fight to keep the wages of average workers pitifully low.

Unfortunately, I happen to think that your last sentence may indeed be exactly what is happening on a global scale.To that, in todays world wide market, I think there are even more middle men involved in low production gear than any time before. Resulting in a never ending upward pricing spiral as more and more people need to be included in the profit center. This certainly seems to be the case with high end audio gear, IMHO.

 

We did acoustic treatments for a demonstration of the 30.7's here in Eugene Oregon at Bradford's:
https://www.acousticsciences.com/media/news/acoustic-sciences-helping-magnepan-307-speakers

I got to attend the presentation. I liked what I heard but it's hard to get a really good impression of the sound without more time to listen to familiar material. Norah Jones on Come Away With Me sounded very smooth and uncolored, and a bit laid back. Plenty of warmth and fullness in the lower midrange and upper bass. I haven't had a lot of time to listen to planer magnetic or electrostatic speakers, but when I have in the past I've usually perceived them as a bit thin and ethereal, which can be used to fantastic effect on some music. The 30.7s weren't thin sounding at all. The smooth, uncolored sound without thinness is something I recall from STAX electrostatic headphones I used to own. Recently I got to listen to some HiFi Man planer magnetic headphones and they had a similar presentation. I especially like that on string orchestra and choral music, which can get a bit strident on some speakers - like my horns. Some percussion tracks were played to show off the 30.7's dynamics. I thought it sounded very impressive, but dynamics are not their super power. That coming from a guy who listens to corner horns.

 

Does anybody know anyone that actually bought the 30.7s?

I guess nobody here has heard these, at length, in a home?

After being for sale for a year, and next to none sold, could the 30.7 be a success? Not IMO!

 

Audio Consultants in Evansville Chicago, IL, now has the 30.7s. on permanent display. After AXPONA show hours listening party will be Friday April 12th 6-9pm. Hosted by Magnepan rep Eric Norgaarden.

Keep your eyes open and you might spot Wendell and some of the Magnepan crew, checking out the show.

exaSound in room 658 will have a Maggie surround sound setup of three 3.7i's and two 1.7s. So that should also be pretty cool.

Finally I get to hear the 30.7s, been waiting a long time. Should be fun, and the room is supposed to sound really good.

 

Don’t waste your money, they sounded terrible. Bloated bass compared to anemic bass from their older models. I have seen owners of 20.1 and 20.7’s that had to use subwoofers for decent bass. Not saying that’s a bad thing but I think the 30.7’s went way overboard trying to provide adequate bass

 

Don’t waste your money, they sounded terrible. Bloated bass compared to anemic bass from their older models.

. . .

Respectfully, I am very skeptical about this report. Panel speakers in general, and the big Magnepans in particular, may not be your particular cup of tea, but in my experience with big Magnepans, assuming they are matched with an appropriate amplifier, I think it is almost impossible to make them sound “terrible.”

 

Audio Consultants in Evansville Chicago, IL, now has the 30.7s. on permanent display. After AXPONA show hours listening party will be Friday April 12th 6-9pm. Hosted by Magnepan rep Eric Norgaarden.

Keep your eyes open and you might spot Wendell and some of the Magnepan crew, checking out the show.

exaSound in room 658 will have a Maggie surround sound setup of three 3.7i's and two 1.7s. So that should also be pretty cool.

Finally I get to hear the 30.7s, been waiting a long time. Should be fun, and the room is supposed to sound really good.

Please visit room 1430 at Axpona to addition the GT audio works planar magnetic Speaker system

 

Please visit room 1430 at Axpona to addition the GT audio works planar magnetic Speaker system

Hey planarman
Put this response in the GT thread it doesn't belong here

 

Respectfully, I am very skeptical about this report. Panel speakers in general, and the big Magnepans in particular, may not be your particular cup of tea, but in my experience with big Magnepans, assuming they are matched with an appropriate amplifier, I think it is almost impossible to make them sound “terrible.”

I second this opinion Planars require current and will be very amp dependent

 

Does anybody know anyone that actually bought the 30.7s?

I guess nobody here has heard these, at length, in a home?

After being for sale for a year, and next to none sold, could the 30.7 be a success? Not IMO!

They've sold a good number for a $30,000 flagship. In fact, the big complaint now is from someone who had to wait more than a year for his because he wasn't high enough in the queue. He ended up cancelling his order. But I know Magnepan is happy with the response -- they didn't know if they'd make any money on the 30.7, as opposed to the promotional value of having a flagship, and were delighted when sales were good. Sales of the 20.7 also increased, presumably from people who couldn't fit the 30.7.

 

Don’t waste your money, they sounded terrible. Bloated bass compared to anemic bass from their older models. I have seen owners of 20.1 and 20.7’s that had to use subwoofers for decent bass. Not saying that’s a bad thing but I think the 30.7’s went way overboard trying to provide adequate bass

I think you must have heard them in a bad room. I've heard them twice now, once in New Haven and once at Audio Consultants during AXPONA (Titanium Troy was at that demo with me), and I don't remember the bass being bloated, I thought it sounded great!

I think planar bass is very room dependent, it can easily swing +/- 10 dB depending on the room, and I know that they had trouble with some dealer rooms on the tour, which is why they made the midbass adjustable. But I've seen measurements of the 20.7 and it's flat down to 20 Hz so if there's too much or too little bass it's going to require adjustment for the room or room treatment if there are problems with room modes (as with any speaker).

Wendell Diller at Magnepan quipped that he'd shown the 30.7 in 49 different showrooms so far on the tour and that he'd heard 49 different 30.7's.

If you buy speakers of this quality and don't pay attention to placement and acoustics you're throwing away half your money. Actually, if you buy any speakers!

 

Thanks for the info on your experience Bruce. I’d previously thought the D’Agostino progression might be a particularly great match with Maggie’s. Would love to have heard this.

Though I’m super surprised about the speaker placement here. Close to side walls is never generally an issue for Maggie’s in setup but anywhere near close to the rear wall is usually the absolute death of what the Maggies can really do when setup properly. Sub optimal is a kind way of putting it but truth be told once you have pulled these super coherent dipoles properly deep into a room (often optimally a minimum of somewhere around 6 to 8 feet in every room that I have dialled 20.7s and 3.7s in) you’d not ever go back... and while these are a four panel setup I can’t see why these would work at their best this way. Curious.

Sorry to be late to the thread and apologies if this was mentioned later (I'm just reading through it from the start), but unlike other Maggies the 30.7's were actually designed for the bass panels to be used near the side wall. They use it for bass reinforcement. It's like the split configuration of the old Tympani IVA's, in which you separate the mid/tweeter panel and put the bass panels against the wall.

If you put other Maggies against the side walls, you get too much midbass because they're tuned to be freestanding.

What they do love like other planars (and most speakers to some extent) is being out from the front wall so they can develop depth.

 

Terrible sounding speakers. I heard them at a local stop on the tour that is going on around the country. I have a friend that has heard them in 2 other states and they sounded terrible at those stops too. IMO, the 20.X series was lacking in the bass and the 30.7's tried to make up for that. The bass was over bearing and wobbly, not tight. A friend of mine that has the 3.7's was going to ask Wendell if he could adjust the speakers to get them to sound better. Another friend who owns a pair of 20.7's and wanted to hear these for an upgrade, he is keeping the 20.7's. I couldn't tell you where the problem was coming from (speakers, amp mismatch, setup, etc..) but since Wendell was showing these off, I would think he would provide the best equipment available to him to get the best sound out of them. We left after 20 minutes. I talked to Wendell months ago and he told me that it was a slam dunk that people would run out and buy these that already owned a pair of Maggies. I don't think so, I wouldn't convert!

Wendell doesn't provide the equipment that drives them, that's provided by the dealer. I know that he's been disappointed by some of the choices. Also, I don't know if you saw his post on the Planar Asylum, but the acoustics at some of the dealer showrooms were so bad that he almost cancelled the tour. Whether you heard good sound really depended on where you heard them -- he said there were places where they didn't sound as good as a 3.7. I was lucky because he said New Haven was one of the better rooms, and Chicago one of the top three (though I actually liked the sound in New Haven better).

 

Sorry to be late to the thread and apologies if this was mentioned later (I'm just reading through it from the start), but unlike other Maggies the 30.7's were actually designed for the bass panels to be used near the side wall. They use it for bass reinforcement. It's like the split configuration of the old Tympani IVA's, in which you separate the mid/tweeter panel and put the bass panels against the wall.

If you put other Maggies against the side walls, you get too much midbass because they're tuned to be freestanding.

What they do love like other planars (and most speakers to some extent) is being out from the front wall so they can develop depth.

G’day Josh, great to see a fellow Maggie owner here. Love your enthusiasm for them.

Having lived with 3.7s and 20.7s for quite a few years however I just can’t agree that there is an issue with these speakers near the side walls. I haven’t heard the 30.7s yet as they haven’t made it over to this side of the pond but I have heard much mixed feedback on them. As long as the room is of sufficient depth and width and more importantly if the amp is right (no news there) then they are reliably good to very good and if setup properly they are great. That the results with the 30.7 have been so variable is surprising.

I’ve heard quite a few setups of each speaker in the Maggie range from 1.7s up and in a range of rooms including ones at the home of the Australian distributor who has been dialling in Maggies for decades. Certainly critical for distance from the rear wall and absolutely critical to ultimately dial in to their absolute best but always its been one of the advantages of maggies is that they have less interaction issues with side walls.

 

G’day Josh, great to see a fellow Maggie owner here. Love your enthusiasm for them.

Having lived with 3.7s and 20.7s for quite a few years however I just can’t agree that there is an issue with these speakers near the side walls. I haven’t heard the 30.7s yet as they haven’t made it over to this side of the pond but I have heard much mixed feedback on them. As long as the room is of sufficient depth and width and more importantly if the amp is right (no news there) then they are reliably good to very good and if setup properly they are great. That the results with the 30.7 have been so variable is surprising.

I’ve heard quite a few setups of each speaker in the Maggie range from 1.7s up and in a range of rooms including ones at the home of the Australian distributor who has been dialling in Maggies for decades. Certainly critical for distance from the rear wall and absolutely critical to ultimately dial in to their absolute best but always its been one of the advantages of maggies is that they have less interaction issues with side walls.

Totally concur........

 

They've sold a good number for a $30,000 flagship. In fact, the big complaint now is from someone who had to wait more than a year for his because he wasn't high enough in the queue. He ended up cancelling his order. But I know Magnepan is happy with the response -- they didn't know if they'd make any money on the 30.7, as opposed to the promotional value of having a flagship, and were delighted when sales were good. Sales of the 20.7 also increased, presumably from people who couldn't fit the 30.7.

For die hard Maggie fans the lure of the 30.7s is immense. The idea a speaker beyond the 20.7s with Tympani like room filling proportions and SOTA ribbon bass. Am relatively unsurprised that they have had good pre sales even from those without audition.

Just hope they live up to the promise as it’d be a fitting legacy for Wendell to leave a flagship of his Magnepans sitting very much up around the top of the SOTA.

 

G’day Josh, great to see a fellow Maggie owner here. Love your enthusiasm for them.

Having lived with 3.7s and 20.7s for quite a few years however I just can’t agree that there is an issue with these speakers near the side walls. I haven’t heard the 30.7s yet as they haven’t made it over to this side of the pond but I have heard much mixed feedback on them. As long as the room is of sufficient depth and width and more importantly if the amp is right (no news there) then they are reliably good to very good and if setup properly they are great. That the results with the 30.7 have been so variable is surprising.

I’ve heard quite a few setups of each speaker in the Maggie range from 1.7s up and in a range of rooms including ones at the home of the Australian distributor who has been dialling in Maggies for decades. Certainly critical for distance from the rear wall and absolutely critical to ultimately dial in to their absolute best but always its been one of the advantages of maggies is that they have less interaction issues with side walls.

Hi Sound of Tao,

I guess I should have been clearer! What I've heard is a midbass rise when they're within about a foot of the side wall. But I didn't mean to imply that they couldn't be *reasonably* close to the side wall -- as you say, there's little radiation to the side because of the dipole pattern. It's entirely a matter of midbass reinforcement, since if they're very close to the side wall it blocks the dipole cancellation around the outside edge of the speaker.

I've also heard good results with the Limage-type setup in which the speaker is place closer to the side wall, parallel to the front wall, roughly 40% of the room from the front wall. When I've tried it, it's been the second best setup after the conventional toed-in one.

 

For die hard Maggie fans the lure of the 30.7s is immense. The idea a speaker beyond the 20.7s with Tympani like room filling proportions and SOTA ribbon bass. Am relatively unsurprised that they have had good pre sales even from those without audition.

Just hope they live up to the promise as it’d be a fitting legacy for Wendell to leave a flagship of his Magnepans sitting very much up around the top of the SOTA.

I was so impressed by the 30.7's at New Haven that it rekindled my enthusiasm for audio, which had been in one of its waning cycles. They really are something special.

There was a point at which Wendell played part of a Beethoven string quartet and I have *never* heard a string quartet rendered like that. It was the first time I'd ever heard a recording of strings that didn't add some kind of glitz or glare to the sound that just isn't there in real life. Everyone was transfixed. I took a snapshot of this guy who was experiencing the same thing we all were -- his expression says it all:

Between the 30.7's and the LRS at the opposite end of the spectrum, it's been a banner year for Magnepan!

 

I would like to return to Audio Consultants in the near future, and put the tweets on the inside. Now they don't have to worry about accommodating six seats across, two rows deep.

FYI, I clipped the Boulder amp when I was there by myself on Thursday night. Playing the theme from Shaft, at a loud volume but not a crazy level. However that track does have a lot of bass in it. I know I clipped it because the red light came on a few times.

The LRS sounded really special, I was truly blown away by it's imaging/soundstage. Just clear and wide open beat all the other speakers I heard at the show in that regard.