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

Anyone actually hear this speaker?

 

[sefischer1]

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.

 

[DaveyF]

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.

 

[Tim Link]

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.