Evaluation of the Magnepan 1.7

[Andre Marc]

Fast forward some 4 years. My, how time has flown by.

Just wanted to re-visit and touch base again. My setup has changed over the years and the system is presently anchored by what I believe to be a most excellent sounding McIntosh MA8000 integrated amp. Power output is 300WPC, so it has plenty of muscle to grab hold of the 1.7's, but also has a sublime delicacy about its presentation and resolves very well. Mates very well with Magnepan's IMHO.

Here's a quick pic of what the room looks like as of today. And yes, the Maggies are still featured prominently.

View attachment 19695

Fantastic system...well done!

 

[Fred]

Beautiful, Fred.

Awesome looking system. Bet it sounds wonderful. Love the sound of Maggies.

Fantastic system...well done!

Thank you gentlemen. I appreciate the feedback. They system has been coming together slowly over the years. Just wish I had a bigger room to enjoy it in. But, such is life.

It was suggested to me in the "Speakers" forum that I consider a slight decrease in the amount of toe in that you see in the photo. I made some adjustments that resulted in less toe in, and I think the sound is a actually better. At least from the main listening chair. So thanks for the suggestion Tom.

 

[Bruce B]

I've had 3 pair of Maggies over the years and have always placed the tweeters to the inside. Did you try that?

 

[DonH50]

I had to check mine... I have varied tweeter position depending upon the room and (primarily) listening position in relation to the speakers. I kept switching back and forth in my current system as I had trouble deciding which way sounded best. I thought I finally left them inside, but turns out they are on the outside. Hmmm, maybe I should switch them inside again... I think they probably sound better for music on the inside, but for movies (alas, most of their use now) they are better on the outside since the center covers, well, the center!

I agree with trying both ways for a while to see which way you like them.

 

[Fred]

I've had 3 pair of Maggies over the years and have always placed the tweeters to the inside. Did you try that?

I had to check mine... I have varied tweeter position depending upon the room and (primarily) listening position in relation to the speakers. I kept switching back and forth in my current system as I had trouble deciding which way sounded best. I thought I finally left them inside, but turns out they are on the outside. Hmmm, maybe I should switch them inside again... I think they probably sound better for music on the inside, but for movies (alas, most of their use now) they are better on the outside since the center covers, well, the center!

I agree with trying both ways for a while to see which way you like them.

I have tried them both inside and outside. When oriented inside, the left-hand chair gets all of the goodness, while the right-hand chair loses focus. The compromise to get better overall sound from both listening positions has the tweeters to the outside. I will say, that once I get down to having only the Eames Chair in the room, then the tweeters are definitely going on the inside. Won't even be a discussion then. Nice to have the flexibility in these speakers to have a choice.

 

[Theduker]

Ok- I agree it's all listener preference, but -my preference- is the inside. It enhances image sharpness. Outside tweeters provide a wider soundstage which isn't necessary for my room and me, where the inside tweeter positioning gives a sharper and more delineated image which to me is necessary.

To me there is no comparison.

The 20.1 is a far superior speaker to the 3.6, I owned the 3.6 and the 20.1 beat it up and stole its lunch money. I upgraded.

If you like bass, buy the larger speaker. If you like to mess with things, buy subs and try to integrate them. More trouble than I wanted, so I gave up.

I have Wotans on 20.1 and I think they are sublime. If you had the cash, VTL will still build you a pair at last asking, but the new smart tube technology has made demand for Wotan lessen. At this point they'd be as expensive as a tiny house, or a down payment on a larger one (at least 60k I'd imagine).

Should the audiophile community ever realize what fine amplifiers they STILL are, and how truly well they do on speakers that cannot be biamped (Magnepan owners, Soundlab people, Wilson and JM Labs customers, are you paying attention??) perhaps Wotans will increase in value or perhaps they will release a Wotan II with the Smart Tube technology. I will hang onto mine. Zero problems, besides tube failure and the resultant blown fuses. (There is a trick to finding out which tube blew, but I've yet to use it, it always seemed to be a good excuse to test all the tubes and bias the amps again.)