A friend who is a prominent tube amplifier and speaker designer (mostly horns but some box speakers) had Maggies in the 70's and 80's and said that every year, to get them to sound good, he had to open them up and stretch the ribbons. That normal temperature changes from hot to cold, and just normal playing weaken the ribbons and stretch them out. As they stretch, the sound quality diminishes.
I have a pair of new 1.7i's on trial, and I'm concerned about how much of an issue this really is with the newer Maggies.
How many years have you been able to still get great sound out of your Maggies? What vintage are they?
Any further thoughts would be much appreciated.
Mike
If your friend is talking about stretching pure foil ribbons, as in the higher end Maggie models like the MG3a or the Tympani of that era.
I have rebuilt a few of these ribbons and this makes no sense as those ribbons due to their length are held in place not only on each end but at multiple points along their length by very small drops of glue adhering the foil to the magnets. Without this glue the foil would unfold its pleats rather quickly and become useless. So it is impossible to "re-stretch" a Maggie tweeter. The ribbon element can only be replaced.
If you remove the silk like back cloth of a Maggie Ribbon, or even with a strong flashlight shining through the grill cloth you will see these glue joints connecting the aluminum ribbon to the ceramic magnets along the entire ribbons length.
Yes short length ribbons like Ravens are carefully calibrated to a specific stretch and I imagine can be re-stretched as they have no side contact points.
Regarding quasi ribbon models such as the 1.7 which have a backing of Mylar. I am not aware of these stretching out of spec., but they do need to have an exact tension or the sound will be off.
I would not worry about your 1.7i's they will perform flawlessly for years to come.
Greg
