[simoon]

I have a line on a pair for ~ $300.

One tweeter is blown, and they need new socks.

Other than that, they sound fine. No buzzes or distortion.

I already talked to Sheila at Mag and they have a tweeter ready to ship at $100. Socks will cost about $60 from Indiespinzone.

So, without any mods, I'd be into them for about $450.

Opinions please.

[SwamisCat]

Yes. The sound will be phenomenal.

Even if they need relamination now or soon (you need to look at them sans socks to really tell), that is worth a few days of work, and costs just a few dollars.

[Roger Gustavsson]

I would have gone for two new ribbon tweeters. Replacing only one could result in slightly different left and right speakers.

[simoon]

Thanks for the advice.

I ended up getting them for $300 even.

I will verify with Sheila at Magnepan that the tweeters will match.

I am going to dismantle them this weekend to verify there are no voice coil issues, or tears in the mylar. I don't believe there is, since I thoroughly listened to them, and they were not making any noises that they weren't supposed to.

New socks, new tweets and some custom work on the wood from my artist girlfriend should have me up and working in just a couple of weeks.

I'll post some before and after pix when I can.

[SteveFord]

Congratulations, I'm looking forward to photos of your project.

[Bob2]

Simoon, Nice to see you went ahead and picked those up..
I just picked up a pair of Maggies from another AC member in the last month or so.
Powering them with a 50 watt tube amp and am totally surprised as to what they deliver.
Very happy with them myself and I'll bet you will like yours. Having used  Klipsch RF7's for the last few years, these are a whole different  experience.
Having never heard this type of speaker before I was really amazed at the sound that comes out of a speaker only 3 inches thick.
Future upgrades will be this type of speaker.
Enjoy and please show your upgrades!!

[simoon]

Simoon, Nice to see you went ahead and picked those up..
I just picked up a pair of Maggies from another AC member in the last month or so.
Powering them with a 50 watt tube amp and am totally surprised as to what they deliver.
Very happy with them myself and I'll bet you will like yours. Having used  Klipsch RF7's for the last few years, these are a whole different  experience.
Having never heard this type of speaker before I was really amazed at the sound that comes out of a speaker only 3 inches thick.
Future upgrades will be this type of speaker.
Enjoy and please show your upgrades!!

Having already owned a pair of Magies years ago, I am quite familiar with their sound.

I've also owned a pair of full range electrostatics (Koss 1A), so I have a history of living with planars.

I have also owned some pretty high end dynamic speakers, the latest being Usher CP-681, which were not exactly 'slouches'. But I am happy to be getting back into planars.

[jimdgoulding]

Wow.  Nice indeed.  Enjoy.  Like I needed to say that.

[simoon]

Tweeters should be delivered tomorrow.

Cloth samples of socks will be included. Although, I think I am already decided on charcoal grey.

Also ordered 20 (!) pair of good quality speaker binding posts to replace all the crappy stock ones used by Magnepan when these were built. Not that I expect any 'magical' difference in sound, but less oxidation couldn't hurt. And they'll look better.

Hopefully I'll have these up and working by the end of the weekend, in some state of completion.

[SteveFord]

Twenty pair?  Are we in for some sort of mad scientist project?

[simoon]

Twenty pair?  Are we in for some sort of mad scientist project?

I meant 10 pair, 20 total.

Which in my addled mind, I posted as 20 pair.

[SteveFord]

I was wondering what you'd be doing with all of those! 
I had some 3As many years ago and really liked despite what the previous owner did - the midrange wires were all corroded away and they screwed around with the crossover to have the ribbon run down where the midrange should have been. 
I didn't find this out until after I sold the speakers.
I did offer to buy them back, of course.

[satie]

Congrats.

Nice deal for a nearly intact speaker.

Think of biamping sometime in the future. The amount of bass power you can gain and the improvement in clarity will surprise you.

[simoon]

So, I installed the new tweeter.

2 of the oak frame pieces were cracked, so I had to glue and clamp those.

The screw holes on the bottom of one of the speakers where the bases attach were stripped, so I had to fix those.

To fix the stripped holes, I used this great product called Mr. Grip. They are little strips of spiked, perforated steel that you trim and put in the holes, then simply screw in the wood screws. No need to to fill holes with wood chips or toothpicks and wood glue.

Next up, replacing the speaker binding posts on crossovers and speakers and new charcoal socks.

But they sound great!

Hopefully upgrading crossover components soon after.

[Bob2]

simoon,
if you don't mind my asking...... what binding posts did you pick up?
Thanks and keep us posted with the crossover upgrades!
Bob2

[SteveFord]

Good tip with the Mr. Grip. 
You must be excited to bring this one to completion.

[simoon]

Still a while away from completion, I'm afraid. At least from a cosmetic standpoint. They are playing perfectly, however!

Still have to install new socks and refinish the frame.

The frame will have to wait, since my girlfriend (a decorative artist) has some big money making projects that will keep her busy for a couple of months.

The binding posts I bought are some inexpensive ones from Parts Express. These -

http://www.parts-express.com/mini-gold-plated-insulated-5-way-binding-post-set-2-red-2-black--320-3375


I'm actually considering not using them, however, and soldering speaker wire directly.