[JARSH]

Thanks for your input.  Steve, as you mentioned, a couple inches makes a major difference.  I underestimated that one.     

Did some shuffling last night and this morning to try get a handle on placement and how it affects things.  The room is definitely part of my problem. I'm just happy knowing the speakers are fine.

Plan to grab a couple pair of balanced cables to allow a wider range for amplifier placement.  Will try rearranging things over the weekend.  If my room were a few feet wider and rectangle it would have been a major bonus. 

[SteveFord]

You're welcome.
I got to thinking last night about when my 1.7s showed up years ago and at first they didn't sound so hot.
I had the radio going and the singer was about knee high like he was down in a ditch and during that song the speakers broke in and the vocals came up to ear level where they belong.
It was the coolest thing, I'm really thankful I was sitting there to hear it happen.

[BikeFi10]

New member, new 1.7i owner here. Crag B mentioned tweeter side should always be further from listening point. If so, how can tweeters ever be positioned "outside"? Am I missing something?
2nd my room is 20'×30'. 20' wall is front. Can 1.7is be too far from sidewalls?
Also, Ill be selling or tradeing for high quality fuses, 2 unused 99.99% pure silver links, after I get 3 posts in, by the rules. These are what OCD Mike from utoob pushes.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

New member, new 1.7i owner here. Crag B mentioned tweeter side should always be further from listening point. If so, how can tweeters ever be positioned "outside"? Am I missing something?
2nd my room is 20'×30'. 20' wall is front. Can 1.7is be too far from sidewalls?
Also, Ill be selling or tradeing for high quality fuses, 2 unused 99.99% pure silver links, after I get 3 posts in, by the rules. These are what OCD Mike from utoob pushes.

Magnepan recommends that the tweeters be on the outside but you can try it both ways.  I prefer my 1.6's with the tweeters on the outside but some prefer them on the inside. 

I don't think that you can have the Maggies too far from the side wall but you may loose a little bass compared to positioning a little closer to the side walls.  It is not an issue if you run subs with them.  I run dual subs with mine.

[Craig B]

New member, new 1.7i owner here. Crag B mentioned tweeter side should always be further from listening point. If so, how can tweeters ever be positioned "outside"? Am I missing something?
2nd my room is 20'×30'. 20' wall is front. Can 1.7is be too far from sidewalls?
Also, Ill be selling or tradeing for high quality fuses, 2 unused 99.99% pure silver links, after I get 3 posts in, by the rules. These are what OCD Mike from utoob pushes.

Each speaker is a single panel with the bass portion closer to one side, and the tweeter portion closer to the opposite side. You can tell which one is the tweeter by the narrower spacing of the ribbon material. Since the speakers are mirror-imaged pairs without an official "left" or "right," it's up to you whether you set them up so the tweeter side of the panel is inboard (toward the center) or outboard (toward the side walls). Either way is perfectly legitimate, and can create different imaging effects. Which way you go is up to your room and your ears. My point in my previous post was that once you decide which of those two setups you want, the factory says you need to toe-in the speakers in such a way that the tweeter panels are never closer to your ears than the bass panels. My personal preference is to turn the speakers so the tweeter edge is one inch farther from my head than the bass edge. To do that with a setup that has the tweeters toward the center of the room, you need to "aim" each panel at a convergence point a little in front of the listening position. If your setup has the tweeters on the outside edge of the panel, the panels need to be "aimed" at a convergence point slightly behind the listening position.

It's easy to picture if you begin with an assumed setup which has the panels aimed directly at your head when you're in the listening position. In that spot, a line from your nose to each edge of the left speaker will be equal. Same with the right. Now look at which side the tweeter panel is located on. If they're outboard (toward the left on the left speaker and toward the right on the right speaker), then to make the tweeters farther away than the bass, you need to rotate the speakers so they aim a little behind you. If the tweeters are inboard (the right edge of the left speaker and the left edge of the right speaker), the panels need to be rotated to aim slightly in front of you.

[BikeFi10]

My thinking is if tweeters are outboard, they will be physically closer than bass section to listening point. Then I reread that post  and its like laser aiming behind the head. I guess this is the "head in vise" position, lol.
Greyhound, What subs are you using? Im looking at Rythmik 12" 400w servo or Rels T9 10" driver with 10" passive, but only 1 in budget.
 Also, do you or anyone xover (and how) so Magis dont receiver under a certain hz? Ive read that if around 100hz and under are kept off Magis baffle it will be more stable and improve mids and highs.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

My thinking is if tweeters are outboard, they will be physically closer than bass section to listening point. Then I reread that post  and its like laser aiming behind the head. I guess this is the "head in vise" position, lol.
Greyhound, What subs are you using? Im looking at Rythmik 12" 400w servo or Rels T9 10" driver with 10" passive, but only 1 in budget.
 Also, do you or anyone xover (and how) so Magis dont receiver under a certain hz? Ive read that if around 100hz and under are kept off Magis baffle it will be more stable and improve mids and highs.

I use small subs due to The WAF.  I use 2 10" original Martin Logan Dynamo subs crossed over somewhere between 40hz and 48hz.  They are sealed subs and integrate seamlessly.  They put out fast and musical bass.

My son has the Rythmik F12se sub and it sounds great.   It goes low (much lower than the REL which only goes down to 27hz at +/- 6db) and is fast and musical.  It does not have that in your chest thump that similar subs have though.  I have a friend that has the 1.7's and 2 F12 subs and they sound great together.  It you want 2 subs, consider the lower priced L12.

If you want more of that in your chest bass, consider an SVS SB3000 or 4000.  It also has a phone app so you can adjust it on the fly and also has preset settings.  This is great if the sub does double duty for music and HT.

I would also take a look at the Martin Logan 1100x as it comes with ARC room correction and a phone app. It goes low to 22hz and has XLR, RCA and speaker level inputs and can be used front or down firing.

I have heard some REL subs with Maggies and they are very musical and sound good with them, but I think that the Rythmik and Martin Logan subs integrate better with Maggies.

I like to run my Maggies full range and find they sound the best that way.  You take away some of the Maggie sound by crossing over at 100hz.  Maggie bass is very good, just not below 40-45hz.  These aren't bookshelf speakers struggling to put out powerful bass, why cut out some of their sound.  I never hear any distortion with music that drops below 40hz.

[BikeFi10]

Greyhound, good info, thanks.
Lol about WAF. We have a dedicated music room so wife totally cool with my setup. SHES the one that asks for more volume and heavy bass, go figure. She loved my, just sold, Klipsch bone shaker ported sub. Im just looking for clean sharp fast bass. Im going with a diy Rythmik 400w 12" sealed sub. I believe its the same as the F12. My friend has woodshop and a pro with woodworking so that ll save a few hundred bucks, but still $850 w shipping.
Have you checked OCD Mike on utoob. Hes a brainiac and Magi fanatic. He has an insane rig WAY OUT of my league.
Also, did you do any mods? Stands, fuses, xo, etc? There is SO MUCH out there on Magi mods.

[Craig B]

My thinking is if tweeters are outboard, they will be physically closer than bass section to listening point.

I think we must be miscommunicating. Tweeters outboard aren't necessarily closer or farther away. It just depends on how much toe-in you use. Tweeters-out or tweeters-in, it's entirely possible to aim the speaker so both edges are equidistant from your head. Some people like that. All Magnepan says is that you should never allow the tweeters to be closer to your head than the bass side. Many of us choose to ensure that by putting the tweeter side slightly farther away, by changing the amount of toe-in. I keep my tweeter side an inch farther away from me than the bass side. See my illustration, which indicates a "tweeter-out" setup.

The figure on the left has the panels aiming right at the listening position. Lines drawn perpendicular to the panel face converge at the listening spot. That makes the tweeter edge and the bass edge equidistant from the listener (labeled distance "X" on the diagram). The second figure takes that same setup but rotates the speakers (toes them in less) so that the tweeter edge is now slightly farther away from the listener (bass side "Y" distance, and tweeter side "Y+N" distance). This makes those perpendicular center lines converge behind the listening position.

If you had tweeters-in, the toe-in would go the other direction, and the panels would "aim" somewhere in front of the listener.

[BikeFi10]

Craig B, I guess my geometry was rusty. The diagram cleared up my confusion. Thanks for the extra tutorial.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Greyhound, good info, thanks.
Lol about WAF. We have a dedicated music room so wife totally cool with my setup. SHES the one that asks for more volume and heavy bass, go figure. She loved my, just sold, Klipsch bone shaker ported sub. Im just looking for clean sharp fast bass. Im going with a diy Rythmik 400w 12" sealed sub. I believe its the same as the F12. My friend has woodshop and a pro with woodworking so that ll save a few hundred bucks, but still $850 w shipping.
Have you checked OCD Mike on utoob. Hes a brainiac and Magi fanatic. He has an insane rig WAY OUT of my league.
Also, did you do any mods? Stands, fuses, xo, etc? There is SO MUCH out there on Magi mods.

Thanks for the video tip.

The only mods that I have done is a hifi tuning fuse and it made the 1.6's and my friends 1.7's sound bright.  I also bought a Mills and Duelund carbon 1.2ohm resistors to tame the highs from the tweeter.  Both sound much better than the cheap sandcast resistor that comes with the speakers.  The Mills warms things up but I found the sound stage a bit smaller.  The Duelund is just right, more neutral and detailed with no effect on the sound stage.  I may try a lower value Mills.  I would also like  to get some Mye stands but they are ugly and the wife would not like them.

[Chops]

To bring this to its thrilling conclusion, all is well with 1.7i land.
Just took a little fooling around with placement in a less than ideal room and I suspect some break-in period as well.

I don't quite understand this post.

Did you go over to Jarsh's place and play around with his Maggies? One minute he was complaining about them still and waiting to hear back from Magnepan, the next minute you make your post above and it seems that all of a sudden everything with his Maggies are magically all fine.

[SteveFord]

No, I didn't go to Canada!
We were exchanging PMs and his speakers are fine, it was just placement and break-in as I said previously.
It sounded like his speakers finished breaking in right about the same time he found where they needed to be in the room.

[JARSH]

Hey folks! 

First I'd like to thank Steve for all his help and putting up with my questions.  I've been away since Feb. and couldn't access my account.  Not sure if it was IP address related or not.  Couldn't get my password to work. Sigh! 

Being new to Maggies and planar speakers in general, I underestimated them, big time!  I've heard them many moons ago at a dealer but had always stuck with conventional cone drivers.  I was in need of new speakers and preferred purchasing new over used.  Been there, done that!  The plan, originally, was to purchase the LRS.  The dealer had been waiting on a previous order and couldn't give an ETA.  They had only the one pair of 1.7i's in stock and told me once they were sold that there was no telling as to when they would have new stock.  While out of my price range at the time I pulled the trigger because I did not want to be without my system any longer.  As an audiophile, I don't know how I managed to go without for so long.
With the pandemic along with inflation etc. it was now or never type of thing. 

I've read many times that Maggies take time to break-in.  To hear many of those changes as they happened were interesting and have to be experienced.  Doubt words alone can convey those changes.  I was freaking after hearing and questioning what may have been a arc, that sounded like loud pops, several hours in after initial hookup.  I've questioned others on a couple forums and contacted Magnepan regarding this.  Forum members said something was wrong.. Magnepan told me this was normal.  Hmm! I "initially" thought one speaker may have been wired incorrectly on the inside.  Tried swapping polarity along with other things which appeared to help but still didn't sound as it should because of other weird things going on.   Those concerns along with things that didn't appear to sound as it ought to made me question multiple times whether this purchase was worth the hassle.  In one word, a big yes!

Those issues/concerns along with an L-shaped room played on me.  There were times the speakers sounded good.  Played with placement and at times they sounded good... then they didn't.  Move them back to a known good and it would sound blah.  They initially surprised me with their bass.  As time went on, they sounded as though there wasn't as much bass.  Everything had me questioning my purchase.  Grr!

It was during one of my PM's with Steve that everything came together and popped into place.  The sales person, whom I've known many years ago and fully trust told me to drive them harder.  I'm running them with a pair of Bryston 7B SST Sq. and was running them at about 9:00 volume.  He told me I had not been driving them much at all.  Can't comment on whatever had gone on but driving them harder for a few days on top of several hundred hours of playing time that was put on them did it.  Steve basically told me to be gentle with toe-in along with other suggestions.  A little goes a long way.  He was spot on there!  I'm still questioning whether I'm going about it properly. 

After being away from the system for slightly over two months I was up until the wee hours this morning listening to various cd's. Honestly, it's difficult to walk away.. Just one more song and that's it!  Hours later I'm still swapping discs!   So yeah, I'm a convert..... at least for now!  I toed them in more after a few hours of listening last night/this morning.  This experimenting is driving me at times but yet it's rewarding when things just click.  Still have to add stands at some point and haven't decided whether to use MYE or Magnarisers.  Thoughts?

With that cleared up, I quite possibly may be moving and get to go about setup all over again.  Room will be in a basement with concrete floor that will need treating.  I forget the exact measurements but it's roughly 15.5' x 22'.  One side wall has a staircase and it is open on the listening room side which will have to be drywalled.  The end of that wall, unfortunately, doesn't extend into the back wall and therefore open for several feet.  Not sure whether I'll be able to do something to remedy that or not.  The ceiling is open beams with a height of 7'8" from the bare floor to bottom of joists.  There's a door at the bottom of said stairs and a washer/dryer are opposite of the stairs.  To the right of that there is a hot water tank.    That tank is pretty much in direct line with the shorter length wall that I'd like to extend. Grr! 

There's a similar room to the left of the stairs and laundry area.  Same length but narrower.  There had been a wall installed between it and the appliances.  I did not measure as to how wide that room can possibly be made.  It's around 10' wide now and be possibly be widened by a couple feet or so.  It too has the l-shape, flipped of the opposing side.

My current room is 12x13 in the main area but narrows to 9 feet due to 3 feet of wall space from a bedroom.  There used to be a smaller 9x9ft. bedroom off my living room that I had removed the wall between the two. Some you win, some you loose.  Though I would think having an open area off to one side may be easier to come up with some sort of solution where as having the room narrow and not be able to have a rectangle shaped room.  Time will tell.

Came back to take care of some things so I'm off to enjoy some listening time being my stay will be short.  Again, thank you Steve and to others who have replied to this along with other threads.  AC is one of the first sites I check when researching info.  Great community and find people helpful and polite thus far.  Thank you all for being here doing what you do.

As a side note, I've been reading posts about the new LRS+.  If/When funds permit, I may be interested in a pair to mate with my 1. 7's for an eventual A/V setup.

JARSH

[SteveFord]

I think you like the challange of setting up speakers in difficult rooms!
I have no experience with Mye stands, the total cost always kept me away but there's no negative comments about either brand from actual owners that I ever saw.

[Craig B]

Myes are fine. My brother has a pair on his 20.7s. But they're just too expensive for me. For my .7s, I found all I was looking for and more, in terms of design, performance, quality and service from Magnariser.

[Saturn94]

I’m very happy with my Magna Risers on my LRS.  I don’t have experience with Mye.

[geowak]

I almost bought the 1.7i with two Rel subwoofers because I have MMGs in a second audio system and wanted bigger sound. I decided to try another speaker brand and the MMG's will go to the bedroom system. If I don't like the new speakers I will probably get the LRS+ and add two Rythmik subs. I really liked the Magepan sound!

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I almost bought the 1.7i with two Rel subwoofers because I have MMGs in a second audio system and wanted bigger sound. I decided to try another speaker brand and the MMG's will go to the bedroom system. If I don't like the new speakers I will probably get the LRS+ and add two Rythmik subs. I really liked the Magepan sound!

I have a pair of original MMG's and 1.6's.  The 1.6's blow the MMG's away.  I bought a pair of PSB T3's (cost 3x's the 1.6's) and the 1.6's sounded much better.  I sold the T3's.  I would like to move on from the 1.6's as my wife is tired of having door panels in our family room.  I really like the Fyne Audio 702's but not the $9500 price.  I may give the Monitor Audio 5g 300 golds a try.

[jjss49]

I almost bought the 1.7i with two Rel subwoofers because I have MMGs in a second audio system and wanted bigger sound. I decided to try another speaker brand and the MMG's will go to the bedroom system. If I don't like the new speakers I will probably get the LRS+ and add two Rythmik subs. I really liked the Magepan sound!

imo - the 1.7i's (on proper stands) are simply wonderful, no doubt the sweet spot in the line, for musical enjoyment delivered for $ spent... real deal forever speakers for many