Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?

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madog99

Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #60 on: 27 Nov 2011, 01:25 am »
Went to the only local maggie dealer today to hear the MMG's , my buddy wants to buy after falling in love with my SMGA's . So the guy hooks up to a Joida tube amp fed from a Peach tree int , source was a lap top !!  First track was ok , next was some Diana Krall , the speaker was farting on the bass , really bad . Kid says "that is the cut out on that model " On to the next DK track same thing and then the next track which I did not know , still had a fair amount of distortion in the low end . My SMGA's have nearly the same specs and there is no "cut out " on them.  We came back to my place and played the same 2 DK tracks , perfect ! Are these guys out to lunch ?  If so they just lost a sale ! I asked the kid what format he was using for the music , said it was CD quality . 
I was pretty stunned as he said a few times that is how the speaker is designed and if you want more you need to go to the 1.7 . Not wanting to argue with an idiot we left . 


Too bad they don't have the trial period in Canada.

thunderbrick

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #61 on: 27 Nov 2011, 01:30 am »
Wanna name the store?  Or at least the city?   :icon_twisted:

madog99

Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #62 on: 27 Nov 2011, 01:33 am »
Ottawa

Davey

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #63 on: 27 Nov 2011, 03:57 pm »
It's pretty clear they were having problems with either the amp being underpowered or something else.  Diana Krall recordings are over produced and not that great (IMHO), but the MMG's should still have no problem with them.

Your buddy should pull the trigger on a pair of MMG's regardless of whether you Canucks get a trial period or not.

Cheers,

Dave.

madog99

Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #64 on: 28 Nov 2011, 11:07 pm »
I sent somewhat of a rant Sat evening to the stores website and got a response today . I am told the issue was a bad optical cable on the laptop and the amp was making popping sounds when they checked it today . No mention of the "cut out feature " though ,that is designed into the MMG  :lol:

thunderbrick

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #65 on: 28 Nov 2011, 11:41 pm »
Did they so much as apologize and offer an after-hours test drive to make it up to you?  That's what I would have done.

Or you could send them a link to this thread and tell 'em to take a hike.   :icon_twisted:

SteveFord

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #66 on: 29 Nov 2011, 01:47 am »
Perhaps another visit is in order.
Wendell is out hither and yon but I'm pretty sure that Customs and high freight costs are the reasons behind the no in home trials in Canada.
Either that or an elderly family member might bungee cord them onto their feet and use them to go trudgin' across the tundra (mile after mile).

madog99

Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #67 on: 30 Nov 2011, 12:32 am »
I talked to my buddy today and he said he wanted to go back , bring his CD player with a burned disc of 5 or 6 of his listening tunes but when I got home and checked my email and had another response from the store mgr or owner I guess and said and I quote

"We determined later in the day that someone had changed some of the settings
on the laptop, resulting in what sounded like distortion. Computers are more
complex than, say a turntable or cd player, but they play music beautifully,
properly set up.  We demo all audio equipment with computers, if you aren't
comfortable with that you really aren't our customer.

I forwarded that to my buddy and he said he would never set foot in there again. So bad optical cable ? amp was bad ? speaker design ? and now laptop settings were changed and if you don't like it take a hike . Oh well it is his store and can run it anyway he chooses . Montreal has a dealer , about 3 hours away cause buddy does not want to plunk down $800 without actually hearing a set of the MMG's first.

rw@cn

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #68 on: 30 Nov 2011, 01:23 am »
Complain to Magnepan.

thunderbrick

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #69 on: 30 Nov 2011, 01:49 am »
+1!  What idiots!

What a shame there are so many Maggie dealers in Ottawa, that it'll be tough to figure out who they are.    :lol:

SteveFord

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #70 on: 1 Dec 2011, 01:54 am »
The demo is everything as they say.
Maybe we need a dealer demo thread - the good, the bad and the fugly.

Back to questions to the factory.

madog99

Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #71 on: 1 Dec 2011, 02:45 am »
The demo is everything as they say.
Maybe we need a dealer demo thread - the good, the bad and the fugly.

Back to questions to the factory.

It has been a good thing though as as I have been really listening to my old maggies since last weekend , moving them by inches etc . I have the worst room in history for maggies and they still sound great to me . Back to regular programing  :icon_lol:

TitaniumTroy

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #72 on: 26 Dec 2011, 10:39 pm »
Hey Steve, could you ask Magnepan if they could supply a frequency response chart of the MG 3.6? Or perhaps a review of the 3.6's that has a fairly accurate freq. chart? Being an older model maybe it would not be as classified, plus that is my current speaker.

I realize that the process is more difficult than with conventional speakers, but still would still like to see what it  looks like.

Troy

SteveFord

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #73 on: 27 Dec 2011, 01:40 am »
Here you go:

We don't have one and I am not sure if there is one from a review. Anyway, move the mic around, move the speaker around, put it into a different room---you can get most any response curve you want.


josh358

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #74 on: 27 Dec 2011, 02:16 am »
Troy, forgive me if we already discussed this -- I have a vague recollection that we did -- but have you checked out Stereophile's review? A very comprehensive set of measurements of the 3.6. The main caveat is that the bass is pushed up because he measured them from 1 meter.

Robin Hood

From the Magnepan website for the DWM woofer:

"Multiple subwoofers are commonly used to smooth room bass response. Although an expensive solution, this technique has been proven to be superior to EQ of a single subwoofer. Using the same fundamentals of acoustics, Magnepan has a solution which can fine-tune the bass and midbass of Magneplanar floor-standing models--- the Maggie Woofer (DWM and DW 1). When both time domain and frequency response has been optimized in a given room, smaller, floor-standing Maggies can begin to replicate the "Gold Standard" of bass reproduction--the Tympani series Magneplanars. Technical details describing this application of the Maggie Woofers can be found in the DWM manual."

Following the above suggestion for multiple DWMs, I have a couple of questions concerning the Mini Maggies and 3.7 Maggies.

Mini Maggies with 2 DWM woofers:
1.   Is stereo separated bass more desirable than centered combined bass?
2.   I'm not sure if centered combined bass is an accurate description, but I assume that the DWM does not provide any stereo separation by itself but tends to blend the separated L+R tweeter/midrange panels together. Is this true?

3.7 Maggies (or 1.7 or MMG Maggies) with 2 DWM woofers:
3.   If I connect the left full range Maggie and left DWM woofer in parallel from my amp left channel and connect the right full range Maggie and right DWM woofer in parallel from my amp right channel, each channel of my amp will see a 2 Ohm load. Is this a correct interpretation?
4.   Since the DWM woofer has inputs for both L+R channels, does that mean that you input the L signal to only one input on the DWM woofer, only one-half of the DWM woofer will be playing? In otherwords, is there any reason, such as for full (rather than partial) speaker output, to feed a split L signal to both amp inputs on the left DWM woofer and feed a split R signal to both amp inputs on the right DWM?
5.   If I feed split signals to both amp inputs on the left DWM woofer and the left full range Maggie, is the left channel of my amp seeing a speaker load less than 2 Ohms?
6.   Would it help if both sides of the DWM woofer were connected in series? I’m not sure if this is correctly worded but for the left DWM woofer I mean, connecting the left + speaker output from the amp with a long speaker wire to the left - speaker input on the DWM, then a short speaker wire from left + speaker input on the DWM to the right - speaker input on the DWM, and then a long speaker wire return from the right + speaker input on the DMW to the left – speaker output on the amp. If wired in series wouldn’t the combined sides of the 4 Ohm left DWM woofer be an 8 Ohm  load?

And:
7.   What is the best way to hook up 2 DWM woofers with one of the full range Maggies such as the 3.7 or MMGs?
8.   Are there any sonic preferences or recommendations for just hookng up just one DWM centered between the full range Maggies?

Finally:
The audio club I belong to has another question that I want to pose to Wendell concerning using DWM panels with other planar speakers.

The specifications for the DWM are given as 40-200 Hz but the Maggie DMW manual states:

“The DWM is a woofer, not a subwoofer. And the superior performance of the DWM, as compared to a subwoofer, is due in part, to extremely wide bandwidth (flat to 5 kHz). The DWM can seamlessly cross over at a higher frequency to any of the limited bandwidth "Maggie" models. However, the higher crossover points require proper time alignment to achieve the most seamless blend between the DWM and the limited bandwidth Magneplanar.”

9. Does the internal crossover limit the DWM to 200 Hz for the Mini Maggie midrange/tweeter panels or is the response of the DWM flat to 5 kHz if no small panel is attached?

I will call Wendell next week to give him some time to digest my questions and recover from CES 2012.


« Last Edit: 19 Jan 2012, 11:44 pm by Robin Hood »

SteveFord

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #76 on: 5 Jan 2012, 11:58 pm »
I can answer this one without even having to ask:
Call Magnepan and ask for Wendell.  That's exactly what he'll say.
He's a talker not a typer and he'll be more than happy to answer your questions over the telephone.
It's not what you want to hear but that would be the best route with your questions.
When you get the answers report back, please.
He might be en route to Vegas right now.  They're frugal so he may be forced to hitch hike!

Robin Hood

Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #77 on: 6 Jan 2012, 04:35 am »
I can answer this one without even having to ask:
Call Magnepan and ask for Wendell.  That's exactly what he'll say.
He's a talker not a typer and he'll be more than happy to answer your questions over the telephone.
It's not what you want to hear but that would be the best route with your questions.
When you get the answers report back, please.
He might be en route to Vegas right now.  They're frugal so he may be forced to hitch hike!

Thanks Steve.

I called and spoke to Wendell yesterday before posting but as you can see from my post, some of what I am asking can be confusing or misunderstood. I think when I called he had several other people waiting to talk to him and so out of courtesy to others and him I decided to keep our conversation brief and follow up with a clear and concise written explanation of what I was attempting to pursue, clarify and understand.

I am more than willing to call him again but in the interim I would also appreciate comments from others to make sure what I am asking makes sense. I am very respectful of Wendell's time to many other customers and running a business. And while I assume that Wendell is very knowledgeable I thought by writing down my questions would give him the opportunity to think about what I was asking or confer with others at Magnepan rather than instantly responding to my questions hearing them for the first time. Finally I thought a written reply to my questions would be something that I and others could ponder and review for some time.

I don't know about you but when I meet new people and they tell me their names I often forget their names within a few seconds. But if I see their names written on a name tag or business card my memory retention is significantly longer.

SteveFord

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #78 on: 6 Jan 2012, 09:34 pm »
Yeah, right now is a bad time to catch him.
I'll get a better answer for you in a week or two when this show is over.

TitaniumTroy

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Re: Do you have a question for the Magnepan factory?
« Reply #79 on: 9 Jan 2012, 06:07 pm »
Yeah Josh having talked about several things, sometimes the details get a little fuzzy. I know we talked this too but...

Steve, Josh, question for Wendell and your answers are appreciated also. What about open baffle subwoofers for the 3.6's/3.7's do they integrate better than conventional subwoofers? I know you give up bass impact and some low frequency depth, just wondering if in your opinion it is worth the trade off?

Also Josh, what kind of room placement does an open baffle subwoofer require? FYI, I bought an SVS PB2 Ultra last year, which I think is awesome.
However never hearing a dipole open baffle sub myself, I wonder how that would compare. I am sure the SVS would win for movies and low organ music, but was curious how it would do for music vs the open baffle?

I have mine crossed over at 40hz, now I just need to dial in the phase control, para eq, and maybe the Audessy for the bass also. Plenty of room treatments and upgrading as I can.