The New Magnepan

panomaniac · « **on:** 12 Jan 2009, 08:29 pm »

Hi guys - I just got back from CES and T.H.E. Show. Lots of cool stuff.

First chance for me to hear the Magnapan stuff in 20 years - wow! Was certainly looking forward to it.

The Maggy guys were doing a demo of a new product. It was a real "what's behind the curtain?" demo. You come into the room and see some product, but the new speakers are in the dark behind a shear curtain.

Demo proceeds, they play a few cuts, vocal, chamber music, drum solo, etc. Beautiful. Open, clean, life-like. A real joy. Drum solo is better than I thought it would be. Not super dynamic, but big planars never are. However the sound was so clean, so transparent, that it hardly mattered. Very, very clean, open, detailed sound. As you might expect. Great integration from bottom to top.

Demo over - the guy reaches under his table and hands me a something. "This is what you were listening to." It's a panel slightly larger than a sheet of paper, maybe. Huh??? "This is what was playing form 300Hz up." Of course we were all gob-smacked. Then he switches on the light behind the curtain and we see them sitting there, tiny. Then lights on the subs. Typical Magapan sub - flat panel about 20"Wx15" tall.

I don't even know what the new model is called, or how much it costs, but is was a very big surprise. Not your typical big Maggy panel at all. And the mid/tweeter panel wasn't even very close to the subs.

Just went to prove to me again how good open speakers can sound, no matter what the size or style.

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #1 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 03:13 am »

Back in the late 70's / early 80's, Magnepan dealers used to display a mini maggie about 2' tall and 1' wide. It was a non working sample that revealed the insides by allowing you to pull back the front cover and then the magnetic layer to reveal the diaphragm in behind. My first thought was don't they offer these with subs?

It wasn't long after that I tried stretching a piece of plastic across a frame a tight as I could get it and made my own little maggie. It actually worked and didn't fry my amplifier.

panomaniac · « **Reply #2 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 03:39 am »

Ha! Yep. that was the "Show Pan" (Chopin). I did comment that it was the same size as the show pan and was told it's actually smaller.

And I built a little pan, too. Circa 1984. Worked OK until I burned the wires off.

steve k · « **Reply #3 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 04:20 am »

Stop, your killing me!

The planar guys over at AudioAsylum are gaga over that demo too. Apparently even the Maggie reps were surprised at how well they sounded. I understand they're prototypes that they just built and the crossover parts were stuck to a board. Can't wait till they go into production. Sounds like way good WAF. It's surprising the audio media apparently hasn't caught up with that demo yet since they blew everything else away at the show. I guess its in the works.

Thanks for sharing. I need to go wipe my shirt off now. A

ted_b · « **Reply #4 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 04:40 am »

I heard the new Maggie demo too. Ya kinda knew what was coming cuz if they were going to show off a HUGE Maggie I don't think making them stealth behind a curtain woulda made sense. Anyway, they were very nice. They called them the Maggie Mini for now, and they were placed about 6 feet from the front wall. Each mini had a Maggie sub associated with it, but Mark Winey (Jim's son) mentioned that they could be driven by a mono sub. Keep in mind the demo had 1000+ wonderful watts of Bryston 28B-SST(squared) ($15k ) monoblocks driving these little things. They also showed a pc speaker prototype (no demo, just a mock up size-wise).

My take was that they sounded nice, but I guess I've heard so many mini speakers lately that create a much larger presentation than their real estate/footprint would ever suspect...that I'm not easily impressed I guess. Now....price these Minis at $400/pair and you have a great office system, as Mark put it.

There should be plenty of e-zine comments since both Stereophile and Enjoy the Music were in the demo prior to mine.

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #5 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 05:06 am »

Do these new mini maggies use a ribbon or at least a quasi ribbon? If not, I don't understand the hype. The pre-ribbon era tweeters were notoriously veiled. If Magnepan hadn't improved in this area, they most likely would have faded away a long time ago.

ted_b · « **Reply #6 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 05:57 am »

Yes, the Maggie Minis use a ribbon tweeter.

steve k · « **Reply #7 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 06:08 am »

Wow!!! This could be the best thing Magnepan has come up with since the true ribbon.

AUDFILE74 · « **Reply #8 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 06:36 am »

so does anyone know when is magnepan going to come out with their subss from a few years ago?

ted_b · « **Reply #9 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 12:26 pm »

These are the Maggie subs they used in the demo (one for each channel)

steve k · « **Reply #10 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 01:45 pm »

Quote

so does anyone know when is magnepan going to come out with their subss from a few years ago?

Apparently Wendell Diller said at CES the combination package of Mini Maggies and subs would be out this summer. http://www.avguide.com/blog/the-maggie-mystery-speaker-part-2

ted_b · « **Reply #11 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 04:06 pm »

They showed a new flagship center channel, too, with part of the 20.1's on top, but curved, and the Maggie sub below. Very interesting stuff.

The Bryston gear looked great, and sounded it too. I give them a lot of this credit, but the Minis certainly kept up their side of the bargain.

panomaniac · « **Reply #12 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 04:42 pm »

Thanks Ted for the great photos. Nice to show folks what we are talking about!

And thanks Steve for the link. I didn't realize that the woofers were new - I don't know the current Maggy line very well.
Those woofers were great. The little panel was surprising (and clean) but getting a dipole woofer to sound that good and in that size is a real slick trick.

I know these won't be cheap, but I hope that they will be at least affordable. They could bring a lot of joy to recorded music.

Brown · « **Reply #13 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 06:19 pm »

Quote from: panomaniac on 13 Jan 2009, 04:42 pm

Thanks Ted for the great photos. Nice to show folks what we are talking about!

And thanks Steve for the link. I didn't realize that the woofers were new - I don't know the current Maggy line very well.
Those woofers were great. The little panel was surprising (and clean) but getting a dipole woofer to sound that good and in that size is a real slick trick.

I know these won't be cheap, but I hope that they will be at least affordable. They could bring a lot of joy to recorded music.

Well hopefully Magnepan will price these to wart away the competition. They have the name, sound and customer service in spades. Just think how many they would sell at under $1750 for the system. In today's times IMO its a no brain-er but that's just me.

TONEPUB · « **Reply #14 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 07:03 pm »

Yep, really nice sound in the Magnepan room. Very impressive...

steve k · « **Reply #15 on:** 13 Jan 2009, 10:45 pm »

Here's more info and pics from Soundstage via AudioAsylum:

http://www.soundstage2.com/lasvegas2009/df_jan11mm.html

They are definitely tiny!

I wonder if Magnepan would be willing to cut my IIIA's up into a bunch of these???

Parnelli777 · « **Reply #16 on:** 14 Jan 2009, 08:55 pm »

It's not really a sub woofer, more of a planar dual woofer enclosure. Down to 40-50Hz or so, me thinks.

panomaniac · « **Reply #17 on:** 14 Jan 2009, 10:38 pm »

That's true. It's not a sub, my mistake. It's a woofer. Sounded very nice, tho.

Somewhere around 300 sq in, I think. Or about the same as a 21" woofer.

AUDFILE74 · « **Reply #18 on:** 16 Jan 2009, 05:53 am »

Quote from: Parnelli777 on 14 Jan 2009, 08:55 pm

It's not really a sub woofer, more of a planar dual woofer enclosure. Down to 40-50Hz or so, me thinks.

good point,i just want to know more about them. a few years ago when i talked to magnepan about the woofers, they gave the impression that the woofer was meant to extend the low end of 1.6qr, mmg. so i guess in some regards, they have changed their mind

mjosef · « **Reply #19 on:** 16 Jan 2009, 06:50 am »

I heard that demo, it was truly impressive. After the demo I spoke to the guy doing the presentation, and it seems they are aiming at the HT market, with an in-wall or 'hinged to the wall' installation. He said the Minis price point maybe just under 2K...wasn't too clear if that was just a pair or all 5 speakers in a 5.1 set-up.