[TheChairGuy]

I bought my Magnepan MMG's used about 2 years ago.  At first, I wasn't taken with them.  The resolution, dynamics and the whole general package wasn't very appealling.  It did, however, project the whole scale of an orchestra or large ensemble like a much more expensive speaker and it was very nice NOT to hear a box involved in re-production.

All in all, a speaker I would overlook and buy many others in place of for the same $400 (used to $550 (new).  But, as it was in my posession and I read a bit more about it, I realized you should tinker a bit and may be well rewarded.  So, tinker I did.

It set up on some Home Depot stands that raised them from the floor as they should be:


Tho the ersatz stands helped....the addition of the sand bag on top and the 48" bungees (you can see in the pic) as additional brace took the resolution and dynamcis up a notch or two.  The sand bag alone alone increased dynamics (as bracing a 60" long piece of cheap lumber waving north-south in the air would, of course).  But, it wasn't soooo remarkable.

I removed the steel jumpers and inserted all copper wire in it's place - a small nuaced in resolution was had.  Ditto for cleaning, and Mapleshade Sil-clearing the fuses.  Nuanced, but the right direction.

Finally, after a year of play, I bought some Mye stands - the first pair that Grant van der Mye made for MMG's:


Sand filling them and levelling on those beautiful brass toes paid off nice dividends.....the speaker was really sounding like something special for an expenditure of under $1000.00.  Really nice at that price.

I knew more could be done....so recently I sprang for the full monty Sonic Craft upgrades.....re-wired with Furutech OFC wire AND new copper binding posts, Alpha-Core 12ga copper inductor and SoniCap (a simple 1st order crossover in the MMG).  As the Alpha-Core is quite large, outboard boxes had to be made.  The yucky fuse was eliminated.

I just received the speaker back from Jeff at Sonic Craft a couple weeks ago and, boy, am I ever pleased.  It's the closest any speaker has come to replicating the better points of headphone listening.  It sounds light, massless, incredibly detailed (ribbons are that way) and the integration of the broadly similar constructed (the bass ribbons are just thicker versions of the treble ribbons) bass and treble panels are completely seamless.  It still lacks substantial bottom end....but there is some useful output at 40hz...plenty enough for me.  I do miss the warm, plummy bottom of a box speaker...but that can be remedied with suitably fast pair of subwoofers in the future, if need be.

About $1500.00 later and I have perfect sized speaker that handles the vast majority of my listening wants...for a price that didn't break my piggy bank.  I'm pretty thrilled.  SS or tube, it all sounds pretty darn good with vinyl...a bit more care in feeding is required with CD.

I'll try to take some pics of the outboard boxes (not that you can see much, but it's a pretty box  )

[MaxCast]

nice review Chair Guy.  I've always wanted to try MMG's or 1.6's.   I heard the MMG's with a receiver and was underwhelmed as expected.  Then I finally heard the 1.6's in a hotel room with proper amps.  Much better but  questionable room.  Then there are the mods.  It was more involved than I wanted to get.

Looks like you've tried everythnig for them.  I'm glad the tweeks and mods all worked out for you.

Rock on...

[china]

Hello Chairguy,

   Now that you have my MMG's on the right path!!!  When are they going to be shipped to me???? Smile!!! If you know someone that wants to sell the MMG's and ship to mainland china. Please let them know that I am after a pair also. Yours really look great but was all the tinkering worth it??? Did you stands really increase the sound of the speaker to justify the investment?? Just had to ask because now you have me thinking!!! If I can ever get my hands on the MMG's, that is. By the way do you have an email address for Magnaplanar/Magnapans, it would help a great deal as phone communication from china to the states can be a killer at times. All the best.

[TheChairGuy]

Hello Chairguy,

   Now that you have my MMG's on the right path!!!  When are they going to be shipped to me???? Smile!!! If you know someone that wants to sell the MMG's and ship to mainland china. Please let them know that I am after a pair also. Yours really look great but was all the tinkering worth it??? Did you stands really increase the sound of the speaker to justify the investment?? Just had to ask because now you have me thinking!!! If I can ever get my hands on the MMG's, that is. By the way do you have an email address for Magnaplanar/Magnapans, it would help a great deal as phone communication from china to the states can be a killer at times. All the best.

Hello China (MaxCast),

Well.....they are a little too big for my next trip to Shanghai, Fuzhou or Guangzhou, I think 

It's funny, Magnepan doesn't show an email address, but they have a phone number of (011)-1- 651-426-1645.  They are located in the state of Minnesota, so that's about 14 hours behind you in time (if you live in coastal China, at least).  Why don't you use SKYPE - it's either free or very inexpensive to make calls from computer to landline (and compltely free from computer to computer).  I talk to my agents in China regularly on SKYPE (computer to computer).  The call quality is usually quite decent when wearing a headset with integrated boom microphone.

If I had to rate the mods based on effectiveness per dollar spent:

1.  Heavy sandbag on top (increased dynamics for pennies)

2.  Home Depot stands and bungee's (a $55 cost, but a $250 improvement)

3.  Mye stands ($386.00, but very worthwhile - before you change out parts, do this, it seemed more cost effective to me)

4.  Plast-i-Clay the inside of the wood frame and buy heavier duty 'grabber' wood screws (helps to damp the wobbly wood board for about $10.00....forgot to mention this one...a less then subtle tweek for small money)

5.  Replace inductor, caps, wiring, binding posts and remove fuse ($585.00 from Sonic Craft for outboard crossovers afor that last, helpful, touch)

For almost nothing, just changing out the steel jumpers for copper was helpful and recommended no matter what.

The wood that the ribbon drivers are mounted upon are only 3/4" thick and weigh but 20 lbs....addding mass to the top (a la sand bag) or damping the entire board with Plast-i-Clay (takes too much time) or damping compound like Cascade quiet kote or similar, might be in order soon. It's a bit laborious as you have to take all the staples that hold the socks on the board, but I think it should significantly tighten up what limited bass there is coming from the MMG's. 

[launche]

anxiously awaiting pics of the outboard xovers 

[JoshK]

You should look to mating them with W baffle dipole subs (linkwitz style).  There are a number of threads around the internet that discuss this very thing, some on htguide.com/forum.  I think Davey once did it and I know ThomasW is doing a variation on it as an inexpensive dipole system.  You get the best of both worlds, being able to actually move some air with a dipole sub with the speed of the maggies and matching the power response much better between the two.

[GHM]

Great!! I used the Sonic caps and Air core inductors when I modified my Maggies. The difference in sound has to be heard to be believed!! Bypassing that crappy fuse makes a huge step in the right direction.

Glad your mods worked out.

Good listening

[TheChairGuy]

You should look to mating them with W baffle dipole subs (linkwitz style).  There are a number of threads around the internet that discuss this very thing, some on htguide.com/forum.  I think Davey once did it and I know ThomasW is doing a variation on it as an inexpensive dipole system.  You get the best of both worlds, being able to actually move some air with a dipole sub with the speed of the maggies and matching the power response much better between the two.

My room's 12 x 15' x 8-12'.....lower bass and bass quantity don't work...no matter the acoustic traps and digital room corrrection ; you can't fight city hall. A small subwoofer that augments bass to no more than 40hz useable is probably all that is warranted. I don't know if the Linkwitz deisgns play deeper than that. 

I do like what dipole bass the MMG has now in one particular respect...it doesn't have the 'boom' factor at higher volumes that sealed systems have.  Here in Cali, walls tend to be thin (no insulation) and bass can be heard and felt all over - even in a 2800 square foot home. I can play right next store to my 27 mo. old's room at reasonable volumes without waking her now 

[JoshK]

You might want H-baffles then, or even U-baffles.  Neither of those go particularly deep easily (without lots of eq and excursion).  However, they do move more air then maggies do. 

[TheChairGuy]

anxiously awaiting pics of the outboard xovers 

launche,

Boy, we need to find you another hobby...swooning over Magnepan outboard crossovers just ain't right 

Sorry for the delay...I've been travelling and there is finally a short break in the action now.  Here they be...innocuous, but lovely little boxes Jeff at Sonic Craft cooked up:

[Steve]

Nice job John. Looks very nice.

[TheChairGuy]

Thanks Steve!

They really sound great, too...now that I've owned them long enough (about 2 months since they arrived in modded state) to enjoy them.

My room is only 12 x 15' x 8-12' (tall)....and my wife and I like hardwoods and stone...so, reflections are many in a small-ish room with hardwood floors.  A Berber rug helped a lot a couple years back as are other absorptive treatments added over the years....but I am still working with a far less than optimal room setup.  It looks purdy, tho   

So, for me, bass has always been a bugger to get right.  The fact that these have very, very limited output at 40Hz doesn't bother me for two reasons:

1.  I can't produce low bass right anyhow in this room

2.  Magneplanar speakers can't produce deep, tight, authoritative bass even when you spend $10,000 + on their top line models.  And, you need a HUGE room to get even close to the right fit at that.

I think most folks buy too much Magnepan for their room set-up...the MMG is a very sensible starting point for almost any normal sized room.  When you jack it up on good (sand or shot filled Mye) stands and change out all the sub-standard parts you get a magnificent monitor speaker that can still convey the full scale of an orchestra like a multi-driver dynamic floorstander. 

It seems to need 50 good watts minimum...but that's not hard to afford these days.  As it's a relatively monotonous 4 ohm load, it's easy on any 50 watt+ amp.  It sings with my vast overkill, super hi current, Odyssey Khartago Extreme monobocks.

It's the closest thing I've heard for nuance in a speaker to a good headphone....but rocks out pretty good when you need it to, as well.  I'm as pleased as can be at my $1400.00 total outlay for speakers, stands and mods and hope to enjoy these for many years 

[Berndt]

I love my smgas.
I found a guy on AA that would build stands and boxes, here they are so far.
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/MUG/messages/100916.html
I really miss their tone. I can't wait for them to be finished.

[TheChairGuy]

Hey Bill/Berndt,

Those look great...how much is he (Peter Gunn) charging for it....mine were like $378 delivered for the lovely finished Mye stands (in a coffin like crate from Vancouver).  The sand to fill them was another $5.00 

I really do think folks buy too much Magnepan for their needs, by and large.....it doesn't take but a pretty small/cheap Maggie to fill and average sized room.  And, when you change out all the sub-standard parts for beter and mount on sturdy stand, it's bass output down to strong 50Hz (or weak 40Hz) is pretty fantastic.  You'll miss a bit of tympani and organ on some classical works...but you'll not miss thing if your tastes run more towards jazz and pop.

Ribbons handling everything above 50Hz are really, really quite nice.

The more recent built MMG's, like mine, are first order crossovers like the older SMG series - so they are quite phase coherent, too.

[samplesj]

I really do think folks buy too much Magnepan for their needs, by and large.....it doesn't take but a pretty small/cheap Maggie to fill and average sized room.  And, when you change out all the sub-standard parts for beter and mount on sturdy stand, it's bass output down to strong 50Hz (or weak 40Hz) is pretty fantastic.  You'll miss a bit of tympani and organ on some classical works...but you'll not miss thing if your tastes run more towards jazz and pop.

So what is wrong with people buying more than they need?  Isn't audio filled with overkill?

I'm running 3.6s in a 13x16x8.75 room so I guess I fit in that category.

It isn't just about adding more bass or needing more driver space to play louder.  Magnepan recommends customers buy as big as they can.  Of course they'd love to sell the higher priced speakers instead of smaller ones, but they claim it adds detail.  A great example of this is the fact that only the 3.6 and 20.1 have a true ribbon tweeter.  That is why I run a 3.6 in my smaller room.

Sure a huge speaker in a small room can be overwhealming, but in a dedicated room who cares.  I guess a bigger maggie could cause bass issues, but like you said they aren't really bass monsters anyway.  That and I have a lot of rigid and fluffy fiberglass in my room.

Maggies in general are very tweakable.  I was going to buy a pair of used 3.6 and deck them out, but when I was looking I found another person selling an already upgraded pair (that way he pays for the crossover parts depreciation instead of me  ).  The Mye stands are another great step since they help hold it rock steady vs the stock rocking chair feet.

[Berndt]

Peter hasn't finalized his pricing yet.
He also fixes the wires which were buzzing on my pair.
He is devoted to the smga, and his rebuild write up is a nice piece.
http://www.indiespinzone.com/other/smga.html

I look forward to comparing them to the mmgs...

[TheChairGuy]

Interesting that he has them on a 2 % upward slant....the Mye stands raise them a bit higher than 5" at about 8", but with no slant.  I think they may have benefitted from a 2% slant even as I am only 8 feet or so from them in standard listening position...Mr. Gunn did a very nice job on those; you should be very happy with it 

[Berndt]

If you can make it through the write up he ends up with them perpindicular to the floor.
Maybe I can get him to say hi?
Bill

[Steve]

Hi John,

     I think Earlmarc has the 1.6s fully modded, like yours, except for the external Xover. They sound very very nice. I agree the size of room will somewhat dictate the low frequency output.

A friend mentioned, a while back, about angled sideboards to extend the bass. However, they need to be treated to reduce reflections. Wonder if anyone has already tried this technique, and would report their findings?

[Berndt]

You are right, they are tilted!

Peter Gunn asked me to reply with the following...

Quote

My "official" site should be up sometime in September with all pricing and info on my mods. The basic stand and strut system will probably be about $375  and the basic stand with crossover mod is about $625 but both require shipping your speakers to me. My system isn't a "tweak", it actually physically changes your speakers for good. (and for the better) Another benefit is I check the entire panel out and repair any loose wires if needed (at additional charge) and you'd be amazed what they often look like inside even if you hear no buzzing.
 
    Mye stands raise the panels but do not angle them. I have found the angle to be the superior way to go. It gives the speakers the reach and "bloom" of extra height yet it also gives them an ambiance due to reflectivity angles straight maggies don't have. When straight I find them a bit too clinical sounding. The detail and clarity improve (because they are beaming right at you) but I think at a cost of musicality. If there is such a thing as euphonic distortion (ie: round, warm tube harmonics) magnepans are the speakers that love and transmit it best. Therefore it seems these speakers are best served playing to that strength. I also feel the wood stands add to that in a way metal never can.
 
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