[Rclark]

I am too busy being gobsmacked by the looks.. soon to read this thing and put it all together. Pics and initial results shall happen once I get a camera here. Cell phone simply does not capture the pop and life of the wood. Packaging was superb. Funny "easter eggs" packed in as well. Just an incredible experience so far, from initial email to now. Hope to fire up soon and hear what super high end crossovers, the panel, everything, can do.

 It opens: "We first wish to say Thank You for sending your speakers to us for modification. We know how loved they are by their owners and how tough it is to ship them off not knowing what the returning thing will really be like. It is our goal to send them back to you as the best speaker you ever heard, and the last speaker you'll ever wish to own." 

[Berndt]

Yup, John is a class act.
You are lucky to be in the family.

[Rclark]

Thanks Berndt. I was about to text you actually but looks like you're here. I'm just soaking it all in before I fire it up. The manual is quite good. They are way way better looking in real life than in the website pics. My buddy has an awesome camera and he's coming by.

The smell of the hardwood. No veneer here!

I really wanna open up the crossover boxes, I am just so wanting to see what Jupiter Beeswax caps look like IRL.

[SteveFord]

Christmas arrived late at your place - congratulations!

[Rclark]

Thanks! It was just a handful of months ago I hadn't ever heard Maggies, and I took this gamble entirely to have these modded and have something great sounding. ANyway, my machinist buddy is over now helping me put it together. I might have had too many brown ale's to build it myself.

[Rclark]

Initial (super initial) impressions after just a few hours listening:

despite my amp being cut at 80hz (shallow slope), there is far, far more bass than before. I would call them punchy! Punchy MMG's, go figure, but yeah, there they are. There is no longer a sweet spot ( ).. (or should I say, they aren't beamy like before), you can get up and move around and it sounds awesome regardless, no more head in vice, far less dependant on placement than before (they actually performed quite well closer to the wall), more coherent... more relaxed yet able to rock your world dynamically... played Requiem, II Dies Irae, track 8 on my Emotiva demo test disc, and the chorus that before had a compressed presentation with a strange metallic sound, now is just "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" chorus...

 Lots more listening to do, big time break in on Jupiter Beeswax/ Mundorf Silver in Oil..

 But so far, it's love. Give me a week or so for a full review.

 (oh, and this is on top of the fact that they are very easy on the eyes).

[Rclark]

oh, and I forgot to mention, they can play much much LOUDER. the claim of 92dB efficiency is very believable. I can provide proof once I get an Omnimic.

[Rclark]

Holy moly... I've heard instruments spread wide... but I've never heard instuments sound like they are coming several feet away from the speaker (not the center, way to the sides), strongly enough to seem to have come from another speaker. I'm trippin' out. Man those Dire Straits had some good production.

And the music is now taking my breath away, giving me that stomach curling, I can't-believe-it-sounds-that-good feeling.

[berni]

Congrats!!

[Rclark]

Thank you Berni!

The term now coming to mind is warmth. Almost chocolate warm, very rich sound. In fact, compared to the two iterations of Insigina monitor, and the MMG's themselves as stock, this can only be described as blanket thick warmth. Detailed as heck, crisp as a pickle, of course, it's not a sloppiness by any means, but a sense of warmth, I don't think I've ever heard anything quite like this before.

I'm almost scared to use the term because I always associated it with less detail, but this is so clean and pure and full of detail, fast planar sound.. difficult to describe.

 It may well just be the recording, but even so, I've never heard the recording presented in such a way. So smooth and effortless.

 .. now playing the MotorHead album "Ace of Spades" and for the first time I can hear each word very clearly. It's unreal. Not the best recording at all.

[jtwrace]

WE NEED PICS!

[berni]

Warmth is a good description , I did feel it the same...

[Davey]

oh, and I forgot to mention, they can play much much LOUDER. the claim of 92dB efficiency is very believable. I can provide proof once I get an Omnimic.

You realize of course that the claim of increased efficiency is physically impossible.  The motor structure is unaltered.....and there is no increased excursion or square inches from the transducer diaphragm.

What you're listening to is "equalization" because of the vastly different crossover alignment used.....relative to stock.

Cheers,

Dave.

[Rclark]

It's definitely louder. From how I understand it works is part of the reason it's no longer split up, the load on the amp is one big panel. I have the panels in my room and last night had trusty listening buds with me who remember the MMG. It plays louder. It hasn't become some sort of SPL freak though, it still tops out. I understand you have an axe to grind but I would prefer to leave it at that and not have to get into a debate. Take it to the Asylum.

 Thanks! 

[SteveFord]

You'd have to have a decible meter to verify the increased efficiency - I think Davey is correct with his assessment.
Bear in mind that Davey has been busy with his speakers as well.
It doesn't really matter one way or the other - if it sounds better that's what counts.

[Rclark]

 Alright, I can't make JT wait, I'll just show shots from crappy Windowsphone camera. It only slightly captures the beauty of the wood if I get right up on the speaker. However I might take them outside under natural light and see if I can get full bikini shots.

Anyway, despite Fedex and their maddeningly laggy website service over the holidays, and being faced with possibly not getting all the boxes anytime soon due to a last minute phoned in request by me, their lagginess saved the day. All three boxes showed up to my place early. It was like one of those days were everything just works out, and well.

 Came in three large boxes.

 Everything was packed perfectly. You never know really what you're gonna get (Gump) until you get it so you can imagine looking at this was like kid at Christmas:



Note the Dayton box on the coffee table, Hold the Isodots, spikes, various parts. He was even thourough enough to pack in the square bit we'd need, a VERY nice touch. It was a square bit that my buddy and I promptly lost (I blame my housemate, he's a bit of a hater.) Home depot was a mere five minutes up the street though. Not a problem.


 Crossover box in packaging:



 And unwrapped:



 They are very very heavy. And will not be easy to open without some effort. I guess I can live without seeing the crossovers.

 I was stunned by the beauty of the spalted Sycamore. I was misinformed, not maple, but sycamore.





very precise workmanship, very tight. I thought the trim might end up being some inset piece, nope, it's solid wood!





like Tin Roof ice cream in real life, very vivid volors!




 This one here is probably the clearest image I have so far. Damn phone.

[Rclark]

 Honestly, I'm not going to bother with it, I don't have anything to prove to that guy. The improvements are huge, as I stated above in my initial impressions. I'm not even going to respond to any Peter Gunn vs the Asylum type stuff, it's just not for me, he can find someone else to argue with.

 If I were dissappinted in any way, I would have been livid, those were my honest evaluations. You get exactly what he says the mod does. Period. How can I say that? Well, I happen to have a pair of them in my room.

 I guess Davey found his "in" to argue and nitpick, efficiency, I guess. Big deal. I won't bite.

[Davey]

There's no debate or axe to grind.  This is just simple facts.  "Peter Gunn" doesn't know a crossover from a curling iron so his explanations of the reasons are complete nonsense.

I auditioned the Magnestand setup for many hours and heard the same "increase" in volume you did.  But the audible results are easily understood if you analyze the revised crossover alignment with some electrical measurements.

Let's just make sure we keep all the flowery subjective evaluation separate from actual objective data.  I deal in the latter, not the former.

Cheers,

Dave.

[Rclark]

 

"The term now coming to mind is warmth. Almost chocolate warm, very rich sound. In fact, compared to the two iterations of Insigina monitor, and the MMG's themselves as stock, this can only be described as blanket thick warmth. Detailed as heck, crisp as a pickle, of course, it's not a sloppiness by any means, but a sense of warmth, I don't think I've ever heard anything quite like this before.

I'm almost scared to use the term because I always associated it with less detail, but this is so clean and pure and full of detail, fast planar sound.. difficult to describe.

 It may well just be the recording, but even so, I've never heard the recording presented in such a way. So smooth and effortless.

 .. now playing the MotorHead album "Ace of Spades" and for the first time I can hear each word very clearly. It's unreal. Not the best recording at all.

Holy moly... I've heard instruments spread wide... but I've never heard instuments sound like they are coming several feet away from the speaker (not the center, way to the sides), strongly enough to seem to have come from another speaker. I'm trippin' out. Man those Dire Straits had some good production.

And the music is now taking my breath away, giving me that stomach curling, I can't-believe-it-sounds-that-good feeling.

oh, and I forgot to mention, they can play much much LOUDER. the claim of 92dB efficiency is very believable. I can provide proof once I get an Omnimic.
 
despite my amp being cut at 80hz (shallow slope), there is far, far more bass than before. I would call them punchy! Punchy MMG's, go figure, but yeah, there they are. There is no longer a sweet spot ( ).. (or should I say, they aren't beamy like before), you can get up and move around and it sounds awesome regardless, no more head in vice, far less dependant on placement than before (they actually performed quite well closer to the wall), more coherent... more relaxed yet able to rock your world dynamically... played Requiem, II Dies Irae, track 8 on my Emotiva demo test disc, and the chorus that before had a compressed presentation with a strange metallic sound, now is just "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" chorus...

 Lots more listening to do, big time break in on Jupiter Beeswax/ Mundorf Silver in Oil.. "


 - me.

 Seems like a great crossover to me! I am listening to them now and have abolutely no regrets. Take up your cross in some other thread. I know you and PG have some sort of history, but none of that concerns me.

[Rclark]

Anyone in the Seattle area is welcome to come listen to these amazing speakers for themselves. They are fantastic.