Magneplanar MG1

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bogiedr

Magneplanar MG1
« on: 17 Feb 2012, 01:41 am »
Greetings everyone!!
 I may have an opportunity to purchase a pair of vintage MG1's and will drive them with a Sansui 771 ... yup, vintage system for vinyl, reel to reel listening  8), I know current Maggie's, nothing about the MG1's, will I be ok driving them with the Sui, what can I expect as far as set up, placement, all that good stuff? Any help will be most appreciated!!!!  :thumb:

SteveFord

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Re: Magneplanar MG1
« Reply #1 on: 17 Feb 2012, 02:14 am »
It looks like that Sansui is rated as 55W into 4 Ohms and those Maggies like a lot of power.
I had some MG1-Cs years ago and I believe that the factory will no longer rebuild them - someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Make real sure there's no buzzing and feel for wires that have pulled free of the mylar. 
One of mine was buzzing and not only were the wires pulling loose but the mylar had developed a tear in it. 
If you do get them and need a replacement speaker, one of my buddies up in Connecticut has two of one side (I can't remember which side) which he'd probably sell cheaply.  I think that they ended up being too big for his room so they got set aside.

krikor

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Re: Magneplanar MG1
« Reply #2 on: 17 Feb 2012, 01:35 pm »
You may want more power, depending upon your room and listening habits.

I bought and rebuilt the tweeters on a pair of MG-1 a couple years ago using a factory-supplied kit.  Be aware that there are a couple incarnations of these (MG-1, MG-1 improved, MG-1a, 1b, 1c before they went to the 1.# designations... http://www.integracoustics.com/MUG/MUG/articles/speakers.html).

As Steve pointed out, make sure you check for buzzing which may indicate wire delamination or, worse, a tear in the mylar.

The other issue is the tweeter wire on those early maggies were aluminum and prone to oxidation.  They can basically dissolve away anyplace the wire is exposed to the air, which was the case on the pair I purchased (I knew at the time, but got such a deal that it was worth buying and repairing).  This of course causes a break in the signal and your two-way maggies just became single-driver speakers.  Check to make sure there is sound coming from the tweets, though that's no guarantee they'll continue to make sound.

Repair of the tweeter wire wasn't difficult, though I don't think I would want to tackle the bass wires.  Here's a link to some photos of my rebuild.  I also took the opportunity to replace the original caps which were nowhere near matching eachother.

http://s896.photobucket.com/albums/ac170/AudioSnoop/Magnepans/Magnepan%20MG1%20Rebuild/

Haven't been to PhotoBucket in a while... seems they've lost all my descriptions of the rebuild.