[Elizabeth]

I started buying some new interconnects, and the sound is a little brighter. Finally decided to dig out (lucky i could find them!) The 1% resistors which came with my 3.6s.
I installed them and the treble seems a little less.
I miight buy some 5 watt resistors from Parts Express to play with to get the right setting.

[66mgb]

Elizabeth
Go with the Mills 12 Watt ones, much better than the stock ones Magnepan supplied. I suggest you order 1.5 and 2 ohms ones as well so you can find the ones that work best for you. I ended up with Mills 1.5 in my 3.6's
Russ

[Elizabeth]

Yes. those are better. I will try to find some.
I was usingthe little coil in that spot.I forget the value. but it was a suggested tweak.
I may put the coil back in running it in series with the resistors.

[66mgb]

Elizabeth
still buying 20's ? You may find with the tweets properly tuned you could be happy with the 3.6's The cost of the 20's would buy a lot of source material

[Elizabeth]

I am still working toward 20.7s.
Right now i decided to upgrade some interconnects to Cardas Parsec. Big increase in clarity and improved mids. wit hthe Parsec from my prior junk cable (only bought oone parsec so far. Just ordered another one today.

The 20.7 will take about 8 months of saving up (at least) to aquire.
They are pretty impressive. And i have all the music i want 4,500 Lp and 2,700 CDs.. I have actually been dumping Lps just to reduce the load. Threw out 300 last month. Mostly Classical. Over the last year dumped about 750. But then i bought about 300 more to add in over the past year too.
The 20.7 are sort of  a dream.. i am planning on them, but who knows...
In the meantime I am buying the Parsec IC to upgrade something now.

[SteveFord]

If you have the space you should follow that dream.
That sound will spoil you for life.

[Elizabeth]

Took the resistors out. they sound bad. i stuck the coils back on that spot. Now back to smoooooth upper frequencies.. Maybe i need some better resistors then the ones Magnepan sends along?
I also wonder if the rf coils have some resistance? as the tweets with the one ohm did not sound any different than with the coil.. except more stringent.

The coil tweak is from: "Al Sekela tweak (5222 inductor)" discussed over at Audio Asylum in the Planar asylum.

[kevin360]

I tried a variety of resistors. Not a single one of them was better than without any resistor (and I can't quite describe what I heard with every one of them). I tried the RF choke (with and without resistors). I went back and forth with it and could never tell a difference. I experimented for over a year. Now, I have no resistors, no chokes, no fuses, less wiring, a satisfied curiosity and a voided warranty. 

It should be noted that my 3.7s are in a ~600sq', treated room and I employ an electronic crossover to direct the heavy lifting to a pair of subs. What works best for each of us is dependent on many things. 

[WireNut]

Hmm, this is interesting. I have some mills, eagle and mundorf 10-12 watt resistors that I haven't tried yet in my passive crossovers.
Curious to find what you folk's like.

 



     

[WireNut]

I received this a few years back from Tony Gee of Humble Homemade HiFi. Time I passed it on. Hope he doesn't get pissed  .

1. Standard wire-wound cement types are neutral but dull, they sound a bit closed in.
2. Metal-oxide (MOX) are brighter and have more detail. They are a bit edgy if your system is already on the bright side.
3. Carbon Film: like the MOX they have more detail than the cement types and are smoother than MOX.
3. Mundorf M-Resist Supreme: very open, neutral, good dynamics, smooth and open.
4. Duelund Silver Graphite resistors: on the same high level as the Mundorf's but with added natural harmonic overtones and a little more air in the top end.
5. Caddock MP-930: clean, detailed and smooth. Neutral tonal balance but not as spatious as the Mundorf or Duelund.

[Letitroll98]

I tried a variety of resistors. Not a single one of them was better than without any resistor (and I can't quite describe what I heard with every one of them). I tried the RF choke (with and without resistors). I went back and forth with it and could never tell a difference. I experimented for over a year. Now, I have no resistors, no chokes, no fuses, less wiring, a satisfied curiosity and a voided warranty. 

It should be noted that my 3.7s are in a ~600sq', treated room and I employ an electronic crossover to direct the heavy lifting to a pair of subs. What works best for each of us is dependent on many things. 

A similar experience.  The room and placement made much more of a difference.  I did take the fuses out which made a noticeable improvement.

[SteveFord]

The way it was relayed to me was many years ago somebody on the Planar Asylum was going off about how his Maggies sounded unbearably bright, woe is me, etc.
Instead of just ignoring it, the accommodating fellows at Magnepan began inserting resistors into the packaging and going on at length in the owner's manuals about them so that the owners could attenuate the highs.
Ever since then people have been installing the resistors, saying that sounds weird and yanking them back out and throwing them in the stereo junk drawer.
I'd put mine up for a Karma but I doubt I'd get any takers.

[rollo]

  If your system is bright by all means try a resistor. What has to go though IMO is the  "U" connector used. Replace with a small piece of speaker wire 14 or 16GA. I'm liking a small piece of Duelund hook up wire. Cleaner more natural highs to my ears. If you need the resistor then Mundorf or Duelund.
    Eliz are the new cables broken in yet ? They tend to be bright until then. The Cardas is a neutral cable. So either not broken in or something is being exposed that was not before.



charles

[Davey]

Took the resistors out. they sound bad. i stuck the coils back on that spot. Now back to smoooooth upper frequencies.. Maybe i need some better resistors then the ones Magnepan sends along?
I also wonder if the rf coils have some resistance? as the tweets with the one ohm did not sound any different than with the coil.. except more stringent.

The coil tweak is from: "Al Sekela tweak (5222 inductor)" discussed over at Audio Asylum in the Planar asylum.

A one ohm resistor will reduce the level of the 3.6 tweeter 2.5db.  (That should be easily audible.)

The 10uH inductors have essentially zero DC resistance but will reduce output at 20khz by approximately 1db.  Not audible....by itself, but that wasn't the theory behind this poorly conceived tweak by Al.  It was to prevent secondary audio signal generated by the transducers from feeding back and contaminating the feedback loop of poorly designed amplifiers.  However, in the 3.6, the tweeter attenuator position is upstream of the filter network so the existing shunt coil is already doing most of this job.

Cheers,

Dave.

[kevin360]

Being a tech, I cannot resist eliminating the extraneous wiring and connections. The best wire and connector in the world is bettered by their absence. My connector plates are maximally simple. Behind the plate, things are now maximally simple as well - and soldered. The result isn't an earth shattering improvement, but my brain does perceive cleaner sound. Dumping the deep notes had the same result. The thing is that the numerous subtle differences accumulate to produce a not so subtle (at all) difference. I can think of further changes which would add to the flavor of the stew - moving the XO into the small signal realm is chief among them.

[Davey]

Yes, there's certainly merit in that.  Even if the various connections are okay, removing them prevents them from becoming not okay in future.  It also provides a "feel-good" quality to the user which almost always results in subjective improvements to a system. 

A line-level crossover, multi-amp system is a solution to many issues along the lines noted by the OP.  Unfortunately, it seems there's still much ignorance about the concept and how to properly implement it. 

Cheers,

Dave.

[66mgb]

 And i have all the music i want 4,500 Lp and 2,700 CDs.. I have actually been dumping Lps just to reduce the load. Threw out 300 last month. Mostly Classical. Over the last year dumped about 750. But then i bought about 300 more to add in over the past year too.

Elizabeth that is a very impressive amount of music !! how do you store it all ?
Russ

[Elizabeth]

Elizabeth that is a very impressive amount of music !! how do you store it all ?
Russ

My apartment is not that big.. but.
I have a small hallway entrance. I have a 1,500 Leslie Dame CD rack in it with Rock and Classical. Then the small hallway to the bathroom (plus door to bedroom) has in the one solid wall another Leslie Dame 1,000 Cd rack with the Jazz (both tops are filled, thus 2,700 Cds total.
For Lps i have those in the bedroom. Filling one wall is the Rock and Jazz, With the Classical partially filling the wall sized closet. This arrangement allows me the most 'living space' in my apartment.
My DVDs are in two floor to almost ceiling shelving behind my speakers in the corners.. sort of my version of some acoustical dampening.. Keeps the DVDs out os the way too.

As for the latest, i turned my speakers a little more than the 2" rule to ameliorate the tweeter apparent brightness. Solved it all pretty good.

PS I like the sound with the coil in  the tweeter line.Guess it is all in my head. So is music, generally. Thanks for all the fish.. sort of.

As for the Dueland reisitors. yes, those resistors look interesting. When i get the 20.7 I may buy a few to play with.. $$$ but interesting.

[audiotunesx]

I started buying some new interconnects, and the sound is a little brighter. Finally decided to dig out (lucky i could find them!) The 1% resistors which came with my 3.6s.
I installed them and the treble seems a little less.
I miight buy some 5 watt resistors from Parts Express to play with to get the right setting.

Try Cardas jumpers to bring down brightness.  Hifi Tuning Gold or Synergistic SR20 fuses will take it down another step.  Two ATS 4x2 or 6x2 acoustic panels would also have a significant impact if placed on the wall behind your speakers.  If you have an AC distributor, try an Akiko Audio AC Tuning Stick to smooth out your whole system.

[DrChaos]

I personally use 1.5 ohm resistors in my 3.6's tweeters (inexpensive ones I think)---it was a significant improvement in balance.  My room is fairly reflective so this isn't surprising---and the reflectivity of higher frequencies is just what Magnepan talks about in the manual.

The resistors are also in series with the late Al Sekala's chokes---I didn't notice any immediately apparent improvement from the chokes (could depend on amp and local RF characteristics) but I keep them in because I didn't hear any harm either and who knows what may happen in the future.

I think the 3.6 and 1.6 generation were quite bright.  I didn't like either one of them that much without tweeter attenuation.

I've heard that Magnepan now recommends using the tweeter and midrange attenuators in the 3.7 during break-in.  Does a 3.6 have a midrange attenuator?