[Saturn94]

Well, its been about 3 months with the Maggies .7 and my VTA-120 tube amp. I'm sorry to report that I threw in the towel about 2 weeks before the holidays and reconnected my D-Sonic to the Maggies.

My VTA-120 just didn't have enough power to drive them beyond mid-70s SPL and had very poor dynamic range--they really only sounded acceptable to my ears when listening to solo female voices, piano, violin and vibraphone, i.e., at mild volume when the recordings emphasized solo instruments in the middle freq range.

Once I threw the D-Sonic back into the chain the Maggies came alive--much more robust bass (within the boundaries of .7s) and overall much greater ability to drive the speaker to acceptable SPL levels across the whole freq range of all recordings.

So now the Maggies are downstairs in a larger room with the D-Sonic, relegated to our movie watching area where I will enjoy them on Sundays while reading the weekly rags and doing crosswords.

The VTA-120 still in my small office/listening room, now hooked up to a pair of Klipsch RP-160M stand-mount speakers (I've been dying to try horns for a long time). While a little rough around the edges on their first night, I suspect they will smooth out a bit once broken in, and the VTA-120 plays as loud as I like without distortion.

Hi neighbor!  I’m just down the road from you in the Hampton Roads area.

Lately, I’ve been very curious about Maggies and have been eyeing the .7 or 1.7 (maybe even the new LRS?).  I use to own a pair of the original SMGs back in the early 80’s and remember them fondly.

How do you have yours set up?  I’m a bit limited how far off the wall I could place them, so Im wondering if they would even work well for me.  I might be able squeeze out 3ft MAX behind them.

I’m pretty sure my current amp would work well (Parasound Classic, 250 wpc @ 8ohms, 385wpc @ 4ohms).

Did the store you ordered from offer a return policy?

Thanks.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Hi neighbor!  I’m just down the road from in in Hampton Roads area.

Lately, I’ve been very curious about Maggies and have been eyeing the .7 or 1.7 (maybe even the new LRS?).  I use to own a pair of the original SMGs back in the early 80’s and remember them fondly.

How do you have yours set up?  I’m a bit limited how far off the wall I could place them, so Im wondering if they would even work well for me.  I might be able squeeze out 3ft MAX behind them.

I’m pretty sure my current amp would work well (Parasound Classic, 250 wpc @ 8ohms, 385wpc @ 4ohms).

Did the store you ordered from offer a return policy?

Thanks.

I own a pair of 1.6's and MMG's.  Your Parasound with pair well with them.  That is plenty of power to bring out the dynamics of the speaker.   I used to drive my 1.6's with a Parasound A21 but now use a Pass X250.  I would suggest trying a nice tube preamp with them.  I use a BAT tube pre.  I have my Maggies just under 3' from the wall and they sound glorious.  I tried them further out in my 17x17 room and there was minimal improvement in sound. YMMV.

The 0.7's and 1.7i's will sound much better than the LRS.

[Saturn94]

I own a pair of 1.6's and MMG's.  Your Parasound with pair well with them.  That is plenty of power to bring out the dynamics of the speaker.   I used to drive my 1.6's with a Parasound A21 but now use a Pass X250.  I would suggest trying a nice tube preamp with them.  I use a BAT tube pre.  I have my Maggies just under 3' from the wall and they sound glorious.  I tried them further out in my 17x17 room and there was minimal improvement in sound. YMMV.

The 0.7's and 1.7i's will sound much better than the LRS.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[jaylevine]

Hi neighbor!  I’m just down the road from you in the Hampton Roads area.

Lately, I’ve been very curious about Maggies and have been eyeing the .7 or 1.7 (maybe even the new LRS?).  I use to own a pair of the original SMGs back in the early 80’s and remember them fondly.

How do you have yours set up?  I’m a bit limited how far off the wall I could place them, so Im wondering if they would even work well for me.  I might be able squeeze out 3ft MAX behind them.

I’m pretty sure my current amp would work well (Parasound Classic, 250 wpc @ 8ohms, 385wpc @ 4ohms).

Did the store you ordered from offer a return policy?

Thanks.

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply--just got back from an out of town trip.

In general I think 3 feet is more than enough room. I have mine in our family room (about 14 by 16?) that has very little furniture other then a couch and credenza that the TV sits on (and where the D-Sonic amp is stashed).

I pull the Maggies out from the wall when I want to listen to them, somewhere between 3 and 4 feet from the back wall with 6 feet of separation between speakers. My listening position is probably 7 feet opposite from the credenza. Not a perfect triangle but close enough.

The room / listening set-up would benefit greatly from a sub, but I don't want to invest any more into this setup since it is not my primary listening system (that is upstairs in my small office with my VTA amp and Klispch horns).

I agree with I.Greyhound Fan, the bigger maggies sound better than smaller ones in a room that is big enough for the largest speaker and all other things being equal. So the .7 should sound better than the new LRS model, and the 1.7s better than the .7 and so forth.  I owned the 1.7 and 3.7s, so at least that has been my experience. If I had realized the .7 wouldn't have worked for me in my small room (which was the original point of this thread), I would have probably saved my $$ and purchased a set of used 1.7s for what i paid for the .7s new since they ended up in a larger room than what I planned.

As far as returns, couldn't say but kind of doubt it unless you committed to them that the return would be in order to upgrade (vs money back). That said you should call them to get their policy.

Since you are down the road, you're welcome to come over to hear the .7s in my place--probably not as good as auditioning in a store environment, but certainly will give you an idea what you're getting into. You could even bring over your own amp.

[Saturn94]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I kind of figured the .7 would be a bit of a step up from the LRS.  I’m not sure how much a step up it is from the .7 to the 1.7i.   I did hear the 1.7 many years ago (soon after it came out?) at a dealer in Gordonsville VA (no longer in business), but I think he had them underpowered.

Thanks for the invite!  I’d love to hear the .7.  At 70 lbs, I’ll pass on bringing my own amp, lol.  I’ll send you a PM. 

[Wind Chaser]

Since you are down the road, you're welcome to come over to hear the .7s in my place--probably not as good as auditioning in a store environment... You could even bring over your own amp

Awesome, I hope Saturn94 takes you up on this kind offer and reports back. 

And I bet your room will better illustrate what he can expect in his home rather than a showroom demo.

I haven’t heard Maggies in many years. As a kid still living at home 37 years ago I had pair of the MG-1 IMP version in a very narrow room (10’ x 21’). They were positioned 3 maybe 4 inches at the most from the side walls and 10’ away from the front wall. I also had a pair of the Acoustat Model 2, which were placed further back about 6’ off the front wall. The stats produced deeper cleaner bass and were far more resolving, but they totally sucked when it came to dynamics. For that reason I kept the Maggies and let go of the Acoustats. 

Some people say Maggies fall short when it comes to dynamics, but I suspect this is just nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking, or the result of an amp that can’t cope with the load.

I know Maggies have come a long way since then and I’d be curious to hear any of the current models. It seems to me most people by default set their Maggies up in a far field arrangement with the tweeters on the inside. What I mean by a far field arrangement is the distance between the speakers is less than that of the distance to the listener.

Not sure why most people (not just Maggie owners) opt for such an arrangement, but after much experimentation I very much prefer the exact opposite with the greater distance being between speakers than distance to the listening position. To illustrate my speakers (also OB) are spread 12’ apart from each other with plenty of breathing room around them; the listening position however is only 8’ away. If I were draw out this arrangement to scale on paper, it would form a right-angle triangle with the speakers positioned at opposite ends of the hypotenuse.

I wonder if Maggies would work in such an arrangement? 

[Saturn94]

I definitely want to hear the .7.

Like you, Wind Chaser, my setup sounds best with speakers set wide.  Tweeter to tweeter is 8.5ft, and tweeter to ears is 7.5ft.  Front of the speaker to the wall behind them is 2.5ft.  They are toed in quite a bit.

My room is a living room/ dining room combo, about 14x25.  The speakers are on the long wall in the living room.  The system is used for 2 channel music, multichannel music, and HT.  Primary sources are music from my Salkstream III with Roon and my Oppo 103.

Hmmm.......I was going to post a pic but when I select to a upload pic from my iPad, it says No Photos.  Strange, I just posted some recently with no issues.  I’ll post one if I can figure out what’s wrong.

I’ve had Magnepan SMG (back in the early 80s, in a very small room), ADS L1290/2 (kept these over 25 years!), Salk HT2-TL, and currently have Soundfield Audio Monitor 1.

I remember the SMG fondly and find myself wondering how well Maggies would work in my current system.


And I’ve completely derailed/hijacked this thread, so I’ll stop here. 

[Saturn94]

Ah, got the photo to upload!

[SteveFord]

Something is missing from the picture.
1.7s, I would think.

[jaylevine]

\

And I’ve completely derailed/hijacked this thread, so I’ll stop here. 

NP

One thing I would note is while I think the .7s sound great with certain kinds of music, I don't find them that satisfying for more complex music with wide dynamic range. The good news is my tastes are pretty limited to music that the Maggies work well with--jazz vocal, anything piano or acoustic stringed, vibraphone jazz, opera arias, chamber music, all of the usual suspects in Maggie world.

The minute I get the urge to take a hit from my youth (Hendrix, Cream, Beatles) I run upstairs and spend time with my VTA 120 amp and Klipsch monitors....

[mick wolfe]

That's the beauty of having 2 systems. I'm with you there.  I've always loved Maggies, but we agree on the genres in which they do their best work.

[Wind Chaser]

One thing I would note is while I think the .7s sound great with certain kinds of music, I don't find them that satisfying for more complex music with wide dynamic range.

Relieve them of bass duties, preferably with a powered OB sub, and that should solve the problem.

[Saturn94]

Something is missing fro the picture.
1.7s, I would think.

 


Of course, like many here, the barrier is often $$$$.

[Saturn94]

NP

One thing I would note is while I think the .7s sound great with certain kinds of music, I don't find them that satisfying for more complex music with wide dynamic range. The good news is my tastes are pretty limited to music that the Maggies work well with--jazz vocal, anything piano or acoustic stringed, vibraphone jazz, opera arias, chamber music, all of the usual suspects in Maggie world.

The minute I get the urge to take a hit from my youth (Hendrix, Cream, Beatles) I run upstairs and spend time with my VTA 120 amp and Klipsch monitors....

Hmmm....I like the more complex stuff as well as the simple stuff.  I’ll have to hear for myself.

[Saturn94]

Relieve them of bass duties, preferably with a powered OB sub, and that should solve the problem.

I’ve found in my room a sub is a very good thing with any speakers I’ve had despite their bass capabilities.  The sub I’m using currently is a Power Sound Audio Triax (the original version).

[jaylevine]

I’ve found in my room a sub is a very good thing with any speakers I’ve had despite their bass capabilities.  The sub I’m using currently is a Power Sound Audio Triax (the original version).

No argument from me; both sets of Maggies I owned prior to the .7s benefited big time from subs (both my 1.7 and 3.7 Maggies were mated with dual Rel subs). Before moving into smaller digs I also had full Bryston stack driving my Maggies, and I'm sure they significantly improved the Maggies' performance over my D-Sonic amp. 

But as I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm just at the point where I don't invest endlessly in my audio systems re: trying to learn to just enjoy the music within their limitations of a budget since I retired in 2018 and maybe more to the point, not even sure I can tell the difference any more since my hearing has degraded significantly over the past 10 years.

Jay

[Saturn94]

...But as I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm just at the point where I don't invest endlessly in my audio systems re: trying to learn to just enjoy the music within their limitations of a budget since I retired in 2018 and maybe more to the point, not even sure I can tell the difference any more since my hearing has degraded significantly over the past 10 years.

Jay

+1!

[jmcpho]

+1!

Yeah -  I am trying to get there also.

Can anyone recommend a sub woofer to use with the .7?

[DeeCee]

I'm preparing to audition Maggie .7s myself; it was YEARS ago when I last listened to a set of Magneplanars... I have heard REL used seamlessly with a HT setup long ago.

If I do get .7s and I find I need that extra "lick", I would look at rythmikaudio.com. I like the idea of servo control and they seem to have a high bang per buck ratio (at least on paper.) They range from relatively inexpensive to pretty pricey - I'm most interested in the least priced  sealed model, the L12.

Anyone ever mate Maggies with the L12?

Happy Listening!
DeeCee

[Saturn94]

Since you are down the road, you're welcome to come over to hear the .7s in my place--probably not as good as auditioning in a store environment... You could even bring over your own amp

Awesome, I hope Saturn94 takes you up on this kind offer and reports back.  .....

Audition scheduled.