magnepan, anyone?

himadri

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hi
recently on my visit to delhi i had a chance to demo magnepan mg12 and i was floored by their resolution and clarity and esentially 'boxless sound'. being a bipolar (but strictly 2 channel) guy myself (i use definitive technology bp7004) i think magnepan is a highly cost effective high end sound.(except that its indian price is highly inflated).
does anyone here have maggie mg12 or higher? what are their experiences?
how does the mylar diaphram behave under indian conditions?
what about repairs/ repacements.(not to mention damage by pests like mice etc?)
though my deftechs are brand new but im itching for magnepans.
my denon integrated pma2000ivr may also cry out for help in order to drive the demanding maggies but till now ihve never felt any current or low impedance problems. this amp has enough juice for moderate systems.
advice on maggies anyone?
 
Himadri, Forum member Panditji & I auditioned the Maggies some months back in the demo room of A2V at Select City Walk, Saket, N.Delhi.
We were floored by the midrange magic, openness & air of the maggies.
But they sounded seriously flat w/o a subwoofer, but you can always put in a S/W ,can't you?
Panditji was seriously considering acquiring the maggies but the price quoted, more than double the US price was a real downer-I wish the Indian dealers would'nt consider audiophiles as hens waiting to be plucked!
Since you also loved the open non boxy sound of the bipolar maggies, do audition the Electrostatic range of Cadence, Pune-we were blown away!
Cadence sometimes sells factory refurbished pairs at a heavy discount( one of our forum members recently acquired a pair of Aninas-love the name, don't you?-at virtually half the price of a new pair) making them within reach of many.
Do listen to them & prepare to be amazed.
 
Hi
This post is a small deviation, so pls take it in the right spirit. The Magnepans excel in midrange, however if imaging and soundstage is important to you, this will be greatly and artifically enhanced, the instruments, singers, etc will all sound much much bigger than real life. For a dipole alternative (if you are even open), I would recommend that you take a look at the Emerald Physics which will produce bass down to 20 Hz (-3 dB). You can also add a tube SET amp for the mids/highs of the EP and an SS for the bass and get the best of both worlds. I had a pair of the smaller and older series Maggies a long time back, so I am quite familiar with this sound.

You can also ofcourse add a sub which is the most common way to use Maggies, I would recommend getting two subs. 2 good subs + cost of maggies will ofcourse push your entire package price up quite a bit.

cheers
Odyssey
 
Odyssey wrote-
"I would recommend that you take a look at the Emerald Physics which will produce bass down to 20 Hz (-3 dB). "
I read your post & the review in the link provided by you ,with interest.
How much do the EP's cost?Do they need special amplification-min rms power reqts?
Is it possible to organise an audition by some of our B'lore based members?
 
thanks odyssey and kamal
your alternatives of cadence(proudly indian) and ep are gratefully accepted.yes, imaging and soundstage may be a problem with maggies.but being a dipole user for long i have managed to have a right mix of of the wall reflections and direct sound by taking care of the first reflections suitably.im also sure the midrange magic will overwhelm the larger than life imaging.as regards the subwoofer , do u need a real fast one? or a conventional kef, dali, deftch will do?
 
You'd need a fast S/W to match the maggies speed.
In the audition we tried a lower power ,less expensive SW but there was a clear mismatch; so, matching a SW would be crucial.
 
thanks odyssey and kamal
your alternatives of cadence(proudly indian) and ep are gratefully accepted.yes, imaging and soundstage may be a problem with maggies.but being a dipole user for long i have managed to have a right mix of of the wall reflections and direct sound by taking care of the first reflections suitably.im also sure the midrange magic will overwhelm the larger than life imaging.as regards the subwoofer , do u need a real fast one? or a conventional kef, dali, deftch will do?

Hi Himadri
Great to know that you are an experienced dipole listener, there arent that many and it can be very addictive. Though both EPs and Maggies are dipoles, there is a difference, the EPs are dipoles only till 1Khz after that the mids/tw have controlled directivity. Due to the latter, the speakers can be placed even a foot away from the side wall, first reflection is not such an issue with this speaker!

Hi Kamal

Audition is more than possible :D, please call Ali at 4123 4644 and come by to Hitachi showroom on Coles road. We are making some changes to the listening room, but with a bit of notice, its possible to keep the EPs ready for audition.
The EPs are 100 dB efficient in the mids/highs and can be run with a lower power SET amp. The lows are equalized to 90dB efficiency and the designer tells me that even a high power pro amp can be used (basically, it does not have to be a high quality amp). So while the number of amps required are 2 stereo, one of them does not have to be of great quality and the other needs to have good refiniment but not necessary to have too much power. In the showroom, we run all channels with the Odyssey Stratos since we dont have a SET amp.
ROC and Sq Wave have already heard the EPs, however they were not setup as well as they are today, but anyone is welcome to drop in, the potential of the setup will be obvious to anyone who hears it . I will not be in town for about a month, so if anyone likes you can always contact me by email and if you can wait till mid Aug to hear the speaker, it will be broken in more by then :)

cheers
[email protected]
 
The REL sub will work fine with the Magnepan. I am not familiar with their new models. In the older models, REL Strata would have been a good choice.
 
Re welcome to audition the EP's.
Alas Sridhar, much as I would love to, I can't-I'm stuck in Delhi.
Thats why I was hoping that some experienced Bangaluru based audiophile would come forward for an audition & a detailed write up.
Thanks for the invite, all the same.
If I happen to visit B'lore then of course....
 
Hi Kamal
ooops, my mistake, well if you are here in BLR anytime, you could always come by :) I am sure, we will have a few forum members come by in the next week or two, I could ask them to post their opinions or you could contact them separately for more details

cheers
 
I am sure the Emerald Physics will be more room friendly than the Magnepans. Placement will be much easier. I have owned Martin Logans, Cadence and the highly acclaimed Audio Artistry speakers at various points. The Audio Artistry speakers were open baffle dipoles,the easiest to place and the most natural sounding of the three which i would largely attribute to low room interference. The Cadence electrostats were sweet sounding but to my ears they always sounded a bit sluggish. Never did justice to rock recordings. The Logans were incredibly fast but again bass integration was not very good. The newer models i heard are free from this problem. The Audio Artistry speakers were in a different league but so was their price point. So i guess its an unfair comparison. Having experienced all these 3 speakers i can understand what Odyssey was trying to say. I suggest Himadri you must at least audition Emerald Physics speakers. I have only heard good things about them.
 
I am sure the Emerald Physics will be more room friendly than the Magnepans. Placement will be much easier. I have owned Martin Logans, Cadence and the highly acclaimed Audio Artistry speakers at various points. The Audio Artistry speakers were open baffle dipoles,the easiest to place and the most natural sounding of the three which i would largely attribute to low room interference. The Cadence electrostats were sweet sounding but to my ears they always sounded a bit sluggish. Never did justice to rock recordings. The Logans were incredibly fast but again bass integration was not very good. The newer models i heard are free from this problem. The Audio Artistry speakers were in a different league but so was their price point. So i guess its an unfair comparison. Having experienced all these 3 speakers i can understand what Odyssey was trying to say. I suggest Himadri you must at least audition Emerald Physics speakers. I have only heard good things about them.

Hi Prem,
thanks for your post. I havent heard the Cadence, but I have heard the other two, I remember that I liked what I heard when I listened to the AA but this was quite sometime back. I agree with your posts about the ML, have not heard the newer ones either. If you are ever in Bangalore, do give us a shout.

cheers
 
Will do Odyssey. In fact i need to hear a lot of stuff in Bangalore. The Emerald Physics speakers, the Odyssey amps at your store and the Linn DS machines at Prithvis.
 
thanks all of you guys for the informative inputs on bipoles ,dipoles and ribbons/electrostats. one brand was missed out. what about quad? and yes oddyssey, once you get the placement of bipoles/dipoles correctly done ,it really becomes highly addictive and especially the sidewalls virtually dissappear leaving a far wider soundstage.in fact when i shifted to deftechs from dali cocepts (purely for economic reasons) against general advice that deftechs are for home threatre only i could noticed the remarkable difference.(of course it took me 2 years to convince my wife to convert the master bedroom to audio room)
 
Quad. Auditioned the 989s which was the previous model. Midrange to die for. Could not play very loud. Big speakers. So i guess problems in placing them in a room
 
The Emerald physics sure sounds great. It is one of the most ??live? sounding speakers I have heard. Setup right, they can sound fantastic.

??Uncompressed sound? is one word you can use to describe them
 
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