Making Magnapan's more rigid.

[manlystanley]

My 1.6's came with a pair of stands, somewhat as shown in the below link:

https://myesound.com/Gallery.html

The stand's still keep the speaker vertical, but make it more rigid. I read testimony's like:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?raccs&1231740811

and wonder if maybe these stands really do something. So, as a question, does anyone else use vertical stand's for there Planar speakers? If yes, do they really help??

Thanks,
Stan

[Geoffcin]

Yes, the stands help. The more rigid a speaker is the less distortion from sympathetic vibrations in it's cabinet, or in this case frame. While maggies are much better than most box speakers, additional rigidity is always good thing. It also makes for better bass, and imaging.

[manlystanley]

Yes, the stands help. The more rigid a speaker is the less distortion from sympathetic vibrations in it's cabinet, or in this case frame. While maggies are much better than most box speakers, additional rigidity is always good thing. It also makes for better bass, and imaging.

Geoffcin,
Great! I'll try putting them together and see how it improves things. So far the things that I don't like about the Maggies are:

-- Imaging sweet spot is very small. I don't know how using hem for movies without a center will work.

--Bass is weaker.

I'm hoping that the stands will help with both.

Best Regards,
Stan

[Dawnrazor]

Stan,

SOmething is not quite right. Maggies can and do provide a huge soundstage.

Sure, mine are heavily modded, but that said, my soundstage is 12ft wide with a strong center fill.

How far apart do you have them? Are you using them with the tweeters in or out.

Also, it is a long shot, but something worthwhile ruling out, do you have them connected with the correct polarity? While rare, it is possible that they could be wired wrong internally and be wrong even if you hooked them up right or if your bi-wiring made it tougher to get it right. Have you tried a phase test like that on the XLO test disk??

Please dont take offense at that last suggestion. I had a friend who was a long time audiophile. I went to listen to his system and after a song or 2 something wasnt right. I told him I thought it sounded like things were out of phase. He checked his wiring and sure enough it was correct. THen he used a test disk, and bingo it WAS out of phase on the top end. Internally one tweeter was wired wrong....

[manlystanley]

Stan,

SOmething is not quite right. Maggies can and do provide a huge soundstage.

Sure, mine are heavily modded, but that said, my soundstage is 12ft wide with a strong center fill.

How far apart do you have them? Are you using them with the tweeters in or out.

Also, it is a long shot, but something worthwhile ruling out, do you have them connected with the correct polarity? While rare, it is possible that they could be wired wrong internally and be wrong even if you hooked them up right or if your bi-wiring made it tougher to get it right. Have you tried a phase test like that on the XLO test disk??

Please dont take offense at that last suggestion. I had a friend who was a long time audiophile. I went to listen to his system and after a song or 2 something wasnt right. I told him I thought it sounded like things were out of phase. He checked his wiring and sure enough it was correct. THen he used a test disk, and bingo it WAS out of phase on the top end. Internally one tweeter was wired wrong....

I telework tomorrow, so I'll try everything out that you said. I'd be excited about the 12 ft sound stage. But, anyways, to answer your questions:

1.) Tweeter is out.
2.) Polarity, I'll re-check.
3.) 9 feet apart, with about 12 feet from my sitting position.
4.) I'll order the XLO disk tomorrow.

Thanks,
Stan

[Dawnrazor]

I telework tomorrow, so I'll try everything out that you said. I'd be excited about the 12 ft sound stage. But, anyways, to answer your questions:

1.) Tweeter is out.
2.) Polarity, I'll re-check.
3.) 9 feet apart, with about 12 feet from my sitting position.
4.) I'll order the XLO disk tomorrow.

Thanks,
Stan

Hey Stan,

I might have misunderstood your initial post. Are you saying that the sweetspot or the area you can put your head and still get a soundstage is small??? Or that the soundstage is small??

Maggies DO have a pretty small sweetspot and it could be hard to have 2 people sitting side by side both get a reasonable stereo image.

Anyhow, the Cardas site should help you get the placement dialed as it should bring them out further than 3 ft.

That XLO disk is a must have for burn in and polarity and magnetism and for absolute phase, etc.

Let us know how it works out.

[manlystanley]

Hey Stan,

I might have misunderstood your initial post. Are you saying that the sweetspot or the area you can put your head and still get a soundstage is small??? Or that the soundstage is small??

Maggies DO have a pretty small sweetspot and it could be hard to have 2 people sitting side by side both get a reasonable stereo image.

Anyhow, the Cardas site should help you get the placement dialed as it should bring them out further than 3 ft.

That XLO disk is a must have for burn in and polarity and magnetism and for absolute phase, etc.

Let us know how it works out.

Hello DR,
Yes, I meant the space that I put my head into. I tried making the Maggies less focused and it makes the sweat spot have less imaging, but much larger. I don't have a center speaker and so need to use the phantom speaker as the center speaker for movies. But hen, we only watch a movie once a week (at most).

I ordered the XLO disk, it will be here in about a week. Thanks for the pointer!

I'll try out that really cool site, set everything up and get back to you.

Best Regards,
Stan

[audio amateur]

Stan, how does the 1.6's bass compare with the 684?

[manlystanley]

Stan, how does the 1.6's bass compare with the 684?


Without the 1.2 ohm resister: Almost no bass. The Maggies sounds like a tinny cheap speaker.

With the 1.2 ohm resister: I think the bass sounds at least ass good as the 684. In fact, at times it shakes the walls and I get the gut wrenching feeling of bass going though me. With all that I've read, no one has said that the tweeter attenuation resister should have such a huge effect--but it does on my system......

Best Regards,
Stan

[manlystanley]

Stan, how does the 1.6's bass compare with the 684?


Also, it seems like the 1.2 ohm resisters take away some of the imaging--but then make it more broader as well. In other words, I can walk about 8-10 feet behind my listening postion and get some imaging now. So it seems like:

-- 2 Feet sweet spot
-- 4 Feet fairly good imaging.
-- 8 feet some imaging.

So, with the resistors, I don't have the famous Maggie imaging, but: the sound is warm, imaging is much better then my 684's and I use them for home theator (without a center speaker), and I get so much more nuances to the music. I'm constantly discovering new sound threads that I never knew were there.. Not bad.

Also, my wife says that I keep the volume down so much more now as compared to my 684's. I think, this that's because the 1.6's are much more detailed and I acan hear them better.

In general I'm pleased. But being a human, I want more so will try to find ways to push things.

Best Regards,
Stan

[blackraven]

I find it strange that you don't have much bass or imaging. It has to be the acoustics of your room. My friends always comment about the nice bass my maggies put out. The bass that a planar speaker puts out is different than a cone speaker. There is no thump and the bass is tighter and more controlled. Also, the 1.6's only go down to about 40Hz. It can also be the type of music and recordings you are using.

As far as imaging is concerned, I find that in my room that the imaging is superb and the sound stage is huge. My hybrid DAC and my 840c really expanded what was already there. When I auditioned the Marantz SA8001 and 8003 SACDP's in home the imaging and sound stage were worse, so it could also by poor system matching with your gear.

I would still try and fine tune them with small changes in position, even just an inch or 2. I would also consider warmer sounding IC's (which IC's are you using and what speaker wire, I use 10g wire and found it made a small but noticeable improvement in sound from 16g wire. I just recently switched out a pair of Monster m1000i IC's for a pair of Bluejean IC's. While the sound is a bit more detailed, I lost some warmth and bass). I would still consider a tube buffer which will warm up the sound and help tame that Emotiva amp. I don't have first hand experience with that amp but from what I have read about it says it leans on the bright side and lacks a little low end punch. I can tell you that when I was using my 226wpc Adcom AVR to drive the Maggies the sound was good. When I went to my Parasound Halo A21, the sound was transformed and really came alive. Adding the Van Alstine Hybrid Tube preamp and Hybrid DAC really transformed it into an audiophile system.