Magnepan MG-20 attenuation & tips

[JoeE SP9]

Sound absorbing panels are the same for any kind of speaker. Do a search for the thread Manley Stanley started here showing how he made his own panels. There are also plenty of DIY sound absorbing panel projects all over the web.

What makes sound absorbing panels work is the fiberglass behind the fabric. The fabric covers only need to be as acoustically transparent as possible. Curtains and/or normal fabric by itself aren't particularly effective.

[K-High-Fi]

Thank you JoeE SP9 and all for helpfull replies. I understand it all, I will look for absorbents. Thanks.

[JoeE SP9]

Look for sound transparent fabrics that are aesthetically pleasing. The fiberglass panel underneath is what matters.

Owens Corning fiberglass panels are what you need. See the link below. Build some simple frames to hold them. Wrap them in acoustically transparent fabric of your choice. Hang them in the appropriate spots. Voilà! Better sound immediately.

Amazon.com: Owens Corning 703 24"x48"x2" Fiberglass Boards - Pack of 6: Musical Instruments

[Big Dog RJ]

Please read your MG20 owner's manual carefully and then give Magnepan a call with all your questions!
Your owner's manual just about answers every question you have asked on this forum.

Just like the others said, you can call Magnepan and they will be happy to answer your call. I have personally spoken to a person named Steven in Techincal, he was very helpful. But he told me very abruptly "first read your owner's manual!" and that was about 16 years ago.

I hope it all goes well for you K, because the MG20 is a great speaker that requires proper placement and the ideal room for them to sound right. To me it sounds like you defenitely have a serious room problem... Again your owner's manual talks about this under sections -room placement, room treatment and room acoustics, plus ideal room size for MG20; I forget what page it was...

If you don't have any of these traits, then I suggest purchase a smaller pair of maggies such as the 1.7QR (fantastic magneplanar speaker) to me set up properly sounds far more coherent than the MG20). I have been using magneplanars for over 20 years since 1986, and only recently switched to Electrostatics.

Magnepan is a very well established company and will be happy to assist. However, they do prefer that you also seek assistance directly from your Magnepan dealer, they should also know a great deal about magneplanars.

Cheers mate, and have a good one.
RJ

[JoeE SP9]

Although I agree with just about everything Big Dog has written, it in no way diminishes the need for room treatment. Fixing the room acoustics is like getting a 50% better system for a couple of hundred dollars. This applies to every room and every system regardless of cost.

I went through three pairs of Magnepan's since 1976, (MG-1, MG-2A and MG-3.1) before switching to esl's.

[Big Dog RJ]

Yes Joe, I completely agree with room treatment.
Infat I just posted a longer coment about this, and for some reason it didn't go through.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had this experience with my very own Alexandria X-2's. The sound was crap, because my room was crap. I sent them off back to my overseas dealer who galdly found a new home for them with a surgeon. His room was very dedicated to Wilson type speakers since his previous system was a Infinity IRS V series, plus Apogee studio Grands. The chap also owned previously the Martin Logan Statements Evolution III series. He was extremely pleased with the X-2's and in his room they sounded absolutely stunning.

Now in my smaller room I get excellent levels of realism with the ML2.2's driving the Quad 2905's. In my opinion the room plays around nearly 80% of what your system is capable of. And if it is a high end system capable of revealing a remarkable soundstage, you MUST get your room sorted out.

I don't know what problem Mr. K is having, seems like something is not right here inspite of him have top notch gear from Krell driving MG20's. If he could send us a photo of his set up, I have a pretty good hunch of what the problem might be...

Cheers and have a good one.
RJ

[K-High-Fi]

Hi,

Thank you all very much for wealthy replies. Actually i spend some time experience the attenuations i purchased from Parts Connection (mills) and seems most (if not all) of the problem i had is solved now. I end up using attenuations values of 2 Ohms, but i may need little more. Also i have to say they sound better from the ones that comes with MG-20, the sound now become warm and natural, and i don't hear the HF forward or higher than MID and LOW as before .
I haven't yet order the chokes yet, but I will get them soon .