Wake Up Maggie (1.7's)

[Raj J]

I was thrilled to discover that the listening room that I auditioned the 1.7s in was nearly identical to my own. The speakers were maybe 18" off the rear wall, about 8' apart, and the chair that I sat in was against the opposite wall 12' away. I got up and moved about 4' laterally in both directions from the chair, but image quality suffered only slightly.

How do the 1.7s compare to the 1.6s? I'm seeing some incredible bargains start surfacing on the 1.6s lately.

message from Raj J (melbourne) - if I were you, I would not buy used maggies or used panels for that matter! it's just the experience I have had in the past, and the amount of hard work I have had to put into them for them to be working properly again was a hassle and costly affair! I look after my equipment even better than I look after my self! therefore, in no circumstance have I ever come across used audio gear carefully used as I have, other than the ACT2 that I recently purchased. all the used gear I have bought have had to have something upgraded or the other fixed... even my MG IIIa's had to have both tweeters replaced, and they were missing both mid-range fuses! jeeze, come to think of it the previous owner was only listening to half the bloody performance! must have been def!

especially with maggies, buy only used if you are DAM SURE about the buyer and can trust them, also only if the panel is in excellent condition.

I would wait for a while and try to save up and buy MG1.7 brand new with full warranty. later on you could sell them after carefully using the pair and go for an upgrade to the MG3.6/R or something newer. this is what I would do if I were you. maggies have to be handled extremely carefully, like electrostatic panels. a lot of people unfortunately don't care or are unaware of this special care required during shipping as well as at home. you also need to know what maggies are about and how delicate those ribbons are before you think of buying a pair. remember these are precision musical instruments and not speakers in a box!

cheers and all the best in your decision.
Raj J (go for the new 1.7 forget the 1.6... that's history!)

[cackalacky]

Thanks for all the advice, everybody. A guy can learn a lot lurking around here, drooling on his keyboard.

Raj, thanks for the warning about used Maggies. That's exactly where I was headed. It makes sense that they would be fragile/easily damaged.