Stands for mmgw

[StevenSurprenant]

I needed some stands for my friends MMGW's and those don't exist, so... I'm in the process of making my own. Here are a couple of pictures of what I have so far...

BTW, You can also use these stands for the MC1's and these can easily be modified for MMG's... (just use longer cross braces between posts) The stands bring the speakers 2 feet off the floor as per Magnepans recommendation.

I wanted them to be strong and yet keep that open look. It costs about $70 to make (both) and I used a chop saw and a hand sander for smoothing the curves.

Hopefully these will be finished before xmas as they are a gift.

[TheHills44060]

Oh wow those are too cool Steven. Are you going to stain or paint them too?

[StevenSurprenant]

I'm thinking of staining them, but am a little undecided of which direction to go. BTW, they are made from oak. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Feanor]

I needed some stands for my friends MMGW's and those don't exist, so... I'm in the process of making my own. Here are a couple of pictures of what I have so far...

BTW, You can also use these stands for the MC1's and these can easily be modified for MMG's... (just use longer cross braces between posts) The stands bring the speakers 2 feet off the floor as per Magnepans recommendation.

I wanted them to be strong and yet keep that open look. It costs about $70 to make (both) and I used a chop saw and a hand sander for smoothing the curves.

Hopefully these will be finished before xmas as they are a gift.

Nice job!

I few years ago I made much less magnificent stands for my own MMGs. They were decently effective though. They simply bolted on instead of the standard 'L' bracket stands.

[StevenSurprenant]

For the MMG's your stands make more sense. I like them! It looks like they're plenty strong, perfect! I like them in black, looks good. The only real difference is that I put two boards on the side of each leg.

It's hard to explain, but I made my stands heavier duty because my friend is hard on stands. I knew that if I bolted the panels to the frame that she would soon have them ripped off. The other thing is that the MMGW's are not as tall as the MMG's so they had to be raised up too much to make a stand like yours strong enough for this purpose.

[StevenSurprenant]

Here's one mans version of a maggie stand.... This makes our stands look like toys.

[Feanor]

That guy's stands are very impressive -- and massive. Looks like he did some crossover mods too.

[StevenSurprenant]

I finished constructing the speaker stands a few days ago and gave them to my friend. I left them unfinished because I thought she would like to decide on that. As it turned out, she wanted them in black paint with the wood grain showing. She was going to be gone for a month and I figured I would finish them while she was gone. This was not to be. Yesterday, Christmas eve, I gave her a call and she had bought the paint and wanted to paint them right away. So, we spent an enjoyable day painting them in her bathroom. It was too cold to do it in the garage. I had figured on taking my time and preparing the wood for a professional look, but that's not how it turned out. We slapped on the paint, slapped on the clear, and we were done. We finally finished at 11:00pm. Warts and all, she was so thrilled with the results. I guy can't ask for more than that.

Unlike most women, she loves her stereo and loves to sit back in a darkened room and listen, late into the night. I met her about 10 years ago when a friend introduced her to me as someone interested in buying a stereo. I showed her my system and she sat there listening with tears flowing from her eyes. She said that she never knew that music sounded that way. I helped her pick out a stereo which was pretty much a copy of mine. I figured that since she liked what I had, that would be the prudent thing to do. At the time, my stereo was a low cost temporary solution until I upgraded and was nothing to brag about.

I can't remember how many times she told me that music used to be something that she listened to while doing other things, but now, when it was playing, she would stop doing other things and just sit and listen.

Anyway, I really enjoyed myself making the stands, and enjoyed even more, the joy I saw in her eyes.

Merry Christmas everyone.

[StevenSurprenant]

Here's the final picture. I'll spruce up the wires later.

[Feanor]

Here's the final picture. I'll spruce up the wires later.

Looking good.

Do you find that elevating the MMGW's reduces their bass output?

[StevenSurprenant]

Not really. These speakers don't have much bass to begin with. Also, they are at the height that Magnepan suggested. She also uses a subwoofer which seems to mate very well with these panels.

I suppose that you might want to know how they sound...

I haven't spent any time positioning these, but here are my initial impressions...

Clarity is very good and even the highs are surprisingly good. there seems to be 2 things that seem off. First, there seems to be a hump somewhere in the midrange. At certain frequencies the sound can be piercing. However, this seems to have improved with the new stands. Secondly, the imaging could be better. The soundstage is very good, but the instruments seem to lack body. I suspect that part of the second issue can be cured by inserting a notch filter onto the speaker, the rest with a different speaker position.

I honesty think this is a great way to go. It sounds better than just good, especially considering that this is a very low cost system.

[Feanor]

Not really. These speakers don't have much bass to begin with. Also, they are at the height that Magnepan suggested. She also uses a subwoofer which seems to mate very well with these panels.

I suppose that you might want to know how they sound...

I haven't spent any time positioning these, but here are my initial impressions...

Clarity is very good and even the highs are surprisingly good. there seems to be 2 things that seem off. First, there seems to be a hump somewhere in the midrange. At certain frequencies the sound can be piercing. However, this seems to have improved with the new stands. Secondly, the imaging could be better. The soundstage is very good, but the instruments seem to lack body. I suspect that part of the second issue can be cured by inserting a notch filter onto the speaker, the rest with a different speaker position.

I honesty think this is a great way to go. It sounds better than just good, especially considering that this is a very low cost system.

Yes, I guess we shouldn't forget these are the MMGW's not the MMG's. Magnepan is a pains to point out they are only supposed to be used down to 100Hz.

The common wisdom is that bass only becomes omni-directional below 80 Hz, so a 100 Hz cut-off could affect imaging even with adequate bass volume from a subwoofer. Did you friend take advantage of Magnepan's "$30 Disposable Speaker Stand Kit" that they recommend to help the user determine the best speaker positioning? -- Of course your custom stands are bound to be far better any $30 disposable.

[StevenSurprenant]

No, she didn't try the disposables. We did try putting the speakers on the short wall but about 8 foot from the wall behind and the soundstage went very deep. It was nice except that they looked out of place (windows and things in the way). She moved the stereo to the long wall which puts her about 8/9 feet from the speaker and about 4 foot from the wall behind.

Anyway, I haven't had the time to play with it but when I get the time I'm sure I can improve what I hear. I did learn on Magnepan's site that they recommend a ratio of 6 to 9 for speaker placement. That is, 6 foot apart for 9 foot listening distance. I did notice that the distance apart makes a big difference with these panels. Too far apart and the image looses it's solidity. Perhaps adjusting that is the first thing to try.

It still sounds very good considering.