OT:Audio Part 13 - Magnetic/Electrostatic speakers

[William]

I'm curious to see if anyone is running Magnepan, Martin Logan, or other brands of these types of speakers? How do you like them, pros and cons, etc... My interest is piqued, I have amps that can handle the 4-ohm loads some require...do I want to give these a shot? Reviews on some of these seem to have a high number of positive comments. If I can find a place to demo I'll give that a shot but figured I would ask the forum audiophile collective first.

Now, I say this but the other question is with Mrs William, will she be okay with these types of monoliths in the LR? I don't know yet but the thin profile of some of these speakers may get them a pass.






W.

[yinzerniner]

Originally Posted by William

I'm curious to see if anyone is running Magnepan, Martin Logan, or other brands of these types of speakers? How do you like them, pros and cons, etc... My interest is piqued, I have amps that can handle the 4-ohm loads some require...do I want to give these a shot? Reviews on some of these seem to have a high number of positive comments. If I can find a place to demo I'll give that a shot but figured I would ask the forum audiophile collective first.

Now, I say this but the other question is with Mrs William, will she be okay with these types of monoliths in the LR? I don't know yet but the thin profile of some of these speakers may get them a pass.

W.

Not necessarily good for blanket generalizations - kind of like affixing ride qualities to frame materials. But planars/electrostatic speakers have their own strengths and weaknesses inherent in their construction and tech.

But the great majority of planars need
-Lots of room
-good 4 ohm amplification
-placement flexibility for sweet spot optimization

If you have a big room, good amplification and a set listening spot then you’ll be hard pressed to find better sound quality for the money than planars with a good low subwoofer portion or separate sub. Also the soundstage depth is usually magical if you have those other elements in place.

[warren128]

I've been running a pair of "mini Maggies", Magnepan MMG, for almost 30 years. If anything ever happens to them, I'd replace them in a heartbeat for the latest model. I never felt the need to upgrade to a bigger version (although I've been curious about it).

The soundstage, realism, and clarity are amazing.

But:

- you'll need a good power source. My older MMG are more tolerant of lesser amplifiers than the current MMG version (I read reviews about this, no first hand knowledge)
- speaker placement is important. They need room behind them because the sound radiates in both directions. Mine stand 3 feet from the wall behind them.
- In my case, I augmented them with a conventional subwoofer to handle the bass below 50hz.
- they will reveal bad recordings on your source material.

I love mine, but YMMV, of course.

[William]

Thank you for sharing! Both of your comments fall in line with what I've read so far.

I've been running a pair of "mini Maggies", Magnepan MMG, for almost 30 years. If anything ever happens to them, I'd replace them in a heartbeat for the latest model. I never felt the need to upgrade to a bigger version (although I've been curious about it).

The soundstage, realism, and clarity are amazing.

I think that model is now the LRS. I came across these as well in my interweb wanderings and they seem to have a large following. I've read they can be flat out of the box and need some time to burn in to open up. I wonder if this is a magnepan trait or inherent in most planar/electrostatic speakers?







W.

[Peter P.]

You can buy the Magnepan LRS direct from Magnepan, with a 60 day return policy. Why not take advantage of it and try them?

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by William

I'm curious to see if anyone is running Magnepan, Martin Logan, or other brands of these types of speakers? How do you like them, pros and cons, etc... My interest is piqued, I have amps that can handle the 4-ohm loads some require...do I want to give these a shot? Reviews on some of these seem to have a high number of positive comments. If I can find a place to demo I'll give that a shot but figured I would ask the forum audiophile collective first.

Now, I say this but the other question is with Mrs William, will she be okay with these types of monoliths in the LR? I don't know yet but the thin profile of some of these speakers may get them a pass.

If you're into headbanger music, no, you won't like them. If you like jazz or female vocalists, you'll fall in love. I loved Maggies first time I heard them.

And with regard to the thin profile...maybe...but they do take up a lot of space visually, and they don't want to be up against the wall. So they may dominate more of the room than their petite fore-aft measurements might suggest.

It would help if Mrs. W is into music as well. Put her music on first for demo purposes...

Also, they are not necessarily pet friendly...Cats have been known to do nasty things to planar (and electrostatic) speakers. And I could imagine a dog seeing a Maggie as an indoor tree trunk. Oops.

Speaking of which...I was waiting in line at the Philly Amtrak station just before the holidays a few years ago, and saw a young police dog use the Christmas tree in the middle of the hall for what he thought was an appropriate use. It was pretty funny...

[tomato coupe]

Do they plane?

[glepore]

I ran a set of Accoustats for maybe 5 years. They were my dream speaker. They had an amazing soundstage depth, but only if you were within say 1 ft of the "sweet spot"-you'd think being bipole drivers they wouldn't require that, but they did. In the sweetspot? Wow. The other downside was lack of bass depth-they went low but sounded somewhat thin. But with a good jazz recording they could blow you away-think the Sheffield stuff with Harry James, he was in the doggone room. Just don't move.

I ended up switching over to Ohm 4's, and while they aren't as ethereal in the very high frequencies like the stats, they have the same soundstage depth, but pretty much anywhere in the room. They're omnidirectional, not bipolar.

A speaker that continues to amaze me on jazz and acoustic music, and light rock, is the Betsy. It's a homebuilt full range open back - the drivers are under $100. I coupled them with a pair of emit tweeters for extra oomph in the high end. Why bring them up here? Because the stage much like a bipole stat, although with a somewhat less "sharp" sound. I love them as bedroom speakers, and they're a great way to figure out if you like bipoles.

[glepore]

Originally Posted by C40_guy

Also, they are not necessarily pet friendly...Cats have been known to do nasty things to planar (and electrostatic) speakers. And I could imagine a dog seeing a Maggie as an indoor tree trunk. Oops.

LOL My cats loved to climb my stat's. Luckily the panels were a little more than a claw width behind the fabric, but the fabric soon looked like crap.

[Ken Robb]

I demoed a pair of bigger Magnapans in my home 30 years ago and I really liked them in my "sweet spot" for them. Unfortunately that was in the middle of my living room and moving my head a foot to either side really reduced the quality of the sound. The dealer wasn't surprised to hear this. He said some of his customers used tape on the floor to "mark the spot" so they could move the speakers against a wall when not listening and easily reposition them while the amplifier warmed up. That was too fussy for me. I bought a pair of Vandersteen Model 2 and loved them until a tweeter died after 20 years. They were long out of warranty but Richard Vandersteen was embarrassed that he didn't have a replacement tweeter so he made me a very nice deal on a pair his latest Model 2. I haven't heard any speaker I like better anywhere near their price and they do not need a subwoofer.

[pooneej]

I had Magnepan 3.6r's a number of years ago and they truly were pretty amazing in the room I had them in, with the right material (female vocals were pretty OMG). Classe amplification ~500W per side.

They also moved some air surprisingly well. Track 6 on "Eagles Hell Freezes Over" is Hotel California with a classical guitar intro. Then the bass drums hit - you could feel that pulse - quite different than a cone speaker. That I definitely miss about them. I probably would still have them if I didn't move and lose that dedicated listening room. They don't really like crank it up hardcore music though and I am a bit into everything and like listening at concert level volumes at time - Slipknot, Tool, etc. So when I'd play that music I would move the Maggies out of the way and drive the NHT 3.3's.

Years before that I had Martin Logan Aerius i's biwire (but I never biwired em). Only had 150w integrated amp powering them along with a velodyne ULD15 subwoofer. That combo did a lot of different types of music very well.


I tried going back the Maggie route but with MMG-W and the MC1. They're pretty boring and have been sitting back in their boxes in the basement for years now. Memories of the 3.6r is all I'll have from now on

Enjoy whatever ones you get.

[thwart]

Originally Posted by warren128

I've been running a pair of "mini Maggies", Magnepan MMG, for almost 30 years. If anything ever happens to them, I'd replace them in a heartbeat for the latest model. I never felt the need to upgrade to a bigger version (although I've been curious about it).

The soundstage, realism, and clarity are amazing.

But:

- you'll need a good power source. My older MMG are more tolerant of lesser amplifiers than the current MMG version (I read reviews about this, no first hand knowledge)
- speaker placement is important. They need room behind them because the sound radiates in both directions. Mine stand 3 feet from the wall behind them.
- In my case, I augmented them with a conventional subwoofer

Completely agree. Have had stacked Advents (ah, those college days... ), Dahlquist DQ-10’s, Vandersteens, Totems, B & W’s... the MMG’s are just better for that spooky ‘you are there’ realism, IMO... provided you can set them up as you’ve mentioned. The smaller REL subwoofers work well with them, although they are very listenable on their own.

And yes, they need a fair amount of power for their most dynamic sound.

They sound so good that up to now I’ve held off on replacing them with their successor, the widely acclaimed LRS.

And... they are small enough that they don’t overpower a moderately sized room visually, unlike the higher end models that Magnepan sells. They are light enough to easily move them out into the room for those times that you want the best sound.

[mcteague]

Into doing some assembly yourself? Linkwitz Lab speakers are powered dipoles and have the open quality of electrostatics and planars but also have deep bass and dynamics. There are quite a few Magnapan owners who have moved to these.

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/

https://www.magiclx521.com/

Tim

[schwa86]

My dad has a pair of Martin Logan’s — he mostly listens to classical. They have amazing sound but as others have said you need to be in a pretty specific listening spot with them.

[RudAwkning]

I used to have a pair of Apogee Mini Grands and have had a pair of Studio Grands for the last 15 years. Love them. As long as you have your room and power requirements sussed out, it's hard to beat the sound of panels. As folks have said, you may need to complement them with a subwoofer as panels don't pack that "sock you in the chest" bass that dynamic drivers deliver.

If you end up with a pair that aren't as tall as you, you'll experience the "head under water" phenomenon when standing up. Ribbons and electrostats radiate directly in front and behind. They're not domed like a dynamic drivers so there's a vertical threshold.