The BEASTS have arrived! Goodmans Magister. Never seen speakers so damn big!

I was kinda hoping not to have to post a mugshot of myself but there just wasn't any other way to show the size of these brutes! I'm not exactly small, skinny but 6ft tall, so you can imaging how damn big these things are! I kept this purchase quiet as I wasn't sure if it would workout, - I've never tried to have 35kg (77lb) packages delivered through the postal service when their maximum acceptable limit is 30kg (66lb) but it worked!

I take my hat off to the seller I bought them from as he did a great job wrapping them. He followed my instructions to the last word (rigid stiffners round all edges before doubleboxing them), and as a result, he broke his back (just kidding ), and I got a pair of speakers free from any transit damage whatsoever .

I knew the dimensions before buying, but its hard to comprehend just how big they are until you see them in real life. FWIW they are only an inch smaller the boxes you see me holding, BIG :yes:. If I remember correctly they are 27inches high, 20inches wide, 15inches deep, 65lbs weight.

Putting them next to the Goodmans Magnum K-2 makes the K-2 look tiny now (see photo). I've never seen anything like it.

On a side note, I got the Magnum K-2s a couple of weeks back. A $40 ebay purchase which arrived with huge dents and scratches. I was not a happy boy so before even testing them I emailed the seller demanding a full refund (funny, dealing with situations like these on eBay has really helped my assertiveness ). He granted my wish and also told me to keep the speakers. I had no arguments there :thmbsp:. Hooked them up later that day and whoa, simply awesome! Great allround balanced speaker. No nasty peaks, great imaging, super sparkly treble extension, definitely keepers no matter how roughed up they are! For low to mid listening volumes they're probably the best speakers I've heard, but they probably wouldn't like to be cranked TOOO much .

Anyway, back to the DADDY'S! I had a quick listen last night after my dad and I broke our backs unwrapping them. First impressions of Magister vs Magnum-K2:
(For background info the Magnum K-2 have a 12-inch bass cone VS Magister's 15-inch bass cone, both have same mid-range driver, but the tweeters are different).

- AWESOME effortless bass. The speakers are placed in a 'bass-weak' part of the room but the bass is still good. Nice and tight but extended at the same time. I read a review somewhere that said that these speakers go down to ~26hz. Better bass than the K-2.
- They can go LOUD :yes:
- I prefer the treble of the Magnum K-2. The K-2 is more dominant in the >10khz region (good thing not bad thing) whereas the Magisters are a bit harsh in the 2khz-6khz region and possibly lacking a bit higher up the scale. I may eventually try to find another pair of the K-2 tweeters to swap in.

Does anyone have any info on these speakers? It would be much appreciated...

now that's some cool pics Richard! :thmbsp: I tried the bluebook... no info listed sorry

Cheers Greg! :thmbsp: I still can't believe how tiny they make my other speakers look!

Hi kenwood lover, it's a good job that you live in a house the size of a country mansion !! (or maybe it IS a country mansion).

Anyway, if you don't pick a new name soon you'll forever be known as : The AK member formerly known as "above name changing soon !"
How about "VintageBassFreak"? :thmbsp:

- Richard B.

My favorite part is how dang happy you look!

Glad they arrived in tip-top shape, and I hope you enjoy them (but by the smile on your face, I think that's a no-brainer)! :thmbsp:

PS...

Nice house, and nice rigs. Are you and your dad adopting? I promise I'll behave... :yes:

Congratulations! Great looking speakers.

cubdog

Kenwood Lover,

I've had mine for about 6 months now. Imagine finding those British beasts around Chicago! I got a factory sheet with them, but the only tech specs are that the crossovers are at 800 Hz and 5000Hz. And they say "The sensitivity of the Magister is such that adequate domestic listening levels are achieved with amplifiers having outputs of 10 Watts or more, but the System is capable of Handling the full output, on music programme material, of amplifiers having 50 Watts (RMS) rating."

I have mine on a Pioneer SX-1010 along with a pair of CS 99a's. The Magisters sound OK on some music, but the Pioneers blow them away in volume and dynamics. However, I still like them and often play all 4 together. So far, the 4 Ohm load hasn't hurt the 1010, but I don't blast long or too hard.

They certainly are a different breed and none too common around here. What do you think of their funky surround material? I don't think you'd ever have to raccoon those woogers.

And my granddad was from Scotland! Cheers, Bob.

Great looking speakers! Congrats on their surviving the Post!

Now thats a happy fellow. Kenwood Lover, its nice to see your enjoyment on your new purchase! Good luck in your future purchases.

Wow,,,great looking speaks....! and another succesful USPS story!!

Geez I guess I missed all the action while I was away for the day . Thanks everyone for your replies.

I live with my parents in a detached house, - its great having room for so many speakers :yes:. In the whole house there are probably around 28 pairs of speakers now :thmbsp:. Everytime the delivery man rings the doorbell I start to grin at my mum and she goes mad 'cos she can't stand so many speakers, but half the time I ask the driver to deliver mid-morning when my mum's at work so that I can sneak them in without her noticing . But it was pretty much impossible to sneak these beasts in without her noticing . The delivery man was giving me verbal as I watched him struggle up the driveway with them. He knows me well by now and I warned him last week to make sure he ate his spinach 'cos he was gonna need it for delivering these .

thedelihaus, sure you can come and stay, but you'd need to sleep on a matress of speakers I'm afraid 'cos the spare room is full of 'em!

Just for some anecdotal info, Goodmans and me go way back.
My dad's first pair of speakers were Goodmans Magnum SL, bought new in 1974, and they're still his main speakers (they're the ones at the very back of the photo). The driver compliment is exactly the same as the Magisters only the woofer is 12inch not 15inch. His Magnums have been through the wars through their life. Growing up I was fascinated with them. At that time the speakers were just about the same size as me and the woofers looked huge. I used to use his hifi everyday of my childhood (he would put selotape over the volume control so that I couldn't accidently knock it ), and I always had a soft-spot for the Goodmans. When I got my own first rig he gave me his Goodmans but I gave them back as I was frightened of blowing them as by that time I had got into LOUD bassy music, so I acquired a pair of Bose 301s and they served me well until I got MY OWN choice of speaker about 8 years ago, the Wharfedale Valdus 500 (which are still my favourite cranking speaker - the louder you crank the better it gets :yes: ). After getting my Valdus I quickly lost interest in the Goodmans, that is until I joined this forum, where I discovered that Goodmans (of the vintage era) were highly regarded. And as they were virtually in my backyard here in the UK I decided to go ahead and build up a Goodmans collection, which now consists of:

Magister
Magnum K-2
Magnum SL
Mezzo SL
Havant
Achromat Beta
Dimension 8

Tinitus, yes I do find the shiny plastic covering very unusual on the Goodmans woofers, and I still can't fathom how it allows complete movement of the cone, but it seems to work fine, and I'm definitely in favour of any methods which eliminate the need for refoaming! :yes:

240 Volts said:

Anyway, if you don't pick a new name soon you'll forever be known as : The AK member formerly known as "above name changing soon !"
How about "VintageBassFreak"? :thmbsp:

Click to expand...

A PM has now been sent to Kamakiri requesting my name change, so watch this space :yes: .
Clue: it pretty much relates to my avatar...

Nice set of speakers there, ToTo Man!! I must admit to never having seen a pair of Magisters in the flesh, but they do look very nice indeed.
Mind you, if you think they're big, you need to check out some Leak 2075's...............

congrats Richard, I mean ToTo Man! :thmbsp:

Thanks Beobloke! Would I be right in assuming that these are Goodmans BIGGEST models, or did they bring a model out the size of a fridge-freezer?

ToTo Man said:

A PM has now been sent to Kamakiri requesting my name change, so watch this space :yes: .
Clue: it pretty much relates to my avatar...

Click to expand...

Voila!

At last!..... Took me 3 months to think of a name. But I figured that since Toto are my favourite band of ALL time, and I hang out with them whenever they're over here in the UK (which is not as often as I'd like!), then my name by default would have to be ToTo Man!

ToTo Man said:

Thanks Beobloke! Would I be right in assuming that these are Goodmans BIGGEST models, or did they bring a model out the size of a fridge-freezer?

Click to expand...

Not sure if the Goodwoods are bigger overall or not, but they're definitely taller. Can't find any pictures with a quick google search but they do turn up on UK Ebay quite regularly so it's worth keeping an eye open.

However, if you're looking for the daddies, you need to keep an eye out for a pair of High Impact Monitor 880's. These ARE the size of a fridge and have a 15" bass, 8" midrange and a 1" tweeter! I used to have a pair that...er....escaped out of the back door of Goodmans and followed me home one night.
Sonically, they weren't all that accurate but were quite good for all that, and went horrendously loud very easily!I used to use mine for DJ-ing but they weren't really built for this and were starting to fall apart, so i rebuilt them and sold them to a friend. Last time i saw them, he was using them in a 2 bedroomed terrace house on the end of a Hinari midi system!

I'm sure somewhere at home i have a catalogue showing them and if i can find it i'll scan it and post some piccies of the beasts. :thmbsp:

toto man, I just came across a pair of these for sale at $100 aud, they looked in very good nick but one of the tweeters is unoriginal and I'm not sure which one.
also the plastic on one of the 15' woofer is intact but looks a little warped.
any chance of getting a close up pic of the tweeter, or even better the model number?

welcome to AK seant!

unfortunately i'm unable to upload new photos at the moment due to a problem with the server.

i haven't had the Magister tweeters out, but they look identical to the tweeters in my Goodmans Magnum SL speakers. the tweeters in my Magnum SL are called 'Goodmans DT3 Dome Radiator Tweeter'.

the Magisters are a great sounding speaker and will effortlessly shake your room with deep but smooth and controlled bass. $100AUD is exactly the same price I paid for mine (before shipping!), and i think they are a steel for this price, so i'd say go get them! but the warped plastic may be an issue? sometimes humidity can cause the plastic to warp. i'm not sure how easy this would be to fix. AK member 'Beobloke' used to work for Goodmans so it may be worth chatting to him too regarding repairing the plastic. i'd still say $100AUD is still a good price though.

look forward to hearing how you progress with these.....