Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
Magnepans are an easy load on an amplifier. They may take a lot of power but it is just a resistive load and amps like that, generally.
kjello
Super Member
Ok
Two weeks gone by, with the 3.6's.
Im writing this to get my thoughts on 'paper', may be funny to read in some time to check status and maybe the different point of view.
Any input is appreciated and welcome. feel free to comment.
Some impressions, trying to be open minded, again not easy being 'objective' is it even possible?
I've always been one of those claiming not to be easy influenced by eg commercials. As time and years went by had to realize I am of course hard environmental influenced. Always have, always will be.
Anyway- a lot of good things is written, said and heard about the Magnepans, and the Magneplanar technology, this of course is the main reason I bought them. I've never listened to one before 2/3 weeks ago. Thought they where electrostats, which they are not.
Played around a bit with placement, think I found a decent placing making good soundstage and great '3D' effect. Speakers about 150 cm from the front wall, tweeters inwards, and turned quite a lot inwards, I would estimate 25-30 degrees. Ive got 270 cm between tweeters, that is about the max I can get with this room. Probably too close to side walls. Around 300 cm to my chair from the 'line' between tweeters. I tested them 100 cm and less from front wall, and found the bass/mid bass more wooly, less defined.
I may later play around with the tweeters outwards.
My room : 520X380 cm(17X13 ft) Speakers on the short side. Wood build, walls high desity fiberboard walls with plasterboard layer, soft wallpaper. Wood flooring and a carpet. No bass traps or other treatment.
Subjective of course:
They are 'better' than my 1997 Magnat Vintage 760 in many ways, fine instrumental details, female and male vocal tonality and details, clarity and coherence.
String instruments like acoustic guitar, violins, piano I feel are very natural with the 3.6's. Not that I often go to live acoustic concerts, but I have both electric and acoustic guitars and am quite familiar with piano, as my dear late grandmother was a piano teacher.
Probably, on a side note, I am more coloured or affected by my previous systems and speakers sound, than live music.
I dont play very loud. I doubt I ever go above 100dB. Never felt the need to measure.
I will put my Magnats back in some of days to compare, I find it more easy to pin point differences going back to say 'lower quality' then the opposite, from 'worse' to 'better'. I dont know why.
IMHO the Magnats play better over all than Mirage OM-8, Klipsch RF7, RF7II, RF83, Kappa 7 and 8. All tested in the same room.
Anyway the differences is quite easy to point out. The Magnats dragging the soundstage more 'down'. Also can hear some music 'running' up and down the speaker. The sound is more from the left and right speaker versus the 3.6's that seems to 'disappear' and make thew sound more fill the room. Like the whole room and walls grows taller, wider. The music is more just present, not coming from any direction.
3.6's play big. Huge. Liquid, floating, airy, effortless in lack of better words.
I love them speakers. Best I have listened to this far. From what I can remember anyway.
picture looks a bit weird and out of proportion hmm... the magnats 140 cm tall. Maggies almost 190 cm with the Mye stands and spikes
I split my amps and AXB the Magnats and the Maggies and even tested one of each speaker L-R, also tried in mono.
Funny to notice certain instruments, violins and vocals clearly slide over to the 3.6 side when playing such tracks. Midrange and treble more defined and louder more clear presented. Also the big 3.6's 'soundstage' breaks down when playing with one of each speaker. Volume matched L-R by ear have to be said.
The Magnats on the other hand are monsters in the bass department, rated 18-25k Hz, they play loud and clear sinus tones down to 25Hz, almost scary how they can make the floor shake when putting in some power. (2nd floor in a wood built house.) Now is this music? Maybe not, but its a part of some music.
To me and in my room the 3.6's might need help in the lowest octave. This is from my reference point.
Although I myself chose a placement which gives lower bass output from the Maggies, but still again better sounding and highly defined bass.
To be clear bass goes low, its deep bass present, but at a too retracted level.
Side note again: On the far short wall from speakers, near the wall, there is increased level low bass, but far off sweetspot.
I have two JBL 2243HPL subs in 186 liter ported boxes tuned to 24-25 Hz and two Yamaha P7000S that will be tested in near or distant future to give some gentle push 40-ish hz down. May be overkill, but its what I got. I have read its hard to implement subs with the Maggies and the like.
I was thinking of placing the JBL's in the corners behind each of the 3.6's.
Low bass performance at the moment is not perfect, again I might be spoiled beyond repair
All in all, to me, the 3.6's are a huge jump forward in the quest for audio nirvana ... well I hope I never get there.
Music tested- a hint of my music reference, Spotify Premium or CD
Golden Heart - Mark Knopfler
New Dawn - Dominic Miller / Neil Stacey
How It Feels - Sophie Zelmani
Send In The Clowns - Arve Tellefsen
When Luther Played The Blues - Hans Theessink
And So It Goes - Jennifer Warnes
Mr. Szabo - Santana
Nyquist - Deadmau5
Monophobia ov - Deadmau5
Davidian - Machine Head
Sad But True - Metallica
Intermission - Saga
I Will Remember - Toto
Acoustic - Billy Raffoul
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Black Books amazing guitar solo - Nils Lofgren
Amused To Death - Roger Waters
Divenire - Ludovico Einaudi
Please bear with my english writing, I sometimes feel it must look like im 10 years old.
Best regards
KO
Two weeks gone by, with the 3.6's.
Im writing this to get my thoughts on 'paper', may be funny to read in some time to check status and maybe the different point of view.
Any input is appreciated and welcome. feel free to comment.
Some impressions, trying to be open minded, again not easy being 'objective' is it even possible?
I've always been one of those claiming not to be easy influenced by eg commercials. As time and years went by had to realize I am of course hard environmental influenced. Always have, always will be.
Anyway- a lot of good things is written, said and heard about the Magnepans, and the Magneplanar technology, this of course is the main reason I bought them. I've never listened to one before 2/3 weeks ago. Thought they where electrostats, which they are not.
Played around a bit with placement, think I found a decent placing making good soundstage and great '3D' effect. Speakers about 150 cm from the front wall, tweeters inwards, and turned quite a lot inwards, I would estimate 25-30 degrees. Ive got 270 cm between tweeters, that is about the max I can get with this room. Probably too close to side walls. Around 300 cm to my chair from the 'line' between tweeters. I tested them 100 cm and less from front wall, and found the bass/mid bass more wooly, less defined.
I may later play around with the tweeters outwards.
My room : 520X380 cm(17X13 ft) Speakers on the short side. Wood build, walls high desity fiberboard walls with plasterboard layer, soft wallpaper. Wood flooring and a carpet. No bass traps or other treatment.
Subjective of course:
They are 'better' than my 1997 Magnat Vintage 760 in many ways, fine instrumental details, female and male vocal tonality and details, clarity and coherence.
String instruments like acoustic guitar, violins, piano I feel are very natural with the 3.6's. Not that I often go to live acoustic concerts, but I have both electric and acoustic guitars and am quite familiar with piano, as my dear late grandmother was a piano teacher.
Probably, on a side note, I am more coloured or affected by my previous systems and speakers sound, than live music.
I dont play very loud. I doubt I ever go above 100dB. Never felt the need to measure.
I will put my Magnats back in some of days to compare, I find it more easy to pin point differences going back to say 'lower quality' then the opposite, from 'worse' to 'better'. I dont know why.
IMHO the Magnats play better over all than Mirage OM-8, Klipsch RF7, RF7II, RF83, Kappa 7 and 8. All tested in the same room.
Anyway the differences is quite easy to point out. The Magnats dragging the soundstage more 'down'. Also can hear some music 'running' up and down the speaker. The sound is more from the left and right speaker versus the 3.6's that seems to 'disappear' and make thew sound more fill the room. Like the whole room and walls grows taller, wider. The music is more just present, not coming from any direction.
3.6's play big. Huge. Liquid, floating, airy, effortless in lack of better words.
I love them speakers. Best I have listened to this far. From what I can remember anyway.
picture looks a bit weird and out of proportion hmm... the magnats 140 cm tall. Maggies almost 190 cm with the Mye stands and spikes
I split my amps and AXB the Magnats and the Maggies and even tested one of each speaker L-R, also tried in mono.
Funny to notice certain instruments, violins and vocals clearly slide over to the 3.6 side when playing such tracks. Midrange and treble more defined and louder more clear presented. Also the big 3.6's 'soundstage' breaks down when playing with one of each speaker. Volume matched L-R by ear have to be said.
The Magnats on the other hand are monsters in the bass department, rated 18-25k Hz, they play loud and clear sinus tones down to 25Hz, almost scary how they can make the floor shake when putting in some power. (2nd floor in a wood built house.) Now is this music? Maybe not, but its a part of some music.
To me and in my room the 3.6's might need help in the lowest octave. This is from my reference point.
Although I myself chose a placement which gives lower bass output from the Maggies, but still again better sounding and highly defined bass.
To be clear bass goes low, its deep bass present, but at a too retracted level.
Side note again: On the far short wall from speakers, near the wall, there is increased level low bass, but far off sweetspot.
I have two JBL 2243HPL subs in 186 liter ported boxes tuned to 24-25 Hz and two Yamaha P7000S that will be tested in near or distant future to give some gentle push 40-ish hz down. May be overkill, but its what I got. I have read its hard to implement subs with the Maggies and the like.
I was thinking of placing the JBL's in the corners behind each of the 3.6's.
Low bass performance at the moment is not perfect, again I might be spoiled beyond repair
All in all, to me, the 3.6's are a huge jump forward in the quest for audio nirvana ... well I hope I never get there.
Music tested- a hint of my music reference, Spotify Premium or CD
Golden Heart - Mark Knopfler
New Dawn - Dominic Miller / Neil Stacey
How It Feels - Sophie Zelmani
Send In The Clowns - Arve Tellefsen
When Luther Played The Blues - Hans Theessink
And So It Goes - Jennifer Warnes
Mr. Szabo - Santana
Nyquist - Deadmau5
Monophobia ov - Deadmau5
Davidian - Machine Head
Sad But True - Metallica
Intermission - Saga
I Will Remember - Toto
Acoustic - Billy Raffoul
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Black Books amazing guitar solo - Nils Lofgren
Amused To Death - Roger Waters
Divenire - Ludovico Einaudi
Please bear with my english writing, I sometimes feel it must look like im 10 years old.
Best regards
KO
Last edited:
jazzmans
Super Member
I use subs with my maggies, the key is running them LOW frequency.
IMO, your best bet is to start low in volume and in frequency, and over time turn them up bit by bit until you find what you want.those 2243's are very highly regarded, I think they'll play nice. My subs are in the right and left corners behind my maggies.
This will likely take days or even weeks, but it's going to be well worth it.
Now you are hooked, because once you hear maggies, almost nothing else will do. (some vintage Infinity speakers excepted)
Piano is great for testing, because IMO, no other speaker has the continuity to reproduce piano, they always screw it up when crossing over to different drivers.
IMO, your best bet is to start low in volume and in frequency, and over time turn them up bit by bit until you find what you want.those 2243's are very highly regarded, I think they'll play nice. My subs are in the right and left corners behind my maggies.
This will likely take days or even weeks, but it's going to be well worth it.
Now you are hooked, because once you hear maggies, almost nothing else will do. (some vintage Infinity speakers excepted)
Piano is great for testing, because IMO, no other speaker has the continuity to reproduce piano, they always screw it up when crossing over to different drivers.
Try a full range electrostat for the ultimate in coherence.
jazzmans
Super Member
All active subs, JL Audio fathom on the left, and M&K s 125 (I think) dual push/pull 12" on the right.
I have not had to adjust phase on either sub, but every room is different.
They are both crossed over ~45 hz and running at ~1 if the gain range is 1-10. I don't high pass my maggies (2.5R in that room) they still get full range.
on my other pair of maggies, 1.6QR, In a small room I'm running a M&K sealed 10" sub(forgot the model), again crossed ~45 and running at ~1 on a scale of 1-10.
The key for me, was turning them down, down, down. I invariably started with them too loud.
I have not had to adjust phase on either sub, but every room is different.
They are both crossed over ~45 hz and running at ~1 if the gain range is 1-10. I don't high pass my maggies (2.5R in that room) they still get full range.
on my other pair of maggies, 1.6QR, In a small room I'm running a M&K sealed 10" sub(forgot the model), again crossed ~45 and running at ~1 on a scale of 1-10.
The key for me, was turning them down, down, down. I invariably started with them too loud.
kjello
Super Member
So...
I got the sub's up the stairs. Barely passed through the door frame, over 150 lbs each
These are the18 inch JBL 2243HPL's , 8 ohm versions.
Yamaha P7000S to run the subs, feels like the overkill of the week, but its what I've got.
Think they can put out over 2kW each, bridged
Unfortunately I'm out of XLR cables, I forgot about that...
Testing the tweeters outwards
Also I'm waiting for some furniture legs I've ordered to add a second shelf for my 'rack'
I got the sub's up the stairs. Barely passed through the door frame, over 150 lbs each
These are the18 inch JBL 2243HPL's , 8 ohm versions.
Yamaha P7000S to run the subs, feels like the overkill of the week, but its what I've got.
Think they can put out over 2kW each, bridged
Unfortunately I'm out of XLR cables, I forgot about that...
Testing the tweeters outwards
Also I'm waiting for some furniture legs I've ordered to add a second shelf for my 'rack'
Last edited:
kjello
Super Member
kjello
Super Member
Yes ok another month went by...
I have tried tweeters outside and inside for some time. I ended with them on the inside. Or inwards more correctly.
I think the 3.6's image more precise in this room this way. Maybe they play just a tad 'smaller' but I like the tweeters best inside for now.
Bass dried up a bit also I think. Im alergic to 200 Hz boom. Im at 150 cm from front wall now, and panels 30 cm from side wall(tweeters ca 70 cm), not much more to get in this room. Im around 27-30 degrees turned inwards, this is more than I expected, but I usually sit quite close to the panels, around 300 cm. Distance between tweeters is ca 260 cm Panels adjusted by laser projector 100% straight from floor. Also I raised the spikes to max distance to floor, panels now 9 cm from floor.
Anyway I got the subs up and running, Yamaha amps behaving nice, very silent when not gained all the way up. I run them around 70% gain (-10 dB mark) = dead silent. At 90-100% there is a slight buzz or hum, although not very audible.
Exept they do pop a little when turned on/off, I dont like that.
I bridged both the amps as the JBL 2243HPL's are 8 ohms, at 2200 watts bridged and >350 damping factor the 18 inchers should be well under control at the moderate levels Im playing lol
Internal low pass filter in the amps are only 12 dB/octave, adjustable from 25 to 150 Hz. I set them to 40 Hz for a starting point, test ran both subs with a clean 25 Hz signal, and its quite scary actually how they shake the house
I have an Ashly 24dB filter I can use if Im not happy with this set up, I dont like the tought of the cable mess back and forth though, but we'll see.
I love listening to music right now.
Everything huge, detailed and effortless.
PS havent watched TV in months
Regards
KO
I have tried tweeters outside and inside for some time. I ended with them on the inside. Or inwards more correctly.
I think the 3.6's image more precise in this room this way. Maybe they play just a tad 'smaller' but I like the tweeters best inside for now.
Bass dried up a bit also I think. Im alergic to 200 Hz boom. Im at 150 cm from front wall now, and panels 30 cm from side wall(tweeters ca 70 cm), not much more to get in this room. Im around 27-30 degrees turned inwards, this is more than I expected, but I usually sit quite close to the panels, around 300 cm. Distance between tweeters is ca 260 cm Panels adjusted by laser projector 100% straight from floor. Also I raised the spikes to max distance to floor, panels now 9 cm from floor.
Anyway I got the subs up and running, Yamaha amps behaving nice, very silent when not gained all the way up. I run them around 70% gain (-10 dB mark) = dead silent. At 90-100% there is a slight buzz or hum, although not very audible.
Exept they do pop a little when turned on/off, I dont like that.
I bridged both the amps as the JBL 2243HPL's are 8 ohms, at 2200 watts bridged and >350 damping factor the 18 inchers should be well under control at the moderate levels Im playing lol
Internal low pass filter in the amps are only 12 dB/octave, adjustable from 25 to 150 Hz. I set them to 40 Hz for a starting point, test ran both subs with a clean 25 Hz signal, and its quite scary actually how they shake the house
I have an Ashly 24dB filter I can use if Im not happy with this set up, I dont like the tought of the cable mess back and forth though, but we'll see.
I love listening to music right now.
Everything huge, detailed and effortless.
PS havent watched TV in months
Regards
KO
Last edited:
JoeESP9
ESL's & tubes since 83
Yes, these are Soundcare Superspikes. They are threaded into the base of the stands.
I see from the diagram that those spikes actually do have a tip pointing down. One other question; Did you drill and tap the holes for them or are the tapped holes what comes with the (Mye?) stands?
kjello
Super Member
They where already tapped when I got them, Im not shure If they make them this way. I think so.
GD70
Lunatic Member
THAT's a setup I think most of us could live with for a long time!Yes ok another month went by...
I have tried tweeters outside and inside for some time. I ended with them on the inside. Or inwards more correctly.
I think the 3.6's image more precise in this room this way. Maybe they play just a tad 'smaller' but I like the tweeters best inside for now.
Bass dried up a bit also I think. Im alergic to 200 Hz boom. Im at 150 cm from front wall now, and panels 30 cm from side wall(tweeters ca 70 cm), not much more to get in this room. Im around 22-23 degrees turned inwards, this is more than I expected, but I usually sit quite close to the panels, around 280-300 cm. Distance between tweeters is ca 230 cm Panels adjusted by laser projector 100% straight from floor. Also I raised the spikes to max distance to floor, panels now 9 cm from floor.
Anyway I got the subs up and running, Yamaha amps behaving nice, very silent when not gained all the way up. I run them around 70% gain (-10 dB mark) = dead silent. At 90-100% there is a slight buzz or hum, although not very audible.
Exept they do pop a little when turned on/off, I dont like that.
I bridged both the amps as the JBL 2243HPL's are 8 ohms, at 2200 watts bridged and >350 damping factor the 18 inchers should be well under control at the moderate levels Im playing lol
Internal low pass filter in the amps are only 12 dB/octave, adjustable from 25 to 150 Hz. I set them to 40 Hz for a starting point, test ran both subs with a clean 25 Hz signal, and its quite scary actually how they shake the house
I have an Ashly 24dB filter I can use if Im not happy with this set up, I dont like the tought of the cable mess back and forth though, but we'll see.
I love listening to music right now.
Everything huge, detailed and effortless.
PS havent watched TV in months
Regards
KO
Once you do turn on the TV, let us know how that sounds with a good action movie!
kjello
Super Member
Thank you sir. I like the sound