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scored Magnaplanar SMGs for $20 - 1 needing repair

SpeakerLabFan

SpeakerLabFan

< speakerlab 7's
I saw a local CL listing this afternoon: "Magnapan SMG Magnaplanar speakers - $20 (Bellevue)" wooohoo but there's a catch...one of the speakers needs repair, has a tear in it, he's moving and these are not coming with him, etc. It turned out the seller lived within 10 minutes of my office, so I stopped by on the way home. :banana::music:

The speakers were nicely packed in the original shipping box. They appear to be in mint shape cosmetically. It seems like $20 is a decent price to throw at these to investigate what's needed to repair them. I have a pair of MG1's in the basement - it will be interesting to compare these SMG with the MG1's. The box was heavy, I had to take one of the speakers out of the box to lift them out of the hatchback and into the house. Here's a couple of pictures:

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Nice score on the Magpies -- please do post some additional photos! I'm curious now, to see the damaged one -- is it bad?

:thmbsp:
 
Nice pickup on the Maggies, Dick! The fronts look just like my MG-1s, but if I'm not mistaken, the SMGs are slightly smaller. Hope the bad one is an easy fix!
 
Thanks guys, yeah the look is very similar to the MG1s but a bit shorter and instead of the full bases on the MG1s, these have 2 metal braces that are installed at the base of each speaker.

I got them unpacked, wired them up, threw on Neil Young - Harvest on CD and gave them a listen. yeah the bad speaker has the classic buzzing noise when volume is up, as described for Maggie ribbons gone bad. However very sweet sounding speakers right now at lower volumes (not bad for twenty bucks!)

If it wasn't obvious from listening, the "bad" speakers outer frame has loose screws from where it was removed and the sock pulled before. I'll have to do some investigation... Some more pics:

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Maggies002.jpg


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There is a maggie forum on diyaudio I do believe. I think the fix is something along the lines of scotch tape for small tears.

Magnepan will still do a full rebuild it you so desire.

Evan
 
What a wonderful speaker...I've bought and sold a lot of gear in my time, and the piece I miss the most are my SMGa Maggies!

I know they can be sent to MN to be repaired, but the folks at Magnepan used to also sell a replacement mylar diapraghm if you're really handy...me, I would call the factory and see what a re-work would cost. If you can get it done for under $300 it will save you a lot of headache! (IMO anyway)

Nice score, and enjoy those babies!

(and please let me know if you're not going to repair them....I'd be happy to take them off your hands!)
 
Cosmetically, those are fantastic!

I hope it's an easy repair for you. Good luck! You stole 'em.:thmbsp:
 
They are great speakers. Magnepan does offer repairs.

I just pulled my SMG's and replaced them with DCM TimeWindow 1's this week. I was able to A-B one against the other .. Maggie midrange has a lot more depth.

Oh .. almost forgot .. the SMG's are keepers.
 
Thanks guys. Yeah I knew going-in that sending back to MN is an option because that was what the previous owner of my MG1s had done. Yeah the cosmetics are great, this guy treated them with kid gloves, everything was still in the original plastic wrappers in the box. $300 for a rebuild wouldn't be out of the question for these fine speakers.

Yeah this was another one of those deals where a well-off person is moving and doesn't want to be bothered with another x number of years of storage - if that's even an option. ...come to think of it, that's how I picked up the MG1's for $100 (and the Phase Linear Andromedas...) last year.. gotta love it. :thmbsp:
 
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