Affordable Luxury: The Magnepan 1.7 Speaker

Originally Posted by audiophilia

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Can't think of anything much worse in musical and audiophile terms than adding a sub of any kind (And Rels make some of the 'best') to Maggies or the glorious Quads.

And the new Quads, AF, pale in comparison to the originals and ESLs, IMO.

Jim Smith and I politely differ.

The key is to use a stereo pair of subs in my experience. I'm not sure of the exact technical reasons but it seems to make the subs integrate with Maggies as a whole. Smith talks about it in his Get Better Sound book.

I did not mean to suggest one needs subs with Quads. I have only heard the Quads sans sub.

Originally Posted by audiophilia

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Which Gallo models have you heard?

The original ones, whatever they were called. But their enclosure was the least of their problems.

Originally Posted by audiophilia

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Can't think of anything much worse in musical and audiophile terms than adding a sub of any kind (And Rels make some of the 'best') to Maggies or the glorious Quads.

These are pretty damned good:

http://www.gradient.fi/models/gradient-sw-63

--Andre

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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Jim Smith and I politely differ.

The key is to use a stereo pair of subs in my experience. I'm not sure of the exact technical reasons but it seems to make the subs integrate with Maggies as a whole. Smith talks about it in his Get Better Sound book. I did not mean to suggest one needs subs with Quads. I have only heard the Quads sans sub.
Some of my best friends like subs! I've never heard one (or stereo) that did not lag behind the beat somewhat. Even the top of the line Rel with Vienna Acoustics which I had in house for a while lagged. It was good for adding some 'hall', but for my ears not much else, unless you like it pounding. My test is VPO/Kleiber/5th Scherzo. The VPO bass section (French grip) is lightning fast and beautifully integrated with the rest of the string section. Never heard one that didn't slug down the bowing. My ears, though. YMMV. Here's a recent Audiophilia Magazine 'review' of a good one I heard. 12K Gotham. Pretty good, but even with 150K JM Labs speakers, dCS Paganini, and Boulder amps up the ass, the thing had the basses in Channel's amazing Mahler 2/Budapest/Fischer CD behind the beat. And as a conductor, it drives me nutz.

Originally Posted by A Y

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The original ones, whatever they were called. But their enclosure was the least of their problems.

They were called the Anthony Gallo Acoustics' Nucleus Solo loudspeakers. I reviewed them in 1998.

Originally Posted by audiophilia

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Can't think of anything much worse in musical and audiophile terms than adding a sub of any kind (And Rels make some of the 'best') to Maggies

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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The key is to use a stereo pair of subs in my experience. I'm not sure of the exact technical reasons but it seems to make the subs integrate with Maggies as a whole.

I think I might agree with both of you here. I've never been able to get a sub to sound good with my 12s but a friend runs 2 subs with his 3.6s and the sound is seamless. It's incredible for movies but a little too bass heavy (for me) with music. It might just be that this is what I'm used to now but all of that lower frequency seems distracting or something with music. I think the 12s only go down to 40hz but the bass that they do produce is incredible. Usually when I hear people talk about Magnepan it's about how good the mids and highs are and I can't disagree. But it's the incredible bass that I really notice and can't imagine the sound if Maggies got down to 20 or 30hz. I despise the flabby boominess I hear in most systems.

And I'm kind of surprised at the backlash about the $2,000 price tag?!? This is the Fine Living forum at the home of $5K suits and $1K shoes, isn't it? Magnepan has always been lauded as a high value bang-for-your-buck product and if anything, has been criticized that in order to meet price points that they don't push the envelope of their technology enough. Magnestand mods can cost more than the speakers themselves but the result supposedly rivals speakers costing 10 or 20 X as much. And many will go and spend $1-2K on new TVs, receivers or processors every 5 years while speakers, which might very well be the most important component in audio reproduction, should last an entire lifetime.

But yeah, the 1.7s look very promising. I preferred my 12s to 1.6s when I was amping SS but I'm thinking I might like the 1.6s with tubes better, so I'm on the lookout. And I've got a some MMGs and MMG Ws (and an MMG C) that I'll be setting up pretty soon. So I guess you could consider me a fan

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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In absolute terms that's nowhere near a fair comparison. A person with a regular job could never save 120k for a ferrari. If they chose to, they could save 2k for a pair of speakers in a reasonable amount of time.

Or 1K for a Charvet dress shirt, does it mean a 1k dress shirt isn't luxury? Please stop talking about a concept you don't know and I promise I won't say anything about audio.

Originally Posted by audiophilia

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Can't think of anything much worse in musical and audiophile terms than adding a sub of any kind (And Rels make some of the 'best') to Maggies .

I love maggies by themselves for vocal and acoustic music. I've owned three pairs since the early 80's. To me there is nothing better to reproduce the sound of an acoustic, stand up bass, especially for jazz. But to reproduce, the dynamics of loud rock and blues you need to add a sub IMO.

Originally Posted by pocketsquareguy

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I love maggies by themselves for vocal and acoustic music. I've owned three pairs since the early 80's. To me there is nothing better to reproduce the sound of an acoustic, stand up bass, especially for jazz. But to reproduce, the dynamics of loud rock and blues you need to add a sub IMO.

I would agree Gus. Did not know you were a Maggie guy. I will say the 3.6s do have enough bass to do most rock fairly well for me.

Yes, I'm a long-time fan. I still enjoy the reaction from people when they say, "The sound is coming out of these????" or "These are speakers???"

Originally Posted by pocketsquareguy

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Yes, I'm a long-time fan. I still enjoy the reaction from people when they say, "The sound is coming out of these????" or "These are speakers???"

What amps do you drive them with?

Jolida and a VAC pre-amp

Originally Posted by pocketsquareguy

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Jolida and a VAC pre-amp
Cool. I have a Jolida JD-9 phono stage (with Mullards of course).

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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Cool. I have a Jolida JD-9 phono stage (with Mullards of course).
This is the model I have. I think it must be the best value for tubes and quality sound on the market. http://www.jolida.com/catalogue/models/jd801a.shtml Here is the preamp http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/hw3.htm

Originally Posted by pocketsquareguy

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This is the model I have. I think it must be the best value for tubes and quality sound on the market.

http://www.jolida.com/catalogue/models/jd801a.shtml


Here is the preamp

http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/hw3.htm

Pretty gear as well. Love the gold on the amp. And for the preamp, anything out of Sarasota must be good (I grew up on Longboat Key).

Speaking of Jolida, here is my little Jolida 102B with B&W Blue Room Pods and an AMC tube CD player. These speakers have also received some of the most interesting comments from people, especially visiting artists. It sure sounds amazing for it's size and $$.



I'm listening to Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago.