I have a love-hate relationship with Magnepan, [..]
My hate for these speakers comes from the fact that Magnepan did not apply sound manufacturing processes and principles to their older designs. While I can't comment on their newer designs, you will find many idiosyncrasies in their older builds - 100's of staples used to fix the fabric covers to the frame, strips of painted over masking tape to hide things, lots of variability in the coil position between the magnets, staples "tacking" the driver to the frame, etc. The older speaker's wire coils have limited contact area with the Mylar film and tend to de-laminate as a result. You will hear older Maggies buzz at particular frequencies and if purchasing second hand, always run a frequency sweep test at high volume and listen for any buzzing or rattling sounds which will indicate that the the coil has lifted in places or, the frame has loosened, etc.
Been there, done that. I owned MG 1.6 from 1991 to 2004. Some day one speaker started to rattle when driven with higher bass SPLs.
Finally I opened it (well, took down the cover) and found out that the wires had become loose.
I contacted the importer and he gave me the advice to buy a specific glue and fix it on my own (that's what he would do anyway, and it would cost me money). I managed to fix the speaker but it was a real mess and it took me 3 trials until the wire finally sticked to the membrane.
Somewhat later the second speaker got the same problem and I fixed it as well, this time being faster due to experience.
Even with the shoddy build quality, Maggies actually sound very good and are a pleasure to listen to casually - I still enjoy my MG1.6 speakers that I occasionally listen to. At the same time, they are not very accurate and are fussy about amplifier pairing even though they are supposedly an easy load. Like the original Quad ESL's my MG1.6's sound wonderful with acoustic jazz and chamber music but don't do a good job going loud and deep with full scale orchestral works and rock / blues. The larger true ribbon HF MG3.7's etc can go louder but need a large room to work well and will dominate the decor. I was tempted to upgrade to MG3.7's but instead opted for JBL LSR 708P's in the end and I don't regret my decision at all.
I loved them for their big sound. I stumbled upon them when visiting the dealer where I had bought a CD-Drive/DAC combo shortly before. A customer auditioned them and I really liked the representation/soundstage (coming from DIY speakers using KEF chassis). After the customer had gone I asked for a loaner over the weekend, got them and never brought them back.
In 2004 a former colleague asked me for help looking for speakers since he had already visited several shops and had not found anything he liked. We drove around a lot and by chance visited a dealer which also had a big active studio monitor. My colleague liked it but it was much to expensive. So I took him to our local musician store and there he fell in love with a small 3-way active monitor (K&H O300D). He bought three of them and two smaller ones (K&H O110) for a surround setup.
On this trip I also fell in love with both the big active studio monitor and the O300D. 6 months later I stumbled upon a very good offer at ebay (new pair of O300D sold by a musician store) and bought them on the spot.
I have to tell that I had already thought about replacing the MG 1.6 with its newest version (MG 1.6 QR) but the price in Europe was more than twice than in the US and I really felt screwed doing this deal.
Now, when I listened to the O300D the first time in my room the first thought entering my mind was "I did not know the Maggies were soooo bad". As a side node let me explain that I play drums and listening to drums on the O300D is quite an experience compared to the limited dynamics of the MG-1.6.
So summaring my (
subjective!) experience with MG 1.6:
- big sound - everything sounds big, even small sources. Its a nice soundstage but not accurate at all.
- very pleasing and natural sounding mids
- low resolution in the highs - very forgiving when sound quality of the recording is bad
- bad dynamics
- seductive for music with not too high dynamics. I have two colleagues owning MG 3.x and both prefer classical music - although classical music can be quite dynamic. Listening to opera voices on MG 3.x however has a certain appeal.
In comparison the O300D:
- very accurate soundstage:
- a mono source appears as a very small strip in the middle position between the speakers
- normal stereo sources spread between both speakers
- special recordings spread in a 180 degree space, e.g. Stings album Soul Cages ( q-sound recording)
which means a great recording sounds great, a bad recording sounds - well, not so great
- very accurate frequency response
- good resolution of details but not over the top (not bright or airy)
- great dynamics (typical for most active speakers)
One more funny story: After getting the O300D I sold the MG-1.6. The potential buyer wanted to audition them in his home so I visited him with the speakers in the car. When we brought in the first panel his wife immediately started to complain loudly: "Oh no, you must be crazy, they look awful and are soo big, you cannot do this, ..." and so on.
I saw my chances drop dead to sell them.
However, after we installed them and listened to the news on FM his wife came out of the kitchen (
I know I know, you think I'm kidding you, but I swear to whatever god you name this is true) and said that it was much easier to understand the news. We let her listen to some music as well which she liked, and since you can move the panels to the wall when not needed they finally agreed to buy them
.