bill@dual.UUCP (Bill Kanawyer) (03/08/84)
> Subject: Re: RE: Klipsch info wanted > > I recently bought a pair of Magneplanars for approximately the same > amount of money that you want to spend. I listened to quite a few > speakers and I think the Magneplanars sound a LOT better (i.e. cleaner, > tighter, better balanced, more spacious ) than anything else in this > price range. However if you want high efficiency or if you prefer an > emphasis on the bass and treble, they may not be for you. > > Rick Dow > inhp4!hpfcla!rmd I too own a pair of Magneplanars (MG-Is) and am very happy with them overall. BUT LOOK OUT! The MG-Is roll off at 60 hrz and the MG-II roll off at 50 hrz. The roll offs are very smooth and are not objectionable for voice, classical, folk, and other forms of music that do not require low bass to be reproduced. If you listen to rock, pipe organs, etc. you will need to add a 'bass box' of some kind to your system. This is not a large problem but does require an additional outlay of cash. Good bass boxes, a means to drive them, and a cross- over can cost as much as the MGs! So realise that you may be paying more in the long run. My own opinion is that the MGs are better than anything else in their price range and are well worth the investment. Oh yes, one other thing. Both the MGs do roll off at 16k hrz. Again this is very smooth and although they will not reproduce 20k hrz constant volume their responce to transients is very good. What this sounds like is that there is a lack of the very HOT high end found in horn, xtal, and dome tweeters. Transients remain good, sharp and clean but with out the ear fatigue I find in other drivers. Imageing can be very good but is dependent on the room you are in and placement of the MG. Anyone wishing more details is wellcome to write me. Bill Kanawyer {ucbvax,amd70,ihnp4,cbosgd,decwrl,fortune}!dual!bill PS My system: MG-Is Biamped with GAS Ampzilla (200W per, bass) & Grandson (30W per, MGs). (Wattage into 8 ohms, Because the MG are 5 ohms the power delivered is higher than 30W. It works just fine) Preamp GAS Thoebe Denon 1500 Turntable with Micro Seaki arm GAS Sleeping Beauty moving coil JBL 15" Drivers in home built boxes & x-overs Yes, I worked for Great American Sound Co. for a while. It seems like the only way to get goodies at a reasonable price anymore!
rmd@hpfcla.UUCP (03/12/84)
I think that the low end rollof of the Magnaplanar MG-IIBs (the model I bought) is actually worse than the numbers you give -- at least for my listening room. However, I don't think that the effect on music is a significant as you seem to imply. The bass response of the Magnaplanars is deep enough to be quite enjoyable for most rock music and it is much more accurate and uncolored than most speakers. I think that most people who object to Magnaplanars are used to response peaks in the 80-100 Hz and 10-12 Khz regions (typical of many conventional speakers). I spent a lot of time measuring the room response of my MG-IIBs with a flat microphone and a signal generator. My goal was to match a subwoofer to the MGs. I found that the base response was relatively independent of speaker placement (contrary to Magnepan's literature) and that the MGs peaked slightly at about 65 Hz and then rolled off at about 35db per octave, becoming essentially unmeasurable below 40 Hz. I would consider them 'flat' to about 57 or 58 Hz. I didn't make any measurements at high frequencies. I finally came up with a crossover that cuts off the subwoofer at 30db per octave above 50 Hz. This high crossover rate results in a combination that is within .5db of the original MG response above 65 Hz and adds about 6db at 50 Hz. It turns out that with this crossover, much pop music is almost totally unnaffected by the subwoofer. Even songs like the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" or the Beatles' "Come Together" with apparently loud and deep bass really don't have much below about 60 Hz. There are many pop recordings with bass content down to about 48 to 50 Hz and for these the subwoofer makes a noticeable (but relatively subtle) improvement. The only really striking difference is for classical music with a bass drum. This kind of music goes down to under 25 Hz. However, very few conventional speakers go down this low. Rick Dow inhp4!hpfcla!rmd
rs55611@ihuxk.UUCP (Robert E. Schleicher) (03/20/84)
Advent used to recommend "Also Sprach Zarathrusta" (spelling?) as a good test of low bass response, as there is an opening bass pedal organ note of roughly 30 Hz. This note isn't on all recordings of this piece, apparently, so Advent had a specific recommendation od what version to listen to (I think it was on either Decca or London records). Advent's claim, of course, was that the Large Advents would reproduce this 30 Hz note. Bob Schleicher ihuxk!rs55611 AT&T Bell Laboratories