sixfour3's Planar 2-Channel

by sixfour3 on magnepan 3.6Krell DUO 300Rega P10PS AudioMartin Logan Descent iAurender N10AnthemdbxMogamiNordost

Room Details

Dimensions: 30’ × 13’  Large
Ceiling: 8’

Components Toggle details

    • Magnepan MG-3.6r
    Outboard passive crossover removed. Internal crossover between midrange panel and tweeter is still in place. Fuses have been bypassed. Midrange panel/ribbon tweeter are powered by the Krell DUO 300. Bass panel provided by the Anthem MCA-225 (gen 2). 

    Crossover Points and Slopes
    Midrange panel/ribbon tweeter crossover network: original (see Magnepan specifications)
    Midrange panel high pass: 300 Hz, Linkwitz Riley 48 dB/oct
    Bass panel low pass: 255 Hz, Linkwitz Riley 48 dB/oct
    Bass panel high pass: 100 Hz, Linkwitz Riley 12 dB/oct
    Subwoofer low pass: 60 Hz, Linkwitz Riley 48 dB/oct
    Subwoofer high pass: 22 Hz, Linkwitz Riley 48 dB/oct
    • Martin Logan Descent i
    • Krell DUO 300 XD
    • Nordost Blue Heaven
    • Mye Sound Mye Stand
    I still kick myself for not buying these sooner. They effectively turn Magnepans into different speakers with significantly greater punch in the bass and mid-bass ranges. Highly recommended.
    • DBX Driverack VENU 360
    Speaker management unit which serves as a preamp and DAC. I have this one set up to handle the following duties:
    -room correction
    -active crossover
    -gain matching
    -delay (midrange/tweeter only, .27ms)
    -phase (subwoofer only, matched to bass panel using a sine wave test tone at 80 Hz)
    -limiter (applied for tweeter protection)
    • PS Audio Stellar Phono Preamp
    MC Gain: 72 dB
    Cartridge loading: 100 ohms
    • Anthem MCA-225
    Gen 2
    • Furman Elite 15 PFi
    • Aurender N10
    • Mogami Platinum Studio XLR
    L & R analog from phono preamp
    AES/EBU digital from Aurender N10
    • Auralex Acoustics Inc. LENRD Bass Traps
    Please pay close attention to Auralex's advertised absorption coefficients before buying these. Calling them "bass traps" is a bit of a stretch. Maybe mid-bass. Their absorption capability effectively begins at around 150 Hz and continues into the 4k Hz range. I've found them to be virtually useless for absorbing pesky bass frequencies. Instead, I use them to absorb and diffuse midrange and high frequencies to great effect.
    • Rega Planar 10
    Equipped with the Rega Apheta 3 cartridge.

Comments 6

Sign in to comment
Owner
Thanks, all, for your comments. I'm a real lover of Magnepans, but I agree that you're very limited with placement; not only of the speakers, but of the listening position. Managing that rear wave of energy is critical. Everything from the distance to the front wall (to the millimeter) to the type of surface of that wall will have a noticeable effect. I've tried various configurations of acoustic panels on the front wall to absorb the reflection, but always end up going back to a hard surface with irregularities for diffusion. When it's right, it's so good it's spooky. I also agree that Mye stands would be a good idea. Maybe someday soon, but for now, I'm chasing bottlenecks in other parts of the system. The preamp has left the building, so to speak. In its place, I'm going with a DAC which directly feeds the Krell. Currently evaluating the PS Audio DirectStream and the Benchmark DAC3.

sixfour3

I have to agree with yugalg9. I purchased Magnepan 0.7's more than a year ago and after two months trying out different placements and room acoustic modifications they sound more like a live orchestra in a concert hall than a pair of Sonus Farber speakers costing over $50,000. Box speakers are the hard way to design a speaker and Sonus Farger spent decades on perfecting their midrange cones and other engineering feats which when compared to Magnepan are what Jack Northrop called inventing rubber gloves to write with a leaky fountain pen.
Both my house and my budget are not big enough for anything bigger than the 0.7's, which I drive with 833-A single ended triodes. (See my system.)

drbarney1

Best subwoofer I’ve ever heard and owned... so solid and transparent.  Wish I still had mine!

audio_file_in_wa

I have listened to maggies several times and they always sound great. they require a lot of care with placement, though. In fact, about a year ago I visited a shop in Israel and listened to a sonus-faber fotura; they sounded worse than a pair of maggies (1.7 if I am not mistaken). A loyal client of the shop agreed with me. This was quite a surprise; a pair of cheap maggies outperforming a $20,000 speaker! I have also listened to a pair of Martin-Logan Electrostatic 'speakers at a local hi-fi exhibition held in Israel a few months ago; they sounded very transparent and did a nice "disappearing" act. And, Yes, the same shop also demonstrated the Pro-Ject 2 Experience, albeit with an Ortofon MM Blue cartridge, not the MC described above (Sumiko BluePoint 2). As befits a high-end system, I would have opted for a higher-caliber MC cartridge, e.g. a Lyra or a HANA or a Van-den-hull or a Stradivarius or an Ortofon A95 or an Ortofon ANNA or an Ortofon SPU. But I am nitpicking; I am sure the Sumiko sounded just fine.

yuvalg9

It appears you're still using the factory stands.  I'd highly recommend the Mye speaker stands, which made a huge improvement with my 3.6Rs.  The ability to adjust the stands will eliminate the need for the shims.

hofbat

Cool system thanks for sharing and love the artistic Bluepoint picture!

jond

Displaying all 6 posts
  • 5.9 Thousand
  • 6
  •  1
© 2025 Audiogon.com