Printed Magnet
Printed Magnet
Magnet 174105
Magnet 1 77
May 2011
Magnepan MG 1.7 Speaker
Its greatest strength is its lack of personality, excellent coherence and low coloration.
Review By Ron Nagle
So many companies traverse the audioscene like meteors; they blaze across the sky and rapidly fade from sight. Somefew manufacturers have endured to join this generation of high-end audio. TheMagnepan Company is certainly one of these. It began back in 1969 with a designconceived in the mind of engineer Jim Winey. Let me pause for a moment toclarify two words that could cause confusion. The speaker's functional designis called Magneplanar; the companythat makes the speakers is Magnepan.These two words are frequently used interchangeably. Magnepan's Magneplanar 1.7 speaker is an extensive redesign of a predecessor, the neariconic Magneplanar 1.6. Notably, the very popular, Magneplanar 1.6 had a 12 yearlong production run. The marking manager Wendell Diller informed me that the 1.6speaker series was essentially a two-way design that could be bi-wired andbi-amplified. To date designer Jim Winey and the Magnepan Company have taken abasic design concept and continued to advance and refine what is possible.
AndNow..
The Magneplanar 1.7 is now a three way fullrange Quasi-Ribbon design with a quasi-ribbon bass/midrange, tweeter and supertweeter. The term Quasi Ribbon refers to a fabrication technique that differsfrom a true ribbon in that the conductive metal is laminated to a thin sheet ofMylar film. The super tweeter in the 1.7 is improved by bonding the conductivealuminum foil to a much thinner Mylar backing. The Magneplanar concept issimilar to an electrostatic speaker in that both produce sound by moving amembrane of (Mylar) film to generate pressure waves. Both of these designs arereferred to as Dipole speakers. This is because the sound emanating from thespeaker radiates in equal amounts from both the front and the back of thepanels. The most important difference is that the Magneplanar design does notrequire a high-voltage electrostatic charge to move the Mylar film. My Quad ESL 63Electrostatic speakers had a separate high-voltage transformer power supply in thebase of each speaker. In the Magneplanar design, the magnetic field is generatedby an array of closely spaced permanent magnets. The Mylar film has thinconductive wires or metal foil ribbon attached directly to the Mylar surface.The audio signal that moves the Mylar membrane in all of the Jim WineyMagneplanar designs is applied directly to the now conductive metallized Mylarfilm. Thinking back to my history with the Quad ESL 63 speakers the Magnepandesign should be, and indeed has a reputation to be, very much more reliable.Evidence of this is a cult following by a long parade of entranced 'Maggie'owners.
Aftermy significant other asks, what's in that huge box and what are you going todo with it? ' That must be the Maggies', my reply is also part question.Indeed inside the box are two Magnepan 1.7 speakers. The review samples arecovered with black grill cloth and have matte finished aluminum side frames.Setting up the 1.7 speakers can be a two-man trial; they are very much heavierthan I thought. Is this because of the combined weight of many, many permanentmagnets? After peeling off all the packing, the first thing you need to do isbolt the two 'T' shaped metal feet onto the base of each speaker. Providedfor this purpose are eight 1.75' long Phillips head screws and four smallplastic washers. The instructions tell you to place the plastic washer on thebottom bolt between the speaker panel and the metal stands. This arrangementwill tilt the speaker panel backward slightly. The panel's measure: 65'high by 19' wide by 2' thick and they weigh 42 pounds each with thestands attached. Since there are four terminals at the rear of the panels Iasked the Magnepan sales people if it was possible to bi-amp or bi-wire thespeakers like the 1.6, their answer was no. Also supplied with the speakers arespare 4 Ampere glass fuses for the tweeter panels and a pair of 1 Ohm ceramicresistors that can be used to reduce tweeter output by 2dB. (I did not usethem.)
The owner's manual supplied with the speakershas step-by-step instructions on initial speaker placement. The two most notablestatements in the set up procedure are the necessity to place the panels wellaway from the back wall and to toe in the panels toward the listening position.This first statement seems logical because of the panels Di-Pole radiatingsurface. The second statement is a bit surprising to me because of those verysame large panels; I did not expect them to be quite as directional. Theinstructions recommend that you place the tweeter panels mirror imaged on theinside edge of each speaker. At the bottom rear side of the speakers, you willsee that both speakers have matching serial numbers. Spaced to the right of theserial numbers is a position number. The instructions tell you to place thespeaker with the number 1 on the right side. And the speaker with the number 2will serve as the left channel.
In the following, the words and the terms I usedo not follow the same pseudo literati descriptive poetic phrasing you will readin the paper audio publications, phrases like, Palpable Presence or Vivid AuralBlackness. I believe it far better to refer/relate to the ability to channelemotions and meaning and not only to the sound, the equipment makes. It is allabout the music, the equipment is only a means to that end.
As set up, we have relatively large panels inmy room recreating a true Phil Spector style 'Wall of Sound'. So what couldbe more appropriate than a vast and spacious live recording like, PartyAt The Palace [Virgin records CD 7243 8 12833 2 5]. The year is 2002,the setting the great lawn in front of Buckingham Palace, the occasion is TheQueen of England's Golden Jubilee. Gathered for this concert is the besttalent in England. On stage are Queen, Phil Collins, Tom Jones, Bryan Adams,Annie Lennox, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney,Shirley Bassey, add Brian Wilson of the beach boys. All of them backed by, TheRoyal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra with Brian May. I do highly recommendthis recording. And did you ever hope to hear Brian Wilson performing Good Vibrations backed by The Royal Academy SymphonyOrchestra? The recording contains the massed responses of a cheering throng. Theeffect is that you are transported to a grassy field and made part of the vastaudience facing the stage. Every announced word and every musical passage echoesoutward into the air finding you in the crowd. The music begins and the confinesof my room recede. Like a time machine, I find myself so very alive, and in themoment.
Athe outset I wondered if any of the critical comments made some years ago inMagneplanar reviews would still be relevant. There was one comment about lowerbass detail and dynamics and a few additional comments regarding the ribbontweeter. Specifically the reference was to the speed and integration of thetweeter. It was said that the tweeter had better transient response incomparison to the other Magneplanar panels/drivers.
Marantz DV8400 Universal CD player, CambridgeAudio Discmagic-1 CD transport, Cambridge S-700 Isomagic HDCD D/A Converter, ARTDI/O Up sampling D/A and A/D processor, Magnum Dynalab FT 101a tuner and DynalabSignal Sleuth.
Type: Thee way full-range ribbon speaker.
Frequency Response: 40 Hz to 22 kHz (+/- 3dB)
Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m
Impedance: Nominal 4 Ohms
Dimensions: 19.25 x 64.5 x x 2 (WxHxD in inches)
Warranty: Limited three years to original owner
Shipping Weight: 95 lbs.
Serial Numbers: 100282-1 and 2
Price: $1995
Magnet 1 750
Magnepan Inc.
1645 Ninth Street
White Bear Lake, Minnesota 55110
Magnet 1 7 Equals
Website: www.magnepan.com