Transient speed, minimal coloration, speaker vanishes, big sound

no low base, requires a lot of amplifier power, must be placed away from rear wall

After owning a pair of 1.6 Q/R speakers for over a year, I moved the speaker farther out from the rear wall, about 5 - 5 1/2 feet away. I had previously been listening to them about 40 inches from the rear wall. It sounded like I was listening to different, better speakers. Everything was more focused, and everything sounded more realstic. The soundstage was much deeper and better reproduced, which I would have expected, but I wasn't prepared for how much "easier" and more effortless the music sounded. In particular, female vocals seemed much more like the vocalist was in the room, about 4 to 5 feet behind the plane of the speakers. I thought the 1.6's did very well with female vocals before, and it was a stong suit of the speaker, but when used in their new location further out in the room, there was more detail, better imaging, and added realism. My listening room is about 17' by 28', and the listening position is about 10 - 12 feet from the speakers. I will continue to experiment with speaker placement, but I am embarrased I never brought the speakers out in to the room (to 5 feet away from the rear wall) until I had owned them for a year. I will not be going back to having the speakrs only 40 inches away from the rear wall. I do have s subwoofer (a Tannoy model which retails for $500)which is a wonderful addition and "completes" the sound for me, adding the needed bottom end to accoustic base and drums. My listening preference is jazz, and the 1.6 Q/Rs do a great job to make it seem like an accoustic jazz trio or quartet could be there in my listening room. Instruments sound natural to me on the 1.6's. Dynamics are better than previous magneplanar speakers I have heard. The best aspect of the Magneplanar 1.6Q/R speaker is its price: $1475. The greatest speaker value available, as far as I know. Highest recommendation. 4.5 stars, only because the model 3.6R is better sounding, and still costs only $3750.

Similar Products Used:

Mangnaplanar MGII

Price,detail,transparency and dynamics

some loss at frequency extremes,more so at the lower end,very forgiveable

Who says these speakers have no bass,they have decent, but not awesome bass.They are not that hard to drive and have just about anything anyone could expect from a speaker costing much, much more.Need more bass?,get a sub.

Similar Products Used:

Thiels,Logans,Audio Physics,Paradigm

Timbre, broad and deep soundstage, detail, razor sharp imaging, palpability/realism of performance

None

This is a GREAT speaker. Perhaps lacking a little air at the very top compared to the 3.6, but otherwise nearly flawless. I feel as though I can finally end my quest for the "right" speaker. I've been auditioning and purchasing various models for 20 years and had not found what I was looking for - something approximating a live performance in my listening room. The 1.6 presents a broad and deep soundstage with stable and precise location of the performers (assuming quality source material/components, of course). Male and female vocals sound absolutely "there". The first time my girlfriend heard them I had deliberately selected Diana Kralls "Love Scenes" for her first taste. I had her close her eyes and started the disc - she literally jumped, startled by the realism. She said she was startled because it sounded so much like the performers were in the room with us!!!! She was in disbelief.
Now, I listen to a wide variety of music, but by far, the vast majority of my listening is to classic rock and the blues. This includes SRV, Clapton, Hendrix, BB King, Freddie King, the Beatles, Stones, etc.... I simply do NOT understand the statement in previous reviews that this is not a good speaker for rock. I find the 1.6 sounds great reproducing R&R and blues. SRV has never sounded this live since I saw him perform in Bristol, CT. in 1989. The only explanation I can think of is that the reviewer was not driving the Maggies with an amplifier of sufficient power/current. If there is one fault with these speakers, that is it - they really don't start to open up and "sing" with anything less than 200 - 300 watts per channel into 8 ohms and a massive current supply powering them. I originally had them connected to a 100/ch Denon. They sounded good, but constrained and a bit flat. I then replaced the Denon with an Adcom GFA-5500 200/ch and - voila! There was the sound I was after! Dynamic, deep bass( I have NO problem with low bass in my system/room - my Velodyne sub is turned OFF for music listening), accurate imaging - the soundstage opened right up and I was "there". I'm saving my pennies now to move up to the 300/ch GFA-5802.
Yes, they do have a significant break-in period. Mine didn't really start to sound their best for about three months. Now they are sooooo sweet.
I have my 1.6s positioned about 3.5 feet from the back wall and about 4 feet from the side walls of my living room. They are canted slightly toward my listening position - about 12 feet from the speakers.
Highly - and I mean HIGHLY recommended. I honestly feel after years of listening to and auditioning nearly everything else out there, that at this price point you simply cannot do any better; and probably not at twice the modest price. I wish there were more stars to give.

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan MMG, Klipsch, Infinity, M-L - its been a never-ending quest - until now.

Transparency, beautiful mid-range, soundstaging (l/r *and* front to back), transient response, and pretty much what has already been stated and re-stated.

Relatively small sweet spot. Does not go as deep as some people would like.

First of all, I am curious as to how long the dealer had the Maggies that the reviewer from Houston, TX (“Riverside?”) listened too. Maggies need a lot of time to fully develop their true sonic characteristics – particularly the bass. I will be the first one to agree with that reviewer's initial impression that "planars suck at low bass." I will also add that they sound thin in the midrange and can be very bright on the top before they are broken in. However, once they are broken in, the top end smooths out very nicely, the mids are absolutely amazing, and there is a surprising amount of bass. I have experienced this twice now: once with my MMG and again with my 1.6. Magneplanars that aren't broken in, IMO, are some of the least impressive speakers that one can listen to. If you audition, ask the dealer how long they've had them.

If you want tight, clean, and musical bass out of the 1.6 (or higher end Maggies), you *really need* a powerful, high-current amplifier. Although the Sunfire Cinema Grand amplifier, my previous amplifier, delivers 400 watts into the Maggie's 4 ohm load, I found that the Marsh Sound Design MSD 400s (330W into 4 ohms), the Bryston 4BST (400W into 4 ohms), Theta Digital Dreadnaught (400W into 4 ohms), and the Electrocompaniet AW120 DMB (200W into 4 ohms) amplifiers caused my Maggies to deliver astonishing levels of dynamic bass performance. My Sunfire was anemic in comparison. The Electrocompaniet, though being the amp with the lowest power rating, delivered bass performance almost on par with the Bryston. Anyway, for the first time, I actually shook the walls and some items in my listening room with a DTS demo sequence from a DVD - without the subwoofer turned on! IMHO, Maggies really need clean, powerful, high-current, solid-state equipment to perform their best. The amplifiers that I listened to aren’t tremendously expensive either – with the possible exception of the Electrocompaniet. The Odyssey Audio Stratos with the capacitance upgrade (~$1100) could very well be the “budget” amplifier of choice to use with Maggies. I am eagerly awaiting my monoblocks from Klause Blunge of Odyssey Audio. Right now, the Electrocompaniet is the clear winner to my ears.

Regarding female vocalists, even right out of the box female vocals sound very good and, once broken in, I can’t imagine any speaker at or near the 1.6’s price point being significantly better in this respect. Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sarah Brightman, and Natalie Merchant sound absolutely amazing on these Maggies.

In addition to classical, new age, jazz, and opera, I listen to a lot of rock/alternative rock (Journey, Styx, Queen, Van Halen, Genesis, Counting Crows, Smashing Pumpkins, Dave Matthews, etc.), and even techno (Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Orbital, Sasha, John Digweed, etc.) on these Maggies without a subwoofer. I only feel the need to engage the sub when watching movies or cranking some techno-industrial or trance material – my REL sub takes over at 30Hz. The wrong speakers for rock? To my ears, absolutely not! For techno, rap, etc? Possibly, but if that’s what you primarily listen to, there are cheaper alternatives than these Maggies. The strengths already mentioned by the previous reviewers are probably not going to matter too much in this case.

The sweet spot projected by my MMG is a lot bigger with the 1.6. However, even in my relatively small listening area (19 x 16 x 8.5), it doesn’t take much to get out of the sweet spot. I’m not quite sure why this is the case, but monopole designs like the Paradigms seem to have a bigger sweet spot. This isn’t all bad, as stated by another reviewer. I too happily immerse myself in the sweetspot at volume levels that *should* bother my neighbors, but the drop off outside the sweetspot is such that very little noise actually reaches the common hallway in the condo complex I live in.

The Magnepan MG1.6/QR is a very deceptive product at its $1675 price. I believe that it can deliver a satisfying musical experience to some people with amplification at or near its price range. However, in my opinion, the superlatives attached to this speaker by the many glowing reviews on this site are only brought into light through the use of a really good high-current solid state amplifier. High power tube amplification such as VTL’s reference monoblocks will probably work wonders as well. Such amplification, admittedly, does not always come cheaply. In this respect, this may be another item to add to the “weakness” column of these particular Maggies. Others may disagree, but I can only honestly state what I heard during my in-home auditions of the power amplifiers I’ve mentioned in this review.

I wish this site would go to a 1-10 scale for ratings. I really cannot give a full five stars for these Maggies. Their long break-in time, deceptive amplification requirements, small sweet spot, and lack of thunderous, low bass may turn some people off. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say they’re close to being a 9. 5 stars then for value, 4.5 overall (rounded up to 5).

Current Equipment

Electrocompaniet AW120 DMB
Sunfire Theater Grand II Processor/Preamp
Pioneer Elite DV-C37
Magnepan MG1.6/QR (front l/r)
Magnepan MMG (surrounds - currently out of commission until new amps arrive)
REL Strata III Subwoofer
AudioQuest Coral Interconnects (Unbalanced/analog)
Nordost Blue Heaven Interconnects (Balanced/analog)
Monster Lightspeed 300 (Digital)
Nordost Blue Heaven Bi-Wire Speaker cable (front)
Monster 16-guage speaker cable (surrounds)

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan MMG, Martin Logan Aerius. Paradigm Reference Studio Series, Joseph Audio RM25si (though not really similar designs)

Clarity, deffintion, seperation,tightness

none

I have waited for this day for a long time...until recently I was unaware maggies were still around...I cant wait till I get these babies home...Ill be using the Classe 201 amp and the Classe cp-35 preamp. Also the cdp-.3 is from Classe. My dealer is rebuilding the tone arm of my Rega 2 turntable to compare with the best out there. I am adding a soliloquy s10 sub ...for that "extra" bass kick when it is so desired. Maggies open up a world of music that many never knew existed...Im aware of the break in period...and Ive done my homework here. Im glad I came back to magnepan.

Similar Products Used:

mgIIs

Detail, soundstage, speed, clarity, dimensionality, smoothness.

Doesn't plumb the absolute Depths of bass, but it is quite good nonetheless.

Those earlier reviews tha complain about anemic bass most likely have the speakers set up wrong. These speakers have wonderful bass. True, you won't be getting clean down to 20Hz, but then again how many speakers do that? My system uses either a Conrad-Johnson EV20 to a Rogue Audio 66 amplifier, or the Monarchy Audio Model 33 DAC/pre to their SM-70 Pro monoblocks with fully balanced cabling. Source is a Pioneer Elite PD-65 as a transport with the Monarchy Audio DIP 24/96 jitter reducer. Cables are either all BetterCables.com or all Monarchy balanced or a mixture with the Decware silver interconnects (I'm still testing the combinations).

I was HIGHLY impressed with the MMG's, which prompted me to seek out the 1.6QR's and the 3.6's. The 3.6's sounded wonderful but were well beyond my means. With the MMG trade-up, the 1.6's were a great deal.

My room has been very carefully treated acoustically. I have read extensively on the subject in an effort to educate myself. I ended up buying the room treatment blueprints from decware.com and using them in my listening room. Once in place my previous MMG's became the most wonderful speakers I'd ever heard, the 1.6QR's more so. I would strongly suggest that those who think these have no bass, educate themselves on room acoustics and rethink their "systems" (the room is most definitely a major part of it!). This applies to just about ALL speakers (perhaps not so much for the radial speakers). Placement is very important as applies to room interaction.

In summary: 1.6QR's are v-e-r-y nice speakers and a bargain. If you've never used Maggies, try their $550 MMG's for a year then think about trading up (with full credit!) to the 1.6QR's or the 3.6's if you can afford them.

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan MMG, Sound Lab A2

Detail, soundstage, imaging

lack of low bass, size, placement and power demands

I lived with the 1.6's for about a year. I would describe these speakers as high maintence. They suck up power, the more you give them the better. I was using an Aragon 8008BB and still they wanted more. They need a large room at least 3'from the front wall and at least that from the side walls. If you can't do that they will have a relatively large frequency bump around 800hz-300hz making them sound somewhat muddy. Also they require a significate other who likes their very large monolith size. Also to my ears they sounded rather harsh or brittle at all mid to high frequencies when played hard much over 90db. That may have been partly due to power demands on amp.
However if you can give them lots of room and lots of good clean power and don't like your music too loud, they will sing all nite long. But still they won't give you much bass below 80hz, so be prepared to purchase a really good, fast subwoofer. The bass they do give you is very fast and tight, they just won't give you enough.
Anyway I sold mine a few months ago (good resale value)in favor of the Joseph Audio RM30si(stumbled on a really good deal). While the Joseph's cost more they are much less demanding (low maintence)and give you the entire frequency range. Give them a good amp (Aragon 8008BB/ST), a little space, and they will sing deeply and loudly all nite long.

That's my take,
geo

These are the most revealing speakers I have ever heard. I originally had them connected to a Yamaha RV-1103 receiver, and although the sound was a little bright for my tastes, I was still extremely impressed. I just purchased a B+K AVR202, and although this is still a receiver, the improvement in sound was amazing!! I'am using my 1.6's as my mains in a home theater setup, and although I have a 36" monitor between them, the imaging is still amazing. I just can't say enough good things about these speakers.

These are the best speakers for the money available.

Smooth response, wide soundstage

fine grain texture in the treble, not that transparent - slightly veiled compared to other panel designs.

Fine speaker but expected more given the phenominal reviews and sales success. I have owned Magnepans for 10 years and have been one of thier most ardent supporters. The 1.6 was disappointing overall.

Good qualities were that the speaker still had the smooth coherency that Magnepan has always had. Though not deep, the soundstage was large overall.

The good qualities were offset by a few liabilities. Most disturbing was how vieled the speaker sounded. Not awful but closed in - like they would sound clean and clear if you only turned up the volume. Turning up the volume did not correct this. Soundstage was wide but not very deep.

A good speaker - but not the giant killer I had expected. I'll stick with the Martin Logan Aerius (i).

Similar Products Used:

Magnepans - 10.1, SMGa, 1.5, .6, 2.6
Martin Logan Aerius (i)

Smooth response, wide soundstage

fine grain texture in the treble, not that transparent - slightly veiled compared to other panel designs.

Fine speaker but expected more given the phenominal reviews and sales success. I have owned Magnepans for 10 years and have been one of thier most ardent supporters. The 1.6 was disappointing overall.

Good qualities were that the speaker still had the smooth coherency that Magnepan has always had. Though not deep, the soundstage was large overall.

The good qualities were offset by a few liabilities. Most disturbing was how vieled the speaker sounded. Not awful but closed in - like they would sound clean and clear if you only turned up the volume. Turning up the volume did not correct this. Soundstage was wide but not very deep.

A good speaker - but not the giant killer I had expected. I'll stick with the Martin Logan Aerius (i).

Similar Products Used:

Magnepans - 10.1, SMGa, 1.5, .6, 2.6
Martin Logan Aerius (i)