Imaging, sounstage, timber of music, easy to drive. Perfact speaker for the price.

none

The maggie 12's are the best kept secret in the magnepan line. These sound as good as the 1.6's with just slightly less bass. Run out and buy these today and save almost $800.00 from the cost of the 1.6's. These speakers are everything that you read about.The best buy right now in audio-Period!

Similar Products Used:

martin logans, other maggies, many boxed speakers.

Real Fast, Dispersion, Sound stage, great for female voices, classical music and acoustical music; Can hear distinct insturments and not a wall of noise

Nothing

Awesome! I love my Maggies. I upgraded from the MMGs and wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile but it definitely was. Much more bass, smoother highs and more dispersion than the MMGs. Also look nicer and sturdier.

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MMGs

Captures music and hall ambiance that is recorded -- very revealing for badly recorded discs. Great product for money!!

Mounting legs could be a bit more stable. Though not heavy to move about, manufacturer might consider an optional mounting base with concealed wheels so you can push them against wall when not in use. And, more of a selection of optional fabric choices to match different interiors.

I entered my response under Magnaplanar before...but to repeat in the correct model category: This was the best improvement to any system I have ever owned. The sense of presence with the performance is incredible. I have augmented the MG 12s with a 10" powered subwoofer that blends well for the bottom octaves. Most people can't believe what they hear and see. The speaker height also matches my armiore cabinet for TV and equipment. The bipolar nature of the speaker creates a good sound field -- which is best when about 3 feet in front of the wall and about 8 feet apart. Very holographic. My equipment: Adcom 502 tuner/preamp Belles 150A Hot Rod amp Adcom GCD-700 5-CD changer Yamaha 596(?) 5-CD changer Magnapan SMG 12 speakers Sound Dynamics 10"subwoofer Cardas/Wireworld/MIT cables Music preference: classical, new age, jazz

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JBL speakers

Imaging and seperation, pacing, just producing great music in any genre.

low end base

I heard these speakers in an audio store along with the 1.6 and was more impressed with the MG12's. I then waited 3 months for the right deal to come along. When the speakers arrived I was so giddy I had to take the next day off work. I was totally blown away from the very first selection I played that first day, Mercury the Winged Messenger from Gustov Holst's THE PLANETS. I was mesmerized by the soundstage that these speakers had. You could feel the different elements come alive and you could sense where each grouping of instruments were located. Next I listened some tracks from LOS LOBOS experetly crafted CD KIKO. On my old speakers there was no depth but on the Maggies each track presented new depth and imaging. Since that first day I have spent at approx. and hour a day intently listening to music and I am never dissapointed. If you want to listen to music and not take out a mortgage to finance your purchase you must listen to these gems.

detail,you-are-there realism great for acoustic music

size, shape, lack of low bass, amp demands, not really a rocker though listended to e. john dig.remaster of good bye y.b.rd and my jaw dropped!

i had an opportunity to audition the b&w dm603s3against a couple of competitors, incl. magnapan, over a weekend. after hearing the smaller 2 way version in the bw line side by side with the paradigm monitor 7 (which i own), i was eager to hear the 2.5 way design- dm603s3. in comparison with the paradigm, the 2 way seemed superior in terms of definition, clarity, lack of emphasis, etc. however, the 2 way did not go low enough for quasi-full range music. so, the 2.5 way dm603s3 was recommended (but not yet in stock). when available, i auditioned them against the magnaplanars @ roughly the same price point and the polk rt800i @roughly half the price of the b&w. i chose the polk because of the (clearance)price, range and comparable size . in short, if your priority is on music, particularly non-rock, the performance of the magnaplanars is astonishing in the level of detail and musicality. they require substantial current and dominate the landscape visually. unless you are a rocker or want to emphasize action films on home theater, i can not imagine choosing the b&w over the magnaplanars. ( i used them to watch apocalypse now redux. the planars made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end - not for the bombast but for the detailed, hoographic presentation. also, i failed to mention the extremely forward nature of the b&w. seemed almost 1 dimensional in terms of depth compared to either polk 800s or mag. if you want an excellent (but not state of the art) dynamic speaker with good bass(not full)frequency extension, consider the polks and save $500 over the b&w! also, they exhibit much better depth, though the bass is not as low or as tight as the b&w. if you plan to use a sub, this is probably irrelevant. translation: great value! but the sound of the magnaplanars is bewitching. expect to have the reaction: yes, that''s it! i was disappointed in the b&w, but have since heard briefly the bw cm4 @$1500. for an extra $400-500, you get much greater detail than with the dm603s3. if you like the forward sound and want much greater detail for $1500/pr., these could be for you. i suspect you will either buy the magnaplanars or embark on a search for a less demanding speaker at a comparable price. if you find one let me know...

Similar Products Used:

bw, paradigm,polk rt800i,monitor gold- a contender, martin-logan

everything

None for the price, but a sub helps a bit

I bought a used pair of SMGa on the net for a reasonable price. Purchasing the SMGa, the intention was not to replace my Mirage OM7 for an old pair of SMGa; but after a week of listening to the old Maggies I could not resist and started to look around for a pair of MG12. Thanks to the recommendation of Magnepan, they advised me, since living in Canada, to consider a pair of MG12 instead of the mail order MMG. Two years ago I had a pair of Martin Logan Aerius i and I would venture to say the MG12 are far superior the then smaller Logans. I coupled my Maggies, operating full range with a Paradigm Servo 15. I never thought I would be able to tolerate a subwoofer in two-cahnnel audio. Bottom line the MG12 are a great value for an audiophile who owns very good electronics. With middle of the run electronics the Maggies would certainly work, but they would not have the sparkle and the speed. Highly recommended. Bernard Durand Ottawa Ontario Canada P.S. My used SMGa are not for sale and they seemed to have been taken in hostage by my parents who simply love their appearance.

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ML

Clarity, Soundstage, Depth

Need a minimum of 60 real tube watts

I just purchased a pair of the Magnepan MG 12/QR''s. What a buy! I originally had a pair of Quad ESL-63 USA monitors used with a pair of Quicksilver silver mono 90''s, what a combination. The Maggies stand very well against the Quads and Quicksilvers setup. I highly recommend for anyone not needing to spend a fortune to get the Maggies. They on a dollar to dollar basis blow away the Quads. VALUE! with a capital V!

Similar Products Used:

Houston GSP-02 60 watt Tube Stereo Power Amp, Audible Illusions Modulus 3A Preamp, Tjoeb Marantz Tube CD player, Linn LP-12 w/ a Fidelity Research FR-64 Tonearm and a Silver Grado.

Great sound, low cost

Low WAF - They are large

This is a review for the non-audiophiles out there. I picked up a pair of 18 month old (nicely broken in) MG12’s on Friday. The rest of my new system has not arrived yet and I really wanted to hear the 12’s. What to do? (Audiophiles leave now please, this may make your teeth ache.) I have the Pioneer Elite M 10-x amp (100w into 4 ohms) that is intended to power rear channels in a 7.1 set up. I hooked it up with a Radio Shack gold y splitter to my Sony Discman. Amazing. I spent the entire weekend playing every CD I own. The point? Please don’t let all the talk of upstream components, silver cables running from esoteric amps and pre-amps scare you away from these wonderful speakers. Do I believe they will sound better when I hook them up to the full system? Of course! But even with this low end, minimalist system, these truly outstanding speakers. Give them a listen!

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Many

Great sound, low price

Low WAF - They are large

This is for the non audiophiles out there.

I won't repeat what others have said here - you'll be reading it all soon enough!
These were a great purchase decision. The fist time your sitting alone in the room eye's closed listening to some music, and you hear someone else breathing, will startle you a bit - and then you realize it's coming from the recording and think "awesome"! when you listen close to direct recordings you can hear people moving around, etc! It's not just that these speakers pick up these sounds, but that they reproduce them so life like.
Although you will see a lot of audiophile prejuduce against subs, I truely think you should fill the hole in the low end with a quick sub (the maggies only go to 45hz). I chose the velodyne ct-100, crossed over at 50, and it's level turned up around 1/8 of the way (even with the maggies getting 400 watts each from my aragon). I'd probably go even lower on the crossover (40), but I use this set up for movies as well (still as 2 channel, as I couldn't tolerate the degradation of music the surround processors in the under-$2000 range had) so I moved the crossover point up a bit. The trick is to get the sub to support the maggies bass but not intrude on it.

Be carefull - when I first hooked these up I thought I had a collection of junk cd's (all but a few seemed to be poorly recorded). It turned out not to be the cd's but the pre-amp. WHat they say about revealing the source is correct - the "fun" is figuring out which up stream component is the weak link!

I don't like the fuses - they alter the sound. But when I blew one while testing the upper limits of my set-up, i was glad I hadn't replaced them yet! My amp also tripped the circuit breaker in my house a few seconds later with nothing but my audio equipment running, so this would never be a level they'd normaly be played at by me under any circumstances. So the fuses will be coming out very soon. I'll probably replace the bar as well.