see review

none

This is a follow up review. I since upgraded my amplifier. Now I have a Audio Research D400 MKII. I used Ayre products in the past and was very happy with the performance. Unfortunately it didn't have enough juice to move the Mags with authority. Well that's what the MKII does. My listening experience is on a whole new level. Now my sessions last till midnight. Every night! The Mags need current. The more the better.I went from 200/watts at 4 ohms to 400/watts at 4 ohms. The difference is significant. All I can say is, if you are thinking about getting the 3.6r, consider amps with at least 300/watts into 4 ohms. One more thing all amps are not made the same. My MKII produces 60 amps and stores over 600 joules of energy. Not many amps can do that. Even in the 10k range. Any questions please contact me. I can give the skinny on how match the best electronics within a moderate budget. Finally I must add my opinion about reviews. It seems that there are some people who are totally out of the loop when it comes to the 3.6rs. If there are over 90% in favor of the 3.6rs, then it is safe to assume these are excellent loudspeakers. So if one or even two decide to write not in favor of the 3.6rs, then believe me, they are out of the loop!!!

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see review

In a properly set up room with the right gear, these speakers produce a sound stage that envelopes you in the music. Every instrument and voice is placed in the proper position.

Steel jumpers between mid and high drivers (I replaced mine with anti-cable jumpers)

I had owned 1.6 maggies for 2 years prior to buying these demo units from my dealer. They have black cloth with dark cherry wood trim. They are quite beautiful!! I was unsure that the upgrade would yield that much of an improvement....boy did it ever!! I have spent the last 8 months upgrading the rest of my system. New preamp, CDP, cables, acoutics, you get the picture. I wanted to get every ounce of music out of my 1.6's, and I did! Now, I was ready to make the big jump up to the 3.6's. The 3.6's does everything that the smaller maggies do, but much, much better. Great bass, mids, and highs to die for. A larger and more detailed sound all around. I can turn my sub off and not even miss it. I had auditioned these speakers over the last several years in the store, but now they are mine, and I'm loving it!!

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Magnepan MG1.6/QR

Imaging Inner Detail Tone Soundstage Timbre Realism

Are you kidding? We are talking about Magnepan 3.6r!

First met me say that I am a mag lover from way back. I bought my first pair back in 82'. I've been hooked ever since. Sure I owned a lot of junk in between, but I always came back to magnepan. I recently sold my 3.5s to get into the 3.6. Am I happy, you bet. The upgrade was worth it. For those who are on this journey, I am a dedicated audiophile with over 30 years with this hobby, which I love. So when I tell you there is nothing that comes close to this level of listening, you can take that to the bank. As I said, I tried it all. Don't make the mistakes I made, it's not worth it. But there is one thing clear, you must have the best electronics to match the 3.6. Not and I repeat not the most expensive the, best. So do your home work! I use ayre products. They are a match made in heaven. If you need some advice or suggestions, please email me. I'll give you the skinny on which way to go. Some mag owners mention how mags need a sub, that's BS. Its all about personal taste. I never felt that way, and never will. I like my bottom end to start and stop on a dime and give me nine cents change. I don't need a lull between notes. That's just me. So some may want a sub for the mags, notice what I said, want, the mags don't need a sub. Take my word for it. Finally, I can't listen to box speakers. Mags has spoiled me to a fault. Once you go mag you can't go back. Take my word for it!

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Apogee Martin Logan Every thing in between

properly providing the micro/macro, width, height and depth of music in a most believable fashion

size

Over the years I have owned Sonus Faber Concerto’s, Guarnari’s and JMR Offrandes. I have now had the 3.6’s for almost a year now I find them to be “perfect” for “my” listening needs. They provide all the proper micro/macro nuances of the music, along with excellent width/depth and realistic bass. I find them “not” to be room sensitive in my 14’x15’ very bright listening area (the 3.6’s are placed out from the back wall approximately 3’and about 6’ apart). With the above speakers that I owned, which had lower bandwidths ranging from 45Hz to a claimed 30Hz, they all had some kind of bass and/or other integration problems in this room, be it bass boom/muddy bass or under/over exaggeration issues on certain music, which would have meant “unsightly, to me anyway” room acoustics to correct their various problems (not so with the Magnepan’s, possible due to their dipole design). Based on my budget, I am using a VAC Avatar Super, (80 watt integrated tube amp). However, many owners of this speaker suggest lots of good quality, “sky-is-the-limit” transistor/tube power “I concur”. Though the Magnepan’s, be it the 1.6’s / 3.6’s are relatively inexpensive, they are very revealing and will easily show the short comings of equipment & accessories. However, I have heard the Magnepan’s on Arcam and found they worked pretty darn good, so don’t feel that you have to break the bank to get the Magnepan's working. However, the better the power, the better the 3.6’s will sound. To make an analogy, Morton’s steak house is better than Outback, as Outback is better than Denny’s (you get the picture). In fact, if I came into some extra money I would not hesitate in getting a $20K VAC Phi Beta 110i integrated amp along and a $15K Zanden Audio cd player, knowing that they would substantially improve the sound of the 3.6’s over my current system. Also, the 3.6’s are a four ohm speaker and can give various amps some problems, during my search I scratched off the Pathos Acoustics Classic One (a great amp) because I read that it had difficulty with four ohm loads. I have found through experience that regardless of what speaker you get, make sure that the speaker is properly suited to “your” room. With the Guarnari’s, even though they are a mini-monitor, I found out later that they were actually designed with a large listening area in mind and required plenty of “space”, and after having lived with the Guarnari’s, found this to be true, which is one of the reasons why I sold them. Yes, the 3.6’s are bigger in size (but probably not in mass) and have found that they only need to be 2’ to 3’ from “my” back wall to get them to properly perform, at least in my room anyway. There are a bunch of great speakers to choose from, such as: Vienna Acoustics, Sonus Faber, Merlin, Quad, Joseph, JMR, Dynaudio, ProAc, Harbeth and Reference, to name a few. I have found that great speakers are like great cars and that it really comes down to personal choice, Audi or BMW, BMW or Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari or Lamborghini. One can argue as to which is best, but the bottom line is that each of these manufactures put their best foot forward in trying to create a great product and typically succeed. As for me, I have found that the 3.6’s allow me to truly enjoy all forms of music far better than any of the other previous speakers that I have owned. With my previous speakers, I sometimes found myself fading into that analytical speaker analysis syndrome because they just could not capture certain aspects of the music be played through them, be it size & scope, space, highs/lows. One can argue that my previous speakers were a poor choice and that if I had gotten the xyz speaker in the first place, I would not have had those problems to begin with, and ya know something they could be right. However, with the 3.6’s, I have none of my previous issues and enjoy music each and every time I listen to them, and because of this, I have no urge to look any further, which for me is “very” liberating. I will still read the various stereo magizines and continue to attend the Vegas CES show to see what’s happening and stay abreast with this hobby. It’s just that now, I know what I have with the 3.6s and no longer need to “hunt” for that right speaker. In fact, I think that I can safely say that the only way I will part with the 3.6’s is if Magnepan introduces a replacement model or I decide down the road to get the 20.1’s, that’s how much I like this speaker – maybe you will to. Adios and happy hunting.

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Sonus Faber and JMR

Soundstage, Lack of Distortion, Immediacy, Resolution

Not a bass monster, but that is what a good subwoofer is for.

I auditioned these after listening to much of the competition. There is no competition in my mind at this price. I listen to music ranging from "JamBand" to acoustic jazz. Words cannot describe how these things sound when set up and amplified properly. I just wish I had the room and funds to buy the 20.1s. I honestly think there is no speaker I would rather have than a Magnepan, no matter what the price.

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I would not say that the Martin Logans are similar, but have a lot of experience with them.

Matched with the right sub and amp, these speakers sound incredible....almost unbeatable by anything under $20K

The sweet spot IS small....so make sure you have a good listening room.....the sweet spot is a little small.....someone sitting off (even slightly) to one side, will loose some of this amazing experience.

Let me start by saying I LOVE my Magnepans. Every listening experience is wonderful and I wouldn't trade them for anything 4 or 5 times the price. ***BUYING EXPERIENCE*** I purchased my 3.6's new, about two months ago. At first, Magnepan shipped me a speaker which had a damaged panal resulting in severe crackling. Before accepting return, Wendel at Magnepan insisted I purchase some test CD's like the Sterephile Test CD, a Digital Multimeter and a Sound Level Meter to ensure it wasn't me!! Thankfully, my dealer (over an hour drive away), came down with the necessary equipment and ran the test for me to satisfy Wendel that I wasn't loosing my mind! After testing it, we did specifically find out which panel was damaged, and off they went back to Magnepan. Two weeks later, a brand new replacement pair arrived. After getting them home (again an hour drive from the dealer), I opened up to find one of the speakers cloth completely torn!! Back to Magnepan the speakers went (you can't just ship one speaker back....due to the crappy shipping box Magnepan uses...you need both speakers for support). Three weeks later, the SAME speakers arrived back, and the one with the torn cloth was fixed....but the job was just "OK" at best. There were little bits of cloth "pilling" at the top. A funny side story: before purchasing these speakers, I called Magnepan MANY MANY times asking why I couldn't buy from them direct.....my local dealer only had one pair of 1.6's shoved in a corner (not even hooked up) and he refused to order a pair of 3.6's for me (yep, that's right, I bought the 3.6's UNHEARD). Again....I said to Magnepan, "my dealer is over an hour drive away, he doesn't carry your 3.6's, why can't I buy direct?" The answer, "we value our relationship with our dealers and if we ship it direct, there is too much risk for DAMAGE!!!" HILARIOUS. I am sure my experiences fall into the "one in a million" category....but we definitely didn't get off to a great start. Had Magnepans Customer Service been better....I definitely wouldn't have minded as much. I'm not sure what it is....maybe they have sold so many speakers, they've forgotten the term "customer service"....because even after finally getting a working pair, I called to ask questions regarding speaker placement due to the odd shape of my room and got little to no help. I understand that you aren't "here"....but the tone was very much like "why are you bothering us?" Magnepan will tell you "we can't answer everyones questions"....well keep telling yourselves that. In a nutshell, GREAT PRODUCT, POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. ***LISTENING EXPERIENCE*** Now that I have a working, cosmetically clean pair, let me tell you how they sound...AWESOME!! These speakers ARE revealing.....what does this mean...GREAT recordings sound GREAT...BAD recordings sound BAD. I didn't realize just how much the art of recording effects the product...until I had these speakers. Some of my CD's like Michael Buble', Dave Matthews Band and others sound INCREDIBLE...you will have a near "out of body" experience. While some of my other CD's, sound like crap. It's funny...these same CD's sound equal in my car, but put them on my home system...oh boy, what a difference. You definitely do need GOOD, CLEAN power to drive the Maggies. I researched for MONTHS a proper amp to buy (don't call Magnepan for suggestions like I did...they couldn't care less whether you drive them with a clock radio...why couldn't Magnepan just say make sure they can handle a 4 ohm load and have at least 200 watts/ch of power??? Idiots)...Anyway, I settled on the McIntosh MC352 (now replaced with the even better MC401). I can't recommend these amps enough. Maggies and Macs are a marriage made in heaven. If I had the bucks, I would buy the McIntosh preamp too. I have augmented the Maggies with a REL Strata III Sub. This was an excellent audition and I couldn't imagine listening to them without it. Prior to purchasing the REL Strata III...I always thought the bottom end could use just a "little" more help....not much...just a bit. With the REL Strata III adjusted to the right setting, it adds punch when needed and stays the heck out of the way the rest of the time. The way the REL Strata III connects to your system is the genius behind mating this sub with the Magnepan 3.6's. It doesn't connect to your AMP, but rather connects at the speaker terminals of your maggies...this ensures they are sharing the same signal and it knows when to add a little or to stay quiet. Perfect!! I have positioned my Maggies exactly HALF the distance apart that I am sitting from them. This produces a wonderful, full sound stage. There really isn't anything I don't like about these speakers. The highs are clear, but not bright. The mid range reproduces vocals like no other speaker and the bottom end is "competent"..but does need a little help. Don't buy just any old sub..getting the right match is critical.

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Magnepan MMG, B&W, Celestion....too many to mention.

Detailed, airy, transparent, you hear everything sound. Large sound stage. Wonderful tweeter planars are known for.

Bass needs a subwoofer for punch. REL is a good match.

These speakers were very detailed at first listen by my learned friend, Sam. You hear every detail of the recording. That is what I like most about these speakers. They are very transparent and revealing. My Denon 3910 had redbook CD playback that was too bright and harsh. The sound was sibilant. It did not appear that way on other box speakers, but for the maggies it did. I had to buy a Theta Digital DAC, used, to improve the sound of CD playback. Improve it a lot. Did I say the maggies are revealing. It picked up on the superior Theta DAC right away. The sound is open, natural, and musical. I paired the maggies with REL Strata II after reading rave reviews of such pairing at audioasylum.com by other maggie owners. I must say the REL was seamlessly integrated in sound. REL was a perfect fit. It is musical, fast and seamless. These speakers need precise placement. I had to adjust the placement so that the tweeters do not sound so strident and almost harsh. Placement makes a big difference. The sweet spot for listening is small in comparison to the box speakers, but that is the nature of the dipole planar. I happily trade the detailed, transparent, airy sound of the planar for the box speakers' sound. I just can hear much more of the details and the music than the box speakers. It is so good that I can be fooled into thinking that the performers are right in front of me behind microphones beyond these speakers. In conclusion, these speakers are very, very good for my ears.

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Compared to Martin Logans, Paradigm, Thiel 2.4.

Soundstage is wonderful, you are there all of the time!

Garbage in....garbage out! I love classic pop music, and sad to say, those cd's and lp's are more for conventional box speakers than planars. Jazz is wonderful with a Maggie, and some pop music is stellar on these planars. Make sure you've got enough power, or the investment is pointless.

Let me first state that my Maggies are 3.5R's, not the newer 3.6's but my review has to do with some of the comments made on the 3.6's. I've auditioned the 3.6's and didn't find it worth while to trade in my 3.5's. Many comment on the hole in the mid-upper range. Well, if I recall correctly, that was a design issue that the 3.6's were given: better low end, new crossover freq's in the mid's. My 3.5's are without a doubt more flat the 3.6's, and I haven't had any problems with mid's and upper range frequencies. In addition, I'm on my 3rd set of new ribbons in the planars, and while placement is crucial, the low end on the 3.5's just isn't there, so I don't even bother for correct placement. I have two Vandersteen sub's to make up for it, and the music is simply lovely. I would say the 3.6's make up for what the 3.5's lack, but I could also say the 3.5's have mid range the 6's do not. I pair the Maggies with a Mac 352 amp, and a C-42 preamp, and I would swear those components have tubes inside of them.

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Magnepan 3.3

Big image, exceptional detail and clarity in highs above 3000 hz., excellent bass for a planar, very enjoyable midrange.

A hole in the sound between 1700 and 3000 hz. which renders their overall effect on most music unnatural and unpleasant.

I auditioned these with two acoustic jazz C.D.'s I knew well and purchased them on the spot. They replaced a pair of 20 year old Accoustat electrostat panels and I prefer a planar sound. Once home, my first impressions were very negative, though they did sound about the same with the two C.D.'s I used for demos. I've only 20-30 loud hours of breakin on them and that might be the problem although I'm sceptical. The 3.6's throw a wonderful image. They have a well-defined bass with a surprising amount of punch for a planar and breakin should increase this. The midrange is very much like older models, nice but not as detailed as stats. At higher volumes, I detect a "bloom" or ring to it and I've seen one competent engineering analysis confirming that the mylar panels are live and add sound of their own, though this is not unpleasant. My first listening impressions were that the 3.6's have a dry, unmusical quality, saxes and other instruments were barely recognizable in their upper registers, and the ribbon tweeter was hard to take. It imparted a squeeky, screechy quality. After playing with position and resistors, I was able to produce a tolerable to excellent treble sound, depending upon sound source, but they still sounded dead and unmusical. I used a Radio Shack db meter and CD with carefully recorded frequency samples. I found that the 3.6's gave good bass response down to 40 hz. and were quite smooth all the way up through the end of the mylar's range, about 1700 hz., then from there up to about 3000 hz. there is about a 10 db.drop out, very noticable to say the least and the reason that they sound so dry and unnatural in the lower treble, so much so that I'd rate them unacceptable at this point. I can eq them with a broad 1500 hz. boost on my Mac preamp and that imparts a more natural sound but this drop out shouldn't be there in a high quality speaker. Now, this could be a break in problem but I suspect it is a crossover design problem because it will take a heck of a breakin to get 10 more dbs. out of the lower range of the ribbon tweeter. On well-recorded C.D.'s without instruments which have a great deal of energy in the 1700-3000hz. range, these speakers can sound incredibly good. They are very unforgiving of less than perfect recordings or recordings with a lot of lower treble and that's the majority of recordings. I am hoping that further breakin will help but I am dubious. I also intend to run the same db sweep on the dealer's pair when I get a chance in order to rule out the possibility that my system or room is producing the dropout. I am driving them with a 350 wt. per channel McIntosh amp and late model McIntosh preamp and good but not exceptional peripherals (which have sounded good to outstanding with other speakers).

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Acoustat, SoundLabs

soundstage, transparency, detail,air, ultra-smooth treble, the excellent ability to potrait how a real piano should sound from a speaker

break-in time

I have to admit that I'm a true planar fan. I own ribbon speakers from Apogees, Newforms, and of course the maggie. I just have the chance to upgrade my MG2.7 to the MG3.6. Well, the 3.6 sounded more detail, airy, transparent, extended in the extreme...you name it. It is a much better speakers than the MG2.7, I have to admit I've audition speakers such as, Wilsons, Thiel, Eggleston, B&W, JMlab, but only the 3.6 can wins my heart. Associated equipement: Krell KRC-3 Preamp Krell KSA-300S Power Amp Krell KPS-30i CD-player(use as transport) Mark Levinson 360 DAC Transparent Super XL interconnect and speaker cable

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Apogee slant 8s, Apogee stages, Newform R645, Magnepan 2.7,