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I still have the Magnepan 3.5, the former 3.6.
Upgrading from 3.5 to 3.6 is not recommended because the sound is almost identical.
The price in the Netherland went up high because of dollar rating.
I heard the 3.6 on several shows (like VAD) and several dealers. It's a little bit better than the 3.5, but people who want to buy a pair of Magnepans of this size / price, I recommend to search for a secondhand 3.5.
The sound of these speakers is still very good.
It's easy to speak like a headless chicken like Steve from LA (take off your helmet next time when you're into the store !!!). This is special for Arthur from NY, service must be ok for the amount of money you've to pay for the 3.6, but your opinion is not based on the quality of the 3.6, but on the service of Magnepan. That's something else my friend. Everyone is allowed to say his opinion, but it must based on facts, no loose words. Nobody can do something with it.

Cheers Jacco.

Similar Products Used:

3.5

MID - BASS TO HEAVEN

NO DEEP BASS

MY HONORABLE AUDIENCE, ELECTRONIC DESIGNS IS ABOUT COMPROMISES. PERFECTION IS ABOUT AS ILLUSIVE AS ENCLOSING THY SHADOW IN A BEER BOTTLE. ANY COMPONENT WILL DEMONSTRATE PARTICULARITIES TO REVENUATE AUDIOPHILIA RAVING, WHILE OTHERS WILL LIGHT OUR ASSES US TO SEARCH FOR THE ULTIMATE.

MAGNEPAN'S 3.6Rs! I WILL NOT SING A CHORUS OF ITS STRENGHTS. INSTEAD, I WILL OFFER A SOLUTION TO ITS WEAKNESS. DEEP BASS, AND, MORE DEEP BASS. THE VISCERAL FREQUENCIES THAT SHAKE THE FOUNDATIONS OF APPROVAL. DIPOLE DESIGNS DO NOT OFFER DEEP BASS(CHECK OUT THE LIMITATIONS OF ITS PHYSICS), MEANING THE 3.6Rs ARE NOT FULL RANGE SPEAKERS, ERGO, MEANING, LOW FREQUENCY SUPPLEMENTATION IS NEEDED.

AS GOOD AS THESE SPEAKERS ARE, I ADDED TW0 PARADIGM SERVO SUBS EACH WITH AN INDEPENDENT CROSSOVER(SUPPLIED BY PARADIGM). RATHER THAN FOLLOW THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM OF USING THE CROSSOVERS TO LIMIT THE FREQUENCY RANGE OF THE 3.6Rs, I OPERATE THE MAGGIES FULL RANGE BUT "BUTTER UP" THE FREQUENCY RANGE FROM 80 CYCLES(LOW PASS FILTER IS SET HERE) AND BELOW.

IN MY ROOM, I HAVE MANAGED TO ELICIT DETAILS FROM WAY UP THERE TO DOWN IN THE BELLIES OF HELL. BASS POWER AND HEFT(BUT NO OVERSPILLING) TO THE MOONLIGHT SMOOTHNESS OF THE RIBBON TREBLE. DOES THIS COMBO ROCK AND DOES IT NOT ROLL(CLASSE CA400 X 2 BRIDGED IS AMP CHOICE)? SYMPHONIC MUSIC? NO SECTOR GETS UNDER REPRESENTED. AND THE SOUND IS CLEAN, SO CLEAN U CAN IDENTIFY ANTHRAX SPORES.

TO THE DOGS WHO PROCLAIM CONE DRIVERS CAN'T AUGMENT PLANARS, I WILL DRINK TO YOUR FALLACIES. TRUTH IS, SUBS CORRECT THE LOW FREQ. DEFICIENCIES OF PLANARS. TRY IT, YOU MAY BE A FAN OF CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

Similar Products Used:

MAGGIES 3.5R, 2.7QR PLUS MANY DIYs

Soundstage is Amazing! Imaging is better than any conventional cabinet that I've owned!

Packing Box was a Joke! Be ready to spend some time with these things as far as unpacking and setting up, AND breaking in!

Well, first of all, my biggest comment is position of these planars. I see and hear lots of comments about how the 3.6's lack low end, as do the 3.5's. I personally have NOT had to use a subwoofer because I spent nearly two weekends in a row trying different positions in the listening room. I would say it's the difference between making these things sound great or just flat out bad! Spend time trying different things with the Maggies and see what you like!

First, I had them WAY too close to the wall, I didn't want to have them out in the middle of the floor, but I had no choice, they are now about 4 feet away from the back of the wall, it made a world of difference. OH, one more thing, at first I had them in a smaller room.......uh-uh, get them in a big spacious room. I'm lucky because we have an old victorian house with large ceilings, and wooden floors, and it makes a difference. But I have NO problem with low end...I feel and hear 40 Hz without any problems. I'm amazed to be honest :)

Finally, I would suggest a listen if you're a vinyl enthusiast. I really love listening to my record collection thru the Maggies.

Here is my system for Kicks and Grins:
Technics SL 1200 MK-modified with up to par specs
Ace Benz Cartridge
Denon DCD 1650 AZ CD player
Denon DRS 810 3-Head Cassette Deck
Carver TX11A Tuner
Rotel RC 1090 Preamp (this is a nice piece)
Rotel RB 1090 Amplifier
Monster Power 3500 Line Conditioner

Just retired a Carver C-1 Preamp and M500t Amp, Denon DCD 1520 CD player.

Similar Products Used:

MG III's
JBL Studio Series

Extremely musical, natural sound that evokes the feeling of being at a concert.

The long wait between ordering them and receiving them.

The reader can get a pretty good general feel for the 3.6s by reading previous reviews. They are wide, spacious, open, simply gorgeous sounding speakers that need compatible, high quality associated components to really shine. They are easily the best sounding speaker I've heard for less than $7K. If you are looking for advice, I'd say shop your dealer very closely. I've been extremely pleased with Stereo Unlimited. Dave and Liz have spent a great deal of time, effort and knowledge in putting together compatible systems with the goal of customer satisfaction. Their philosophy is to put systems together that capture the feeling of being at a concert. A few more tips follow. Tubes work great with Magnepans, and you don't need huge amounts of power to drive them. Dave uses a 32 wpc VAC amp to excellent effect with plenty of volume. I'm using biamped AMC 2030s with 60 wpc. The AMCs are one of the great unknown products in audio! Finally, turn them sideways with the fronts of the speakers facing the side walls. It results in more soundstage depth and an even more balanced sound.

Similar Products Used:

Quad ESL, Legacy Signature 3

Having just purchased the 3.6's within the last week I will make a few general observations I have made. The first is that these Maggies need time to break in. The initial sound was not nearly as creamy smooth as I had remembered auditioning at my dealer and my electronics are superior to those used in his showroom. However after running the speakers for one week 24 hours a day the sound has improved significantly. The mids and bass are the areas that require the most break in, more so than the highs. Second observation and one which is time and time again mentioned regarding all Maggies is these speakers want a lot of power to attain even reasonable listening levels. I'm running 210 per channel into 8 ohms and they won't get loud enough for me and my listening room is'nt that large. Part of this problem is due to the fact that the Maggies are soooo!! smooth and unfatiging to listen to, that you can comfortably listen to them at very high decibel levels with no strain on either your own ears or the speaker. Bass response is already very good and I know it will continue to improve for many months to come. One slight negative is that they are lacking a little in the SLAM factor, but you cannot get slam and smooth, non-fatiging listening in one package. For my ears I'll take the enjoyment of being able to listen without getting irritated by the speakers. I'll report back in about six months for a more insightful review.

This speaker sets the definition for transparancy in the under 10K speaker class. The next step up from the 3.6 is probably the MG20.
The speaker does require an extensive break in time (100+ hours).

I will post a followup review when my Maggies are broken in.

Keith

To call these speaker is a bit demeaning. They are musical windows to the essence to what is playing from their source. At, 3.75k these Maggies are a STEAL.
These get the highest rating.

Open, spacious, crystal clear sound with imaging and soundstage not to be found in non-planar speakers.

none

First, a disclaimer: This is NOT a review of the MG3.6, but rather of a predecessor in the "3" series, the MG-IIIa.

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These speakers were made between July '85 and April '90 with a final MSRP of $2195. Dimensionally, they are the same size as the current 3.6. They are also of a true ribbon vice quasi-ribbon design.

I have always held the Magnepan line of speakers in high regard ever since auditioning Tympani IVs with M&K subs driven by Bryston electronics back in '75. Unfortunately until recent years I didn't have a spacious enough room to do Maggies justice. I have been using a custom conventional speaker system for the last 20 years which have performed admirably for me. Yet I would occassionally recall the sound Maggies provide and toy with getting a set not smaller than the current MG1.6.

As luck would have it I stumbled upon a pristine set of MG-IIIa's with external crossover boxes for a very reasonable price. The factory confirmed that both ribbon tweeters had been replaced by the owner during the mid '90s, which reaffirmed the excellent condition. (As an aside the tweeters currently sell for $98 plus $19 S&H and a "core" or old tweeter turn in to the factory. A complete MG-IIIa refurbishment at the factory could run anywhere from $300 to $1700 depending on what all needed to be done.)

Ironically, the custom setup I had been using employed a M&K Sound Mil-K-X1 passive crossover designed to couple Magneplanars to M&K subs. My amp is one I built with closely matched components 2 decades ago... a Dyna ST-410. I knew it would easily drive the big Maggies. I fed power to the M&K crossover which in turn feed the custom 18" subwoofer using Cerwin-Vega 18" "Earthquake" drivers (developed for the movie of the same name). From the M&K, leads feed the pair of Magnepan external passive crossovers which provide the ability to drive the whole system with one amp obviating bi-amping.

I had been using a 1/3 octave graphic equilizer to tailor the old speaker system's sound in my large room. After experimentation, I found it was not needed with the Maggies for about 90% of source material. Stuff that the mixing engineer added too much mid bass boost had a tendancy to add boominess to the MG-IIIa woofer section, so in those cases I switch in the equilization as a fix.

As expected, despite the quality of my old "box" system, the Maggies surpassed them, adding spacial openness that is amazing. Everything folks have said about the positive attributes of Magneplanars are true with one caveat. These handle complex, rock music easily too. I don't know if it is the big sub relieving the screens from having to handle the deep bass or if it is the extremely well broken in condition of these used speakers. I personally favor jazz which this setup handles better than anything I've ever heard.

My system has been built on what I consider to have been outstanding components with great price-performance ratios. A few were acquired second hand at great savings. The oldest component still in use was bought new in '71! Here's a quick rundown:

Source material is provided by:
Carver TX-11a FM Stereo/AM Stereo tuner
Phillips CDC-935 and CDC-926 CD players
Nakamichi Dragon and Kenwood KX-1100HX cassette decks
Tandberg TD-20A reel deck with Concord DBA-10 outboard
Dolby unit and Sony ECM-989/MRU-90 stereo M-S mic
JVC QL-7 DD turntable with Denon MC and Grado MM carts
DishTV receiver for satellite digital CD music feeds

Signal handling by:
M&K Sound Mil-K-X1 passive crossover
Phase Linear 2000 Series II preamp
Kenwood GE-1000 1/3 octave graphic equilizer
Dynaco ST-410
HeadRoom Supreme headphone amplifier

Sound reproduction by:
Magnepan Magneplanar MGIIIa speakers w/passive xovers
Custom subwoofer with Cerwin-Vega 18" drivers
Sennheiser HD-580 headphones

I use a Radio Shack 42-3010 sound level meter to balance the setup against Stereophile test CDs.

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Bottom line here is that used Magneplanars of excellent condition can provide an excellent means at a very reasonable cost of obtaining outstanding audio reproduction.

I'm actually an audio/video phile. Here's the majority of my system:
Proceed HPA 2
Proceed BPA 3
Proceed AVP
Pioneer DV-09
Maggie 3.6 Fronts
Maggie Center
Maggie 10.1 rears
All Tributary Silver Cables

Speaker History/Comparison: I'd owned a pair of 2.7s and had loved them, but had some extra money and wanted something more. So I decided to go shopping and looked at just about everything between 3-8k -> the new BW Nautilius, the new Thiel SCS3, Pro-ACs, M&K, Vandersteen's etc, etc. I almost bought the BWs and then changed my mind and was going to purchase the Theils until I heard and saw the new 3.6s.

One word - WOW. I'm sorry, but no speaker in the 3-8K that I heard does 'it' like the maggies do for me. They throw a HUGE soundstage with an unmatched clairty and prescence. The 'you are there' factor is awesome, the sound is palpable and riveting. I had heard a pair of 3.5s, and I can tell you that the 3.6s have major midbass improvements.

Please, Please, go listen to these speakers. Don't listen to what others say about maggies not having the 'dynamic' qualities of convential speakers - please listen for yourself and then decide.

The only thing that you need to be careful about is the amp that you match with these speakers - you need a nuclear power plant like the HPA 2 which is rated at 500 Watts @ 4 ohms. Invest in a good amp like a Bryston, Proceed, or Ayre, otherwise you won't be doing these babies justice. Regardless of what you have heard about their inefficiency, in a reasonably sized room, with my HPA 2, I can fairly easily crank the maggies to uncomfortable dbs.

I'll leave you with this - As I said I'm an audio/video phile and I recently bought the Eagles DTS DVD. I cranked up the AVP to Reference and listened to "New York Minute" through the Maggies - heavenly, simply divine.

dave trip
you didnt put an email address...i would really like to ask you how you like your speaker setup...ive been looking at a full maggie setup and wanted to get your opinion on the center and surround setup you have...movies? music? please email me if you have a chance...thank you