My 3.3R Magnapan speakers are 15 years old. I have had many speakers in the past and currently working with the Golden Ear One's which are very good. I keep coming back to the Magnapan's. I have not listened to a speaker with such an impressive sound stage. I use a Meridian DAC which makes the spacial orientation of the instruments even better.
I did start to have the "rattle" others have described. I followed the directions posted by Ricky Dasler on this site to re-seat the looped wires with silicone. Very easy to do and fixed the problem. Look to his post to learn how. Not much has been written about the class D amplifiers with these speakers. I am using the Caylx 200w amp. and the sound is very close to the previous A/B amps. These speakers are power hungry!

Transparent, fast, huge soundstage, natural (no coloring) like almost any other boxed speaker, the feeling to be there in the recording room.

Size if you don't have the space. But you do not buy Magnepan Speakers if you're living in a box of 3x3 meters, are you ?

Everything about this fantastic speaker is already been told, so what else can I add to this ? Well, proper placement ==> good bass, lousy placement ==> lousy bass (for the Krell owner !), own a poweramp of at least 100 watts, these speakers are powerhungry.

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Goldmund Superdialoque, Millon speakers, Audiostatic,Audio Note AN/J, Rogers LS 3/5, Avalon Avatar etc.

Fast. Soundstage. Some may like it's imposing panel look.

Ridiculous large that it is impractical for small listening room. The external crossover box is a total engineering disgrace in terms of ergonomics. No bass. Not as transparent as one would expect.

I owned this pair for less than 2 weeks. In fact, I put it on sale in ebay merely 5 days after I got my pair via local delivery. I hope that says something. I once owned an Newform R645, which I think in many ways much superior than the Magnepan 3.3R. Unlike many Maggie (or Martin Logan) owners who "cannot go back" to the conventional speakers world, I could, and I did it in no time for a very good reason: How can you listen to something with marginal bass at best? I do not necessary an audiophile freak. But if the bass drums or some double-bass lines sound missing in the orchestral music, then something is REALLY WRONG. Try some light pop music too. From the 3.3R, I could *sense* the bass rhythm but I couldn't *hear* it. And I am already bi-wiring the 3.3R with Mark Levinson 23 (dual-mono, 200W into 8 ohms and doubles thereafter). The 3.3R is definitely very fast with amazing soundstage, but it's not transparent, so who cares. My equipment which gives disappointing sound from the 3.3R: Mark Levinson #26 preamp Mark Levinson #23 power amp Wadia 25 digital preamp (works as an D/A) all NBS cables Sony XS777ES SACD player

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Revel F30, B&W 801 Matrix Series 2, Alon IV, Newform R645, etc

Imaging, sound stage, overall excellent reproduction of sound.

None found thus far

Can only agreed with what every one else has said. Very happy with the speakers, and have now found that, since upgrading to a pair of Odyseey mono block amps, that they sound even better, was using a pair of Dynaco Series II, with a Rane X over in a biamped mode.

I intend to up grade the cap's and coils in the future. Just to see if it makes the same amount of difference as an upgrade to a pair of IIIa's did.

Marantz 4000 CD Ah Tieob (mullard)
Sonic Frontiers SLF-1 (mullard)
Odyseey mono blocks
3.3
All wired with Belden, home made interconnects and speaker wire.

Similar Products Used:

IIIa's, JBL 100, AR 3A's, Infinity Rock monitor II's

Imaging, clarity, detail, warmth, realism, spaciousness, musicality.

none come to mind

Truely, nothing any where near its price range comes even close. Once you've had these things, you'll never go back to conventional speakers again, and be happy. You need a quality amp to really get the most out of any maggie, these are no different. Do yourself a favor, if you've never been happy with the sound you have, take a pair home; you will lose your discontent. To lose one's discontent in audio, is definitly something a maggie is only capable of delivering. Enjoy!

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maggie 111a, linn 5140's, Linn tukan's, B&W 605's, 802's

Also take a look at the reviews from MG3.5. My previous model was the SMG-a which were easily driven by my Beard P100-s 100wpc/8 Ohms (vacuum tube). The MG3.3 requires a lot more power than the small ones and need a lot of space. My amp delivers just enough power for casual listing. If you like to have good lows and be able to play a little louder than casual, you definitely need a 150-200 watt power amp. I have rarely heard speakers that were so transparent, with the music so beautifully placed in the room, with the mid so clear and crisp and full of detail. The same with the high, which is cristal clear. I can't talk about the low because my amp doesn't go that low (like 50 hz. or so). I expect the low to be the same. Take real good care with speaker placement which is very bitchy, precise placement is vital for optimal sound.

In addition to my own previous review:
After playing with the placement even more (there is now over 2 meters behind the speakers), the bass is more than satisfying. Guess the amp is capable of giving low lows.

After having found the optimal place for the speakers, cabling became more important and makes a world of difference.

Magneplanars are either loved or hated. When you love them, there will be no other upgrade for you left (concerning loudspeakers, that is) other than bigger (read more expensive ;-)) Maggies.

The Maggie 3.3 and 3.5's are darn good speaker's, but they sound even better from the back side! Yeah, I know that sounds crazy but it's true. The back side doesn't have at thick of cover as the front-side. The tweeter is more open. The only problem might be the it's not as highly rated on the wife scale. I have my Maggie's impedance compensated so they show a load to the amp that is 5 ohms at 20hz and flat to 4 ohms at 20khz. I also upgraded the wiring inside the outboard crossover (larger gauge wire.) My room is narrow so I don't have a lot of space from the side walls, the back wall is five feet back. Behind the speakers it is all padded so it makes a dead end. I hung a curtain down from the ceiling along the inside of the speaker's and going back behind my big screen TV. This keeps the back-wave of each speaker from reaching the other speaker. The imaging is out of this world. The whole room disappears when I play something good. (Good Recordings.) Muddy Water's comes in to sing for me! Liz Story plays for me too. I had a friend over who plays piano and asked him what he thought of Liz Story? He told me that a piano makes noises that are not all music, hammers squeak and peddles thump and so on. "If I heard any more of that I would have gotten up and left!" What else is there to say?

Detailed, transparent sound stage, non fatigueing listening,natural tonal balance

Require serious anxillary components

I purchased my Magneplanar 3.3/R speakers second hand for $2000 NZ which is approximately $900 US with our current exchange rate. They were in mint comdition except for the "buzzing" or "rattling" noises that other owners have experienced with various Maggies.
This is so easy to fix provided you have a steady hand, patience and the correct silicon adhesive (which should be acid free and "quick grabbing") plus something like a wooden barbecue skewer to apply the glue. It is mainly the bass section wires running up and down the mylar diaphragm which delaminate top and bottom, curl up then "buzz" against the panel at certain frequencies (acoustic bass is a sure fire way of exposing this problem if you are buying used Mags). I have also repaired two pairs of SMGA's using the following procedure.
1. Make sure you have plenty space to work in with no kids or pets around and preferably on your own for maximum concentration - all common sense I know but this is not a 5 minute operation.
2 Take off all wood sides, grill clothes etc so you are left with a naked panel. Owners with the ribbon tweeter models, gently remove the ribbon frame first.
3 A large kitchen table with a cotton sheet laid out is an ideal working surface on which to lie the speakers to work on. The unglued wires will be easy to see straight away, the others might be starting to let go and should be repaired also.
4 Because the mylar diaphragm has less movement top and bottom when playing music, the amount of glue needed doesn't add detrimental mass to the panel and consequently upset its performance. When applying the glue put the cartridge in the glue gun without the long nozzle and apply just enough pressure so you can see the glue starting to bulge out. You can then dip the pointed end of the skewer in to pick up a small amount of glue. Apply the glue to the underside of the loose wire liberally, or to the mylar, following the glue line where the wire was attached, then with the blunt end of the skewer push the wire down so that the glue oozes around, then smear the excess over the top of the wire so that it is firmly held down. Don't be afraid to push reasonably hard as the mylar is very strong. The old glue does not need removing first.
5 Move your way along the wires but keep coming back and pushing the previously glued wires back down as they tend to lift slightly. Twice is usually enough as the glue firms up.
6 Leave overnight to cure, reassemble, then enjoy the fruits of your labour!
The sound of the 3.3's in my adobe listening room is big ,easy and detailed with zero listener fatigue, plus all the usual superlatives that other Maggie fans have posted on this site. I also get very good bass response (probably due to the thick earth walls, concrete floor, solid timber ceiling) and have no desire to add a sub woofer. I work in the hi-fi industry and could have any number of subs from the likes of REL, M & K, or Velodyne. Thanks but no thanks. My rating is four stars for sound because of the 3.5's and 3.6's.
Other components are Meridian CD player, McCormack passive pre, New Zealand made McLaren mono blocs (250 watt into 8 ohms, 400 watt into 4 ohms), Audio quest cables bi-wired.
If anyone has any previously published reviews of this speaker, or has queries regarding repairing them please e-mail me.

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Previous speakers were Gale GS 402c