In my opinion the best sounding speakers on the planet for $500. Excellent highs and reproduction of instrumental and vocal music.

Like others have said, complex passages get a littl muddy, and a little lack of slam. However, if slam is your thing you shouldn't be considering these anyway. These speakers rule!!

These speakers are the only choice for those wanting accurate reproduction of sound above the 50 kHz range. I use a sub with mine, and that satisfies any bass craving I would ever need. Some say these don't go that loud, but how loud do you need music anyway? These get plenty loud for me. Anyway, for $500 these can't be beat. As a side note, if you can afford between $1000 and $1300, then definitely get the 1.6. They are phenomenal--just be sure to have a good enough amp to drive them.

Similar Products Used:

MG 1.6, 3.6, Martin Logan Aeurius

Clarity and openness; cosmetic factor

None in my view

For $500, this is an unbelieveable steal. I pair it up with an Advent subwoofer which only turns on for the deep deep bass. That seems to be a satisfying combination for me.

Terrific soundstage and musical accuracy. Listen to acoustic piano.

Room placement is an issue. They are power hungry

I was concerned about placement in my livingroom which has unusual room cutouts (doors, stairs, windows, fireplace, etc.) The room measures 22'X14'. I was also worried about sufficient power. I'm using a NAD 7225 receiver pre-out as my tuner/preamp. It connects to a Rotel RB960 rated at 60w/8 ohms and 80w/4 ohms. Source is a NAD 512.

I agree with the other reviews that break-in is important. Having used the system almost non-stop since early November the sound has smoothed considerably. Using the electronics mentioned above I achieve more than enough sound in the room for any type of music including my occasional forays into rock. The MMG's can play very loud on 80w.

My wife, who has always been somewhat critical of any audio expenditures that "improve" the listening experience, has actually been impressed with the sound of the speakers. She's an interesting litmus since I've always fussed about nuances, etc. However, the change in sound from box speakers to the planars is so dramatic even she noticed it right away and has commented often about the improvement in the system.

I'd like to thank the others who took the time to send in reviews to this page. A large part of my decision to purchase the speakers is due, in-part, to their very positive comments. Having heard large Maggies before, I was always interested in trying to obtain a pair. The current program from Magneplanar makes this an easy step.

If you are at all interested in planar speakers and Maggies in particluar, give the MMG's a try. The improvement in your listening experience is immediate, dramatic, and riveting.

Similar Products Used:

B&W DM4's, Mirage 290's

Midrange timbre and warmth. Midrange to low treble resolution. Delicate treatment to upper treble range and a vivid, natural quality to the overall midrange. Vocal range can sound eerily realistic and present.

Lack of musical conviction in the upper bass through bass when called upon to move any air. Bass notes are only suggestive when speaker is used in larger rooms (greater than approx. 3000 cubic feet).

I agree with Haru, review dated 4/25/00....

I have had the Magnepan MMG's for over three weeks. Took me about 20 hours to find their strengths and weaknesses. Positioned them in every possible location.

The good stuff:

Mids through the treble -- simply gorgeous! Vocals feel very "real." Very natural and life-like. There is a special warmth to the lower mids (which is inaccurate) but sound better in a natural way than most every dynamic system I've heard. The mids can really sound spooky-good on the right recording. It's also hard to imagine the treble being represented any better than on these, though they do sound slightly "veiled" from perhaps 6 kHz on up and slightly soft. It's too minor to be concerned about given the MMG's low price. They sound very agreeable on every recording in the highs.

Detail is pretty good -- I've heard much new information on CD's I might not recover again if I stick with dynamic systems. It's that speed and coherence thing. Lateral imaging is good to very good. Once broken in, they can take the Aragon's (4004 MkII) power, but I still cannot turn the volume up past 11:30 o'clock (on my Melos MA 110B tube preamp). At that volume they are more than loud enough in the room they are in currently (which is about 5900 cubic feet).

The problems:

These are big midrange panels. One gets the impression there was never meant to be realistic bass built into these. I've got a large room for them to fill. They MIGHT work in a small room. That lower midrange detail does not translate well into the upper bass/mid bass. Depth of image cannot come close to a good dynamic system. My Energy C-2's walk all over them in the midbass richness and on down into the bass. Makes my C-2's sound like hyper-powerful professional monitors. (!) And I already complained about a lack of life in my C-2's upper bass area (where did the "punch" go?). Well, compared to these MMG's, I've got an abundance of midbass punch in the C-2's.

For setup: once you've located that certain and VERY particular speaker position, tape it on the floor. Measure it for precise baffle tilt-back (actually, lack of), precise toe-in, and the proper height they are mounted above the floor. These absolutely need to be lifted approx. 8 inches off the floor, or they sound incoherent and thick. And confused. Also, don't move your head more than 1/2 inch. I trust my ears in judging placement for speakers, and I'm very consistent.

Needless to say, WAY too much trouble for repeatability and ease of setup. The amount of stress you go through to make everything come together is not worth the payoff in a beautiful midrange and highs without bass or believable dynamics (considering the size of the room). Remember, these are going to find a home positioned out into the room to sound optimum, which means everyone will find them to be great toe-stubbers. So, unless you have a dedicated listening room which no one is allowed into except you, you will always be moving the MMG's out of the way when not listening. Then repositioning them into that one very particular location when it's time to relax end enjoy music. By the way, I might be able to live with some of the bass shortcomings IF I could get microdynamics at a low SPL. Unfortunately, I have to turn these things up to a certain (high-ish) volume before they sound believable (approx. 85-90 dBA avg).

I've found they require quite a bit of break-in before they begin to not make cracking noises on bass notes. That was occuring with the volume control set on 10:00. (!?) After break-in, the same troublesome material could be played at the 11:30 control position.

They are an ingeneous sales tool. But only a sales tool (caveat about the room size not withstanding)...By the way, I'd love to try out the 1.6QR in the same large room.

*sigh*

Similar Products Used:

Apogee Centaur Minor, B&W DM602, Energy C-2, North Creek Rythm (Kevlar option), Paradigm Studio 20.

Realistic portrayal of instruments, soundstaging.

For Bradley S. I can't address the customer service issue, but a clarification regarding your Sonex, etc., question:

The Maggies are dipole radiators that work best when placed well away from back (and side) walls. That way you don't cancel bass response with an out-of-phase bass wave emanating from the speaker's rear.

Maggies are not direct-reflecting speakers in the manner of the Bose 901. The issue of whether Sonex, RPG diffusors, Tube Traps, or some other method of sound absorption/diffusion should be applied to your walls--and where--is determined by the acoustics of your room, not the Maggies.

You have the same issue with direct-radiator (i.e., box) speakers. So the answer you received on that score from Magnepan is technically correct. You need to place them in your listening room and determine the position that gives you the most realistic presentation of the musical material to which you listen.

I've listened to classical, jazz, pop vocals, and movie soundtracks on the MMG's at a dealer's and find no speaker that, overall, gives a more convincing presentation at or near their $500 price point.

Sound Sound Sound!!!

none

I ordered these speakers direct from Magnepan about three months ago. When I received them (about 3 weeks after I called ) I actually took the day off from work to hear how these guys sounded. Lets just say that the sound was amazing for speakers costing only $500.00 delivered to your front door. It is true, nothing comes close for $500.00 ,but you need a good power amp (100 per channel minimum) . I then went to a local dealer to here the 1.6QRs and decided that for stereo only that the 1.6QRs produce lower bass and deeper soundstage. If I were going to buy speakers for home theater I believe the MMGs are the perfect choice.I would spend the extra $1000.00 savings on the center and rear speakers from Magnepan and have a killer set up.
However,I wound up returning the MMGs for a full $500.00 credit and ordered the 1.6QRs.
For the guy below that gave only 1 star because Magnepan didnt return his call ,obviously he is not being accurate on rating a speaker he has never listened to and is just upset with waiting . All I could say is that you should have called them back in an hour and I bet someone would have picked up.

I've always liked Maggies, sice I heard a friend's Tympani 1D's back in the late 70's. I had a pair of (don't remember the model, but they were approx. 6' x 2') in the 80's, but they were too big and very thin in the bass. I just couldn't resist the practical size, the free trial offer, and the $500 price. What a difference 20 years makes!! These things are absolutely incredible! That wonderful planar sound is there, detail out the wazoo, and now...BASS! I have found new loves in what I considered ho-hum CD's, and some with vocals are jaw-dropping. And they do play loud. You probably need a good high current amp - I have a Carver integrated amp rated at 150w into 4 ohms. These things absolutely trash anything at three to four times their price (except other Magnepan's). I'm considering bi-amping so I can use my sub, because the disparity in efficiencies prohibits just a passive x-over. Don't really need it anyway - only have a couple of recordings with anything real below 50Hz, and I don't do home theater. Only negative is their comparitively small verticle "sweet spot" for listening. They still sound good, but you lose some highs when you are standing. Bottom line - an absolute steal!

WELL HERE'S MY LINES ON THEM. GET THEM ONLY IF YOU HAVE OR ARE GOING TO GET A SUBWOOFER. THE 50hz. DOWN OCTIVES ARE NOT THERE WITH THE MMG's, BUT FROM 50hz UP THESE PANELS MAKE MUSIC. I'M USING 3 SAS AUDIO LABS SE AMPS OF 4.6w OUTPUT WITH MY SYSTEM AND THEIR WORKING VERY WELL TOGETHER. AS FAR AS THE ABOVE REVIEWS STATING THE MMG's NEED ALOT OF POWER SEE CHART BELOW. FIGURES ARE MEASURED AND CALCULATED. ANY QUESTIONS E-MAIL ME.
50hz. TO 20khz.

@.0625w or 1/16 the spl is 75db MY PREFERED LISTENING LEVEL.
@.125w or 1/8 the spl is 78db PEAKS AT THIS WHEN SET AT THE ABOVE LEVEL.
@.25w or 1/4 the spl is 81db
@.5 w or 1/2 the spl is 84db
@1w the spl is 87db IS TO LOUD FOR MY TASTES.
@2w the spl is 90db I CANN'T HANDLE THIS VOLUME.
@4w the spl is 93db
@8w the spl is 96db IY SHOULD SOUND TOO LOUD FOR MOST HERE!
@16w the spl is 99db
@32w the spl is 102db
@40w the spl might make it to 103db MAX INPUT TO THE MMG's

My girlfriend loves live music and listens to her (being charitable here) mid-fi system a lot. So I thought for her birthday an upgrade might make a good present. The CD player, a Sony changer, was acceptable, but I was thinking new integrated amp and new speakers - IF this was something she would want.
I took her to a couple of local high-end shops to see if better sound quality made that much difference to her (some people get full enjoyment without needing accurate sound; they can hear the performance through all the faults of the system - like when we blasted Led Zep as teens and never cared about midbass humps or imaging). She was amazed at what she was hearing in the high end shops - it was a whole new world opening up for her.

We auditioned three speakers - the Martin-Logan Aerius i, the PSB Stratus Gold, and the Vandersteen 5's - the first two in the 2.5 grand range, the latter around 10 grand. We used her music (Jonny Lang, "Wander this world" - we'd just seen him live a week before). She liked the Martin-Logans far more than the PSB's, and after extensive listening decided she liked them better than the big, well set-up Vandersteens. So now I had a handle on what she liked, but Romeo here couldn't cough up the $2.5k for the Martin-Logans, nor for the amp it would take to handle their 1.7 ohm load.

So I turned to - this page! I began reading the reviews you guys had posted about various speakers I could afford, and the little Maggies stood out. I ordered a pair and bought an Arcam Alpha 8 amp to drive them.

When I first hooked up the little Maggies, they sounded awful. No bass, harsh, yuk. Well, maybe they needed some break-in time. I let them have about 40 hours of my Purist Audio System Enhancer disc. Much better. I now felt like I could experiment with the resistors, and tried all the variations. The 1 ohm by itself had the smoothest tonal balance, but all the resistor loadings veiled the sound. So I settled on no resistor and a touch of treble cut and a half-touch of bass boost on the Arcam. But, all the while, the bass was improving. I guess the membrane was loosening up, increasing in compliance and lowering in resonant frequency. After a while I restored both tone controls to neutral.

I was a little apprehensive on her birthday that the little Maggies wouldn't sound too good in her almost cubical room. We set them up for unobtrusiveness more than for optimum sound quality. She was amazed - it was like her first Martin-Logan experience all over again. I was amazed too. We could clearly hear the variations in acoustic environment from one cut to the next on live recordings. Eric Clapton "Unplugged" really came to life. Their small size (for dipoles) and very light weight gave the little Maggies a very high GAF - that's (ahem!) Girlfriend Acceptance Factor.

Okay so these little speakers aren't perfect but let me tell you what they did: For $500 bucks I think I've converted my girlfriend over to my favorite (okay, second favorite) hobby. That's a bargain!

I bought a pair of MMGs as part of a general upgrading of my system (from a receiver to separates). My system currently consists of a Rotel RCD 940BX CD player, AA DLC preamp, Parasound HCA1000 amp and the MMGs. The MMGs have a unique (in my experience) to simultaneously sound detailed yet smooth. The mid-range and treble are reproduced clearly but without harshness or artificial hype. The bass does not go very low (to 50hz in my room), but the quality is good. My next purchase will be a subwoofer to provide the missing bass.
The MMGs require more power than most receivers can deliver (i.e., high current demands) but the Parasound (at $575 and 110 wpc) seems to do a very good job. The MMGs won't play much louder than 95db, but I never listen to music that loud anyway. On some CDs, such as well recorded acoustic music and vocals, the speakers just disappear and it sounds like you have been transported to the recording venue. Truly amazing sound for $500/pair, if you have the amplifier power to drive them.