Low distortion sound, detailed bass, neutral high frequencies. Very revealing of amplifer/sound source quality.

Dynamic range limited if powered by low/medium power amplifiers. Sound quality very dependent on panel location and orientation in listening room. Listening sweet spot limited to one listener.

It is with great fondness that I have read the other reviews of the Tympani speaker system. I owned Magnepan Tympani IIIA's with Tympani IIIW woofer panels for approximately 4 years back in the mid/late 70's. This was wayyy before video gained its current popularity in an era when an audiofile could devote an entire 12 foot wide wall with a minimun of three feet behind them for speakers only. This speakers consist of eight 16" wide by 72" high hinges panels. Four bass panels are flank on each side by hinged tweeter/mid-range panels. The speaker system was purchased from Ken Krisel of M&K fame when he was associated with Jonas Miller Sound. Associated electronics use with the Tympani's included an Audio Research SP-3A preamp, and numerous amplifiers tried including 75w ARC D-76, 75w ARC D-75, 250w Marantz 500, 200w Dynaco 400, and 75w Class A Flutterman. Although the tweeter/ mid-range panels could be operated by one amplifer, the speakers sound best tri-amped. The woofer panels in particular benefit from the use use of a high power amplifier. Frequency filtering between panels was handled by Crown electronic crossovers. Low bass was assisted by the 18" subwoofer/amp system from the Infinity Servostatic I system. How did it sound? With the right ampification, the Tympani's could give an illusion of a sound window literally as large in size as the width of the speakers themselves. This wide soundstage was combined by an illusion of depth than few speakers today can match. The sound was effortless with bass that was detailed without being boomy. The frequency response was listed as being 42hz to 18 khz +/-2. The addition of subwoofers will enhance the lowest octaves that the Tympani cannot reproduce. The midrange was very natural without any exaggerated silibance. The speakers could produce vocals that were bigger than life, but the sound was never less than enjoyable and musical. The tweeters are not as extended as those on later generation Magnapans, but could sound good with an amp such as the ARC d-75. Also, as large as these speakers are, the tweeter are very directional and require critical postioning for optimal sound balance. The tweeters directionality is more than made up for by the huge and deep soundstage that this system is capable of producing. Smaller Magnapans cannot equal the soundstage size of these eight panel monsters. In comparison to the other similar products used: The Quads had great midrange, but never blended well with the Servo I subwoofer due to the Quad's limited low end extension. Also, the Quad soundstage was tiny compared to the Tympani's, and it's bass quantity and extension was much smaller. The Servo subwoofer could not keep up with the quickess of the Quad's bass. The KLH9's had more bass quantity that the Quad and interface better with subwoofers, but it's tweeters were even more beamy than the Tympani's. Its midrange sounded more coarse than the Quad's or Tympani's. (The KLH9's sounded great with the Futterman amp.) In summary, if you can accommodate the size of Tympani's and provide adequate ampilificaton, it will reward you with a quality of sound that is natural and effortness with great depth and soundstage size.

Similar Products Used:

Quad Electrostatic, KLH9, Infinity Servostatic I

The original Magneplanar, made by Magnepan for Audio Research. Even though the design and construction are 25+ years old, they still blow away virtually everything in their class. With decent electronics they play clean deep bass, and will play clear musical highs. Room placement can be a problem, since they are 4.5'x6'. And even though they are heavy and solid (80 lbs. each) they would benefit from additional damping of the panel frames, both to add mass and reduce unwanted vibrations.

Incredible!

Large, bulky, capricious

I purchased my Magnaplannar Tympani IIIB in March 1999, on the used market. These speakers are truly remarkable. The detail, and soundstage is truly phenomanal. I have listenned to several speakers in my life, and very few have come close to the sound I get from these Maggies. I don't think I can go back to dynamic speakers.

Having said that, these speakers must be used in a large enough room, otherwise they tend to sound a tad "clastaphobic". A powerful must also be used, as they are quite inefficient. I bought the speakers without the base panels, so I had to buy a powered subwoofer. Although not optimal,this arragement still produces astounding results.

These speakers are at least twenty years old, but are ageing very gracefully.

Equipment used:

NAD 522 CD Player
Dynaco ST-70 Tube Amp w/ gain pot
Paradigm PDR-8
Audioquest Phoenix cable

Incredible clarity, separation, imaging AND the most live, realistic, gives you goosebump or makes you weep sound I have ever heard.

No weaknesses that I know of. Mine are in a 12 x 14 listening room. They are hungry for at least 200 rms/channel lots of clean power if you want to call that a weakness.

I was a professional musician for several years and enjoyed listening to music as far back as I can remember. I live in a relatively small town, and back in the 60 and 70s there were a few local high end equipment places around. I established relationships with them that allowed me to borrow just about any equipment I wanted. I don't know why, but I feel that I have a system that sounds better than the sum of it's parts. When I listen to setups at any other location costing several times more, with fancier names, I feel truly blessed when I compare mine. I have never heard anything I like more. If I did - I would purchase it. And yes - I did go the tube route more than once. The only fear I have now is my speakers, pre-amp and power amp are over 20 years old. They still sound superb, but I understand things can't last forever. I use it only for CDs and LPs (remember them?) no tape, no tuner in this system. Of course there are certain CDs or LPs that sound better than others and we all hear things differently and have different tastes in music. The system consists of a pair of Magneplanar Tympani 1D, McIntosh MC2300 power amp and Yamaha C-2 pre-amp. CD player and turntable will be changed in the near future, but I believe that changing any of the first three components affects the sound more than the last two. There is that pesky phono cartridge - but most of my listening today is CDs. The "Maggies" along with the rest of the system do not have a sound I can describe other than to say it sounds live and real. The system does not sound like anything I have ever heard. It is clear, crisp, perfect bass, midrange and high end balance, no coloration, no resonance, nothing undesirable. I had used other combinations, but found that the McIntosh's 300 RMS per channel made the sound open up to the realness I hear. I never approach the 300, but have seen peaks close to that leading me to realize that lesser power amps didn't sound as good because they were getting into their distoration range. The Maggies do like power and as mentioned in the manual, the unclipped musical ouput of a single amplifier with a power rating of 300 watts RMS per channel at 4 ohms will work just fine. I'll leave it at that and wish you happy listening. If you have any questions, please feel free to email. fmdicarlo@aol.com

Similar Products Used:

I had used several brands and various types of speakers from 1963 until I bought this pair in 1978. They included: JBL, Bose, Dahlquist, RTR, Advent, EV, Altec Lansing to name a few. I've never heard anything that sounds as good to me regardless of entire system price. I've heard several systems costing well over 10K and can honestly say they sound no better to me than what I have.

Soundstage! I've never heard anything to compare with the 3-D precision. Close your eyes and you'll get an exact picture of the band. Great for confusing audio novices who can't find the speakers, but think they must be behind the "room dividers"!

Limited life of aluminium voicecoils. These corrode badly. I haven't seen a 20+ YO pair of Maggies still running on the original voice coils. Although only 1" thick, they have to be stood 6' out from the rear wall, so they take a lot of space! Inefficient, you'll need a big power amp that's happy running low resistance loads.. The speakers are fully enclosed in a coarse fabric that makes an irresistable scratching post for cats.

This relates to Timpani 1D speakers, circa 1976.

I've invested a lot of time and money into speakers over the years, yet every time I hear Timpani's I get amazed by how good they are. The soundstage and transient performance are startling. Although I've heard speakers with a great left to right soundstage, I've never heard anything to match the front to back soundstage. I recently rewired a set which had dead voice coils. It can be done, but takes a lot of time and patience. You can get the rewire gits for the base panels from Magnapan, but they won't sell the kits to do the tweeters (finer gauge wire) as they say it isn't possible to split them to fix them. I did it anyway and they work fine.

When you first hear Maggie's (or any panel speakers, like full range electrostatics), you'll think they have no bass. It's there, but the cabinet resonances that usually go with it aren't. Still, I've suplemented mine with a conventional sub to handle everything below 40hz.

One disappointment I have with the Timpani's is that they have forced the retirement of my Luxman valve amp. I've always preferred it over anything alse I've tried with all my speakers up to this point. The relative inefficiency of the Timpanis though means that it just can't do the job any more, so I'm going to have to look for a 150WPC + transistor amp.

I can't say I've seen any Tympanis on Ebay, so I don't know what they sell for secondhand, so I can't comment on what sort of value they are. If you do buy some, either check that they've had new voice coils in the last couple of years, or ask the buyer to remove a cover so you can inspect the voice coils. If you see a small spec like a grain of salt anywhere on the wire, then it means corrosion has set in and you should avoid them.

Realistic soundstage, beautiful midrange, no cabinet resonances

Bulky, cumbersome, have a tendency to fall over if optional feet are not used!

This review is for the Tympani 1C, sold new in 1977.

I have used these speakers for 15 years and have been very satisfied with their performance. Aside from some minor maintenance (see below), these speakers have performed well with a 75W Audio Research amp (D-76A). This speaker creates an amazing soundstage for jazz recordings (in my experience, second only to Martin-Logan's larger speakers e.g., the Monolith).

Bass response is accurate but not deep, though much, much better than single-panel Magnepan products I've heard (MG-II, etc). Bass lovers, beware. These speakers do not have the gut-punching bass common with most moving-coil speakers.

Upper-bass and midrange response is incredible. Stringed instruments sound especially good.

I strongly recommend that anyone using the Tympani fuse the tweeters, especially when using amplifiers exceeding 100WPC (later versions of the T-1D had a tweeter fuse on the speaker's connection panel). I killed two tweeters with a 250WPC amplifier before I "got wise" and have since wired a 3A fuse in series with the tweeters.

Maintenance: I have NOT had the corrosion problem with the bass-panel voice coils noted in a previous review -- I have had a problem with the voice coil coming loose from the diaphram and buzzing. I was able to re-secure the voice coils with an adhesive I obtained from Magnepan. Also, I've had to replace both tweeters on these 20 year old speakers, the most recent replacement was this month. Magnepan still sells replacement tweeters for these speakers and they also sell replacement fabric.

incredible soundstage, very detailed

size!!!! My wife hates them

I bought these Tympani I D´s used and have rewired the crossover and the connecting cables with silver wire. I think these speakers are terrific, especially when bi-amped. I use a Pioneer D-23 active crossover with a McIntosh MC 2105 for the tweeter and a MC 2255 for the Middle/bass-panel. I like the Tympani´s better than the MG 12 because they have a better bass response and to my ears just send more natural. For the money, I do not think there is anything better. If anybody has an owner´s manual for the Tympani I D, I would be happy to buy a copy .

Other equipment used:

McIntosh c 29, MR 78, MPI , Michell Transcriptor with Dynavector DV 505 and Grado Reference Platinum.

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan MG 12