Does anyone have Magnepan MMG measurements?

[Saurav]

Ideally individual driver measurements, but complete speaker measurements would be interesting too. I've had an idea for some time now, take my 12" dipole woofers, put them in a small H-enclosure 'box', put the MMG's on top. Since I already have a DCX2496 and 6 channels of amplification, I could do a full active XO, or leave the MMG's XO in place, and just do a 200-300Hz-ish XO between the MMG and the woofer.

I've found lots of threads on MMG XO upgrades, but so far, I've been completely unsuccessful in finding any measurements.

[Face]

http://www.blackdahlia.com/tipindex/Tip__14/tip__14.html

ThomasW may have some too, but he hasn't been very active lately.

[Saurav]

Thanks a lot.

[Saurav]

Well, I wasn't planning on this, but I was idly browsing Audiogon this weekend, and found a pair of MMGs for sale locally. Didn't spend too much time thinking about it, and now I'm the proud new owner Got them set up last night, currently trying a 60Hz-ish XO to the sub. I haven't pulled out any measuring gear yet, so it's just tweaked by ear for now. I'll leave it like this for some time while I get used to the sound before I try to make any changes.

I had planned on adding a dipole woofer (most probably my OB12s in an H-frame or something like that) and doing a full 3-way XO with my DCX, but I might scale that back. These sound damn good in their current stock form. And I've heard that the panels are essentially resistive, so a decent passive XO may be within reach for my skills. We'll see.

First I'll have to figure out how to measure large panels like these.

[sfdoddsy]

How does it compare to your current OB speakers?

[Saurav]

I was wondering when that question would come The first thing I noticed is more dynamics in the treble, especially with piano. I suspect this is a function of the much larger tweeter radiating area compared to my Neo3's. It's also lighter in the upper bass, which is what I plan to address by adding my OB12s into the mix. Although I need to experiment with the subwoofer XO, if I can make this work with an ~80Hz sub XO, then it might not need a woofer. It feels like there's more detail / resolution, I've had several 'never noticed that before' moments with familiar music, but I'm not sure how much of that is psychological. The imaging / soundstaging is pretty similar, and I suspect that's mostly a function of being in the same place in the same room.

They sound a little dull at really low volumes, but turn it up a little bit, and they're very enjoyable to listen to. The sound seems more relaxed than my previous speakers, and I noticed myself nodding my head / tapping my toes more.

I haven't measured these yet, but the few measurements I've found online all show a broad dip in response between 1-5kHz. I had my speakers EQ'd to be fairly flat through this region. I've been wondering for a while whether that region should be suppressed a bit, especially in an untreated room - that's probably the frequency range where the energy splashes around the room the most? The article Face linked to above talks about this too.

[sfdoddsy]

Interesting.

I've been going through ten year itch with my speakers and have also been considering Maggies with my dipole bass sections (also AE OB12s). I almost pulled the trigger on a pair of MG10s, until I checked my old website and realised I actually used to own a pair of them. I can't remember why I got rid of them, other than that weren't as good as what replaced them, and those weren't as good as what replaced them and so on until I reached what I have now.

It's easy to get bored and think change is better, as opposed to merely different. I have to keep reminding myself of all the speakers I tried before settling down with my dynamic dipoles.

I recall your long construction process and wonder if there is something similar happening.

As I said, I am going through the itch myself and have to keep stopping myself from going for change for change's sake.

That hasn't stopped me doing serious preparation for an RD75 build of course.

[Saurav]

I recall your long construction process and wonder if there is something similar happening.

Quite possible. I tend to get bored easily. I also have 2 kids now, one of them a month old, and simplifying my system is starting to look pretty attractive. I have a whole rack full of electronics, including a 6-channel amp, to drive my 2 speakers. By several measures, that's kinda ridiculous