What a stupid question!!! Lol

So I just walked over to my descent. This is a weekend task if I attempt it. I always forget how bulky it is. It has 3 opposing woofers on it which make it difficult to grab.

Yes, quite large enough, plus newly treated with a variety of Vicoustic diffusers.

So I had the thrill of hearing these personally at Gifted Listener Audio in Centreville, VA a week and a half ago. Source was the top notch Linn Klimax DAC, directly feeding somewhat of a lower tier but still excellent Ayre VX-5 Twenty stereo amp.

To my ears, these speakers sounded exceptionally musical. Big Maggies have always made me feel like I'm somewhere in the orchestra/band/ensemble, and this sensation is especially true with the 30.7. The sense of immersion with Magnepan's top of the line speaker is unparalleled in my experience. The tonal transparency is first rate and competes with any speaker I've heard. I will grant that I haven't heard multi-hundreds of thousands of dollar speakers with multi-driver arrays like the Wilson Chronosonic. But anything I've heard from $85k and below do not exceed the 30.7's tonal transparency and harmonic beauty. The overall balance of the frequency spectrum sounded very even to me.

Wendell Diller - Magnepan's traveling magneplanar evangelist, had the music cranked to pretty high volume. The speakers were very dynamic and did not exhibit any sense of compression. From jazz to folk to rock to classical, these speakers served all genres of music well or extraordinarily well.

Did I hear any shortcomings? Mainly just a couple:

1) Lacking dynamic cone drivers, the speakers lacked the ultimate in dynamic slam. Bass was clear, delineated, and present in abundance. But not of the kick-in-the-chest variety.

2) Also not as great compared to my Vandersteens (Vandys are known for image specificity) was the imaging/soundstage. Again, the 30.7s put you somewhere in the middle of the musicians whereas my Vandersteen Quatro Wood CTs put me in row 8 where I can point out where the different performers are left to right, and front to back.

But given the sheer musical excellence and dynamic nature of the 30.7s, I can easily overlook these two areas. They were an absolute joy to hear. So much so that I'm thinking about buying a pair in a few years. I imagine with a more refined amp such as a higher model from Ayre, the 30.7 will sound even more thrilling and beautiful. With the right associated components and acoustics, these speakers could be all some people need.

This brings me to an interesting thought. All audio equipment - especially speakers, have a unique sound that represent their creators' values and philosophy. It's akin to we humans having more than one model to represent nature depending on what aspect of it we wish to describe. In the audiophile sense, dipole planar speakers like Maggies represent one method/model of the "absolute sound," while other designs such as ones possessing dynamic cone drivers represent another. Theoretically, various designers attempting to reach an ever truer representation of the recorded event should converge. Yet some may find this unfavorable as we each hold differing values as listeners of recorded music. And thus, the variety we get from various designers/manufacturers is what makes this hobby interesting for me.

:goodpost:

Yong is a musician who plays the piano. On my book, this gives his opinions a certain authority.

Good review Yong! :thumbsup:

Thanks Carlos and Bart. The speakers are still at Gifted Listener for at least another week, so I plan on going back for more listening this week.

I heard the 30.7s again today. For about 2 hours mostly by myself to play whatever I wanted. I played a movement or a couple songs from a wide variety of classical and rock albums: Savall's sublime interpretation of Beethoven's Eroica, Harnoncourt/COE Beethoven's 8th, Kleiber's Verdi La Traviata, Pinnock's Bach Brandenburg Concertos, U2 Joshua Tree, Boston's eponymous album, Stevie Wonder's Talking Book, Allman Brothers' Eat a Peach, Led Zeppelin's IV "Zoso," the Rush album Moving Pictures, and Don Henley's Building The Perfect Beast.

Today's audition reinforced my positive opinion of this speaker. I always ask myself with components and especially speakers I hear - "Are these transducers revealing something new to me about music I've listened to all my life?" With the 30.7, the answer is a definitive "Yes!" There is a fullness of tone and a relative absence of stridency without any rounding off of transients. The mandolin in "Battle of Evermore" by Zeppelin sounded, well, like a life-size mandolin resonant with color. U2's Joshua Tree came out when I was a freshman in college. Hearing it thru the 30.7s took me back in time to when I just turned 19. Duane Allman and Dickey Betts individual guitar lines from Allman Brothers "Blue Sky" have never stood out with respect to each other as clearly as I heard them today.

I will say that Magnepan's in general have a distinct "house sound." All speakers and components do. There is a certain rose-colored tint to Magnepans to my ears, and the 30.7s certainly have a sonic family resemblance. They are not quite as neutral as my Vandersteen Quatro Wood CTs. But they sound beautiful to me.

So, what's an audiophile to do when experiencing such greatness? I said to my dealer "It's a matter of when, not if, I get these speakers." My thinking is I will buy them sometime next year.

Time to approach the wife with the idea...

Wendell Diller of Magnepan on the importance of a speaker's 'Power Response' and why there are no chairs in their 30.7 demo tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORo-fWwtMKE

Why the very poor sales to the rich audiophile?

Who has bought a pair?

IMO a big FLOP compared to the expensive speaker competition!

I love Magnepan speakers. They can do things that most speakers can’t at their price point. I used to own the 20.7 Maggie’s and still own a pair of 3.6. I was hoping to upgrade to the 30.7 but felt that it was nothing more than a 20.7 with more bass panels.

That’s exactly what the 30.7 is. While the 30.7 does deliver more bass, I feel the 20.7 delivers a more cohesive overall presentation and is by no means bass deficient. In short, my favorite Magnepan is the 20.7. It’s one of the best bargains in high-end audio too.

Ken

As a 20.7 owner... I like to hear this sort of talk. :). I have felt that the newer more expensive models just increase the value of the 20.7.

Magnepan 30.7 Loudspeaker
 

The best value of all Magnepan speakers is the 3.7.
Don’t let the difference in height between the 20.7 and 3.7 fool you. The 3.7 has the same tweeter and the same midrange area of the 20.7. The 3.7 has a smaller bass panels but that can be taken care of by using subwoofers. I was running my 20.7 with subwoofers anyway.

As someone who in intrigued by Maggies but knows nothing about them...where does the naming convention come from? Very confusing.

See explanation here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnepan#Overview

From the article:


“Magneplanar's reproducing mechanism comprises thin conductive wires and or foil strips attached to a thin sheet of Mylar residing in a magnetic field created by a vertical array of permanent strip magnets. When an amplified signal is applied to the conductors, the resultant electrical forces react with the magnetic field to excite the Mylar film sheet, which projects sound as a dipole.”

Key words:
magnets = magne
Panels = pan

I was more referring to the model names. Why is everything a point seven? Why the jump from 3.7 to the 20.7?

Yah - the 3.7 is a great deal. I don’t run a sub with my 20s. I did for awhile - but only for 25hz and below. I shut it off and never went back to it then. Don’t really miss it and feel like I have improved sound without it. I think using subs with them is room dependent and obviously personal preference. Did you use 4 subs w yours? Did u go to something else or just decide on your 3.6 w subs. I think you said you had those??

I have owned the 3.6 for 15 years and could not be happier.

I have heard many 3.7 and 3.7is but felt they did not go as low in the bass, or have as sweet a midrange.

Magnepan’s need the right room to thrill the listener, and must be driven by top shelf amps.

I agree that the 20.7 is the max anyone would need but you also need a bigger room than I have.

The 30.7 really does not go much lower in bass, if at all, over the 20.7.

You know if that is true about the 30 not going lower than the 20... I’ve heard conflicting comments on the 30s. I heard another guy say the same - bass didn’t do it for him. Then I heard others talk about how great the bass was. I still feel like the 30 improves the value of my 20...

Hi guys . What is the waiting period like to buy a pair of 30.7 ?

Wow. Great question. If you call Wendell at magnepan he could tell you. If you hear back let us know!!