Thinking about Maggies

[chessman]

Originally Posted by peacefulcargo

Mine are 4ft from front wall and about 2ft from side wall. I sit maybe 8 feet from the speakers. One of the good things about panels is you can go wider with placement and toe in to have a good soundstage.

Gorgeous!!

[rthomeint]

Originally Posted by vego99

Thanks for the replies!

Rayooo,Rthomeint,peacefulcargo:

About how far did the speakers sit in front of the front wall? How far back was your seating position from the speakers? The reason I ask, my other half can't grab the concept of acoustics and doesn't understand a speaker just can't sit flush against the wall. I am sure I could compromise by marking the sweet spot and moving them back.

The other question. Would there be any problems putting them in the bay window area?

-e

I had the speakers about 3.5 feet from the wall behind them and I was seated with my back against the wall about 7 feet from the speakers. I also had a pair of Eminent technology LFT-iVs in this room.

[mgard]

Originally Posted by MtnHam

Properly set up and well powered, Maggies can be superb. To achieve this, you will probably spend much more on your amps than the speakers. While not popular on this forum, I believe Sound Lab electrostatics to be the best of all the planars. The large one's are the best, offering full range and total coherence. Their rich tonal balance can be enjoyed anywhere in the room, and as long as they have about 3' behind them, they will work well in most rooms.

MthHam,
Those Sound Labs speakers are huge. I’ll bet they do sound good. That is a nice view out your window too.

Vego99,

I started with 1.7’s which were nice and then upgraded after a year to the 3.7’s which are really nice. I have to push mine back up again the wall which is easy to do but gets to be a pain. Mine are not spiked. Someday I hope to move them to a dedicated room in the basement. My bay window is on a side wall so I can’t comment about that. I would also suggest a subwoofer or two depending on what music you like to listen to. My room is something like 20 foot by 17 foot. Not all that large. My two MC601 mono blocks have plenty of power but I normally don’t listen over 60 watts. There again it depends on what your listening habits are. Maggies are very nice speakers for the money and I personally don’t think they are that fussy of a speaker to set up. I normally pull my out about 4 to 5 foot also.

~Mike

[peacefulcargo]

Originally Posted by chessman

Gorgeous!!

Very kind, Thank you.

[Harbapapa]

One vote for Maggies from here too!!!

If I would be thinking about buying Maggies now, I would get 3.7s with DWM bass panels. There are good reports about them working great at CES. That would give change to adjust bass good for the room.

I agree, that the most important thing with Maggies is to put enough space behind speakers. Then they just come to live!

[audiot servant]

Originally Posted by vego99

So I am in the process of refinishing the front room of my house and have been given the okay to move my 2 channel room from the 3rd floor to the refinished room when done. ( I am finding that i don't spend much time listening because there is no heat up there and it takes too long to heat the room with space heaters) In the process I would like to replace my Totem Forrest speakers with a set of Magnepan 1.7 or 3.7 however I have heard that the Maggies are very temperamental to room dimensions and room size.
The front room is 12x15 with a bay window on the short wall and an opening on the opposite wall leading in to the dining room. Take a look at the picture I posted and give me your thoughts. Thanks! -e

I find Maggies reasonably sensitive to final positioning but also in some ways easier to set-up because they really let you know when they are just right.

As everyone has said the secret seems to be to get the panels deep out into the room if possible... mine are 8ft out from the front wall and the listening area is then a further 8ft with 5 ft behind to the rear wall with floor to ceiling soft curtains on front and rear walls as well as one of the sides.

Like Rayoo I have mine close to the side walls (1ft) and this isn't proving an issue. I find I can use that distance to the side walls to better fine tune the bass/midrange balance a bit.

Is that opening into the dining room behind you large... if you could open that wall right up then you might find you have a very sweet listening setup in that room. The panels would look great either side of the bay window. I've never had to deal with a bay window so not sure how it would work for you acoustically but its certainly nice to be able to look out while you're listening.

It's a beautiful room Vego and would look very fine with Cherry!

G

[Rayooo]

Originally Posted by audiot servant

It's a beautiful room Vego and would look very fine with Cherry!

I agree!

[vego99]

Hey guys thanks for all the advise and compliments. I have been prepping the room for repainting and while doing so I have been taking your tips and tried to visualize how I can set the room up. Due to the restraints with the room I just cant see Maggies working the room is just too small. ( I should not have bought an old brick victorian! lol) The room does connect to the dining room and while if I was still single I would consider opening up the door way and making a great listening space however that will not fly.

Now.... While my initial idea was to put my 2 channel system in the front room and use the back room for TV and Movies, I have been hinting with the idea of Moving the TV room to the front and making the back room the 2 channel area. While I have been given the thumbs up I have my doubts due to the fact that the room works great for surround sound and the front room wont be as good.

I still have some thinking of what I am going to do, worse comes to worse if Maggies wont work with the space and keeping the Mrs. happy I may just have to look in to another less intrusive speaker. Maybe I can find a pair of Used B&W 802's or something.

I have attached a couple pics of the back room of the house. The length of that room is 23'

-e

[mbovaird]

Originally Posted by vego99

Hey guys thanks for all the advise and compliments. I have been prepping the room for repainting and while doing so I have been taking your tips and tried to visualize how I can set the room up. Due to the restraints with the room I just cant see Maggies working, The room does connect to the dining room and while if I was still single I would consider opening up the door way and making a great listening space however that will not fly.

Now.... While my initial idea was to put my 2 channel system in the front room and use the back room for TV and Movies, I have been hinting with the idea of Moving the TV room to the front and making the back room the 2 channel area. While I have been given the thumbs up I have my doubts due to the fact that the room works great for surround sound and the front room wont be as good.

I still have some thinking of what I am going to do, worse comes to worse if Maggies wont work with the space and keeping the Mrs. happy I may just have to look in to another less intrusive speaker. Maybe I can find a pair of Used B&W 802's or something.

I have attached a couple pics of the back room of the house. The length of that room is 23'

-e

I think I agree with you. They need room behind them to really sound good and you don't have a lot of room to move them into the room. 802D's would be very nice. Maybe some Sonus Faber Futura's.

Mike

[Niles]

Vego99,

My room is very similar to yours. The Maggies ended up 2-1/2 feet from the back wall. My speakers are mounted on the wall across from the settee (left wall in your photo).

One speaker is 3-1/2 from the wall where the bay window is and the other is 10' from the other side wall. I have my subwoofer beside that speaker, so it's almost centered on that long wall, away from the corners.

The setup works really nice. Maggies are not that difficult to set up.