Magnepan McIntosh 5.2 System

[bzr]

Waiting waiting waiting,

[Ian]

My McMaggie 5.2 system is starting to come together.

This photo shows the Magnepan 20.7 along side its smaller sibling the 3.7. This is of course the last time these speakers will be together as the 3.7's will get get banished to the rear of the room to serve as the rear speakers in the 5.2 system.

The 3.7 is 1.8 m (71") high and the 20.7 is somewhat taller at 2 m (79") and of course is wider and much thicker. However the big difference is in the mass (weight). Each 3.7 is 27 kg (60 lb) whereas each 20.7 is nearly 3 times heavier: 78 kg (172 lb). The large difference is largely due to the double magnet array configuration of the 20.7. More on these magnets and their effect on speaker sensitivity in a later post.

My next task is to setup the McIntosh amps. I should have a photo of speakers and amps later today. With any luck I will fire up the whole system later tomorrow for the first time.

I am really looking forward to providing you guys with my first impressions. Will probably start with a Brahms violin concerto to exercise the high frequencies and then subject the system to some Rammstein to give the system and my ears a thorough beating at low frequencies.

Best, Ian

[Rayooo]

Thanks very much Ian! I like the break-in music selection, yup, need to wake these new maggies up, that should do it!

[klao]

It' s nice you got the speakers all together now, Ian. Thanks for sharing and we hope you enjoy setting them up.

Apart from its demension, I never really looked at the weight spec. of the 20.7 or the earlier 20.1. Three times as heavy as the 3.7, wow!

[Ian]

Here is a photo of my McMaggie 5.2 surround system before the Magnepan 3.7's are moved to the rear of the room and before the 20.7's and Sub1's are positioned.

It is a little difficult to see at this resolution but there a some additional "mystery" items near the center of the photo.

I will reshoot the setup later today after I have moved the speakers closer to their initial positions and will provide some closeup shots to see if anyone can identify the "mystery" items.

[audiot servant]

Originally Posted by Ian

Here is a photo of my McMaggie 5.2 surround system before the Magnepan 3.7's are moved to the rear of the room and before the 20.7's and Sub1's are positioned.

It is a little difficult to see at this resolution but there a some additional "mystery" items near the center of the photo.

I will reshoot the setup later today after I have moved the speakers closer to their initial positions and will provide some closeup shots to see if anyone can identify the "mystery" items.

Ian, maybe the real mystery is how you will ever be able to leave that room again... much shock and awe-some ... beautiful set-up.

best wishes
Graham

[mgard]

Ian,

You room looks very nice with matching wood. I do have a soft spot for those big blue meters on your 601 amps. That is a great collection of music you have there too.

I can't wait to hear what you think. Did you ever happen to say what this system replaced?

~Mike

[Ian]

Graham thanks.

Mike thanks. In a fit of dissatisfaction with the audio part of my previous 5.1 theater system I gave it all away. In order to start from a clean slate (tabula rasa) I also gave away the Blu-ray player, Marantz amp, Panasonic PT-AE4000U projector, head phones, chairs, racks ... everything!

[mgard]

Hi Ian,

Any thing you can update us on with your new Maggies and MAC amps? Did you get your subs dialed in yet? Any certain music that now just blows you away? I would guess that is probably everyting.

~Mike

[Ian]

Mike

My McMaggie 5.2 system is starting to come together. Here is a slightly updated photo of the setup.



In this photo you can see the two front 20.7's and the CCR center speaker. The 3.7's are situated near the rear of the room (not visible here). As soon as the Magnepan 20.7's and 3.7's arrived I found that the stands had a distinct resonance. I modified the stands to attenuate (effectively eliminate) this resonance and machined up adjustable point floor contacts for them. The 20.7's and 3.7's now make point contact with the floor and can be adjusted to tilt by a significant amount. I will be experimenting with these tilt angles in the future.

The two Paradigm Sub1 subwoofers are currently in front of the 20.7's. I will be experimenting with various room locations for these Sub's as I get time.

As I mentioned previously the equipment "rack" is made from solid 50 mm thick maple and incorporates a number of vibration isolation features I machined up and built which I can describe later if there is any interest.

I had a problem which slowed me down getting my system up and running. I turned on the McIntosh "MX151" and the digital display showed MX150 ! I called up my local audio dealer and he, in turn, called McIntosh who said that they would ship a replacement unit. The replacement unit arrived, is now installed, and does now appear to be a MX151.

It was with considerable restraint that I held off firing up part of the system before all the elements were in place and wired up. I decided that I really wanted to hear the whole system and not just its parts. The last items to arrive were the Paradigm Sub1's.

I have not had a chance to do any speaker location, orientation and tilt adjustments yet and have not started to use the MX151 RoomPerfect adjustment algorithms. However I now have about 8 hours of listening on the system.

When I first turned the system on I decided to play Brahms Violin Concerto, a piece I have played repeatedly across the numerous sound systems I have owned in the past. The first thing that came to mind was something Graham mentioned when he first turned on his 20.7's. Graham said of his 20.7's they " are like floating in Imax... It's like being drunk when you haven't had a drink."

I felt the same way. Indeed the effect of the combination of the 5 Magnepan speakers (actually a total of 15 ribbons and quasi-ribbons) was so magical that I started to cry. I had never heard the Brahms Violin Concerto with such realism since I heard Yehudi Menuhin and accompanying orchestra playing Brahms live in a fine concert hall. It was as if a partially blind person was suddenly given full sight once more. A shroud of acoustic fog was lifted and with it my emotions got the better of me. And all this "straight out of the box" with a few aforementioned mods. It is hard to imagine that the system could get any better with "room equalization", speaker placement optimization and component "break-in".

I also listened to and watched my reference film: "5th Element". I love this movie for many reasons including the wide range of sounds employed. During the fight scenes in this movie my two Paradigm Sub1's gave me a low frequency experience I have not heard or felt in any of my previous theater systems. The Sub1 subwoofers together can produce just under 7,000 W of peak acoustic power. Because they employ a radial design, in which the speaker coils move radially inward and outward together, they react against each other rather than with the floor and so produce very little floor vibration.

As you will note from my Signature components I have the ability in my system to measure and track the vibrations caused by elements in the system. I built the laser interferometer listed for this purpose. In a future post I will quantify the ability of the Sub1's to cancel what for me were highly annoying room vibrations caused by previous subwoofers I have owned.

Unfortunately I have been traveling and will not get back to the system for about a week. When I return I will share further impressions and will continue tweaking the system. I also promise to do a better job on the photography. I had not appreciated just how difficult it can be to photograph dark cherry speakers and shelves along side bright McIntosh amp displays and even brighter screen.

Best, Ian