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Magnepan Full-range ribbon and planar speakers

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Old 10-12-2009, 07:33 AM
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Default New Magnepan Owner

I just ordered new Magnepan speakers to replace my current home theater setup. I will be getting the 3.6's for the mains and 1.6's for the surrounds. After talking to Wendell at Magnepan I discovered something my dealer was not aware of. They just released the new CCR center channel that was designed to match the 20.1, so I will be getting one of those.

My dealer also suggested that since I am only doing a 5.1 system with my McIntosh MC207 amp that I bi-amp the mains with the extra two channels. Not being familiar with the process, I understand that you would remove the external crossover that many owners have expressed is sub-par anyway.

Any thoughts?
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Old 10-12-2009, 07:50 AM
1KW 1KW is offline
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Hi and welcome to AA. Congrats on your new speakers. I am using Magnepan MGIII's as my main left/right with a MC207 and have not had any problem driving them with just 200 watts . If you want to try bi amping you still use the crossover as this will help with the timing. Your midrange and high's go through the crossover. Your bass part of speaker can go direct from the amp. I am curious about the center channel speaker, can you post a picture ?
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Old 10-12-2009, 07:57 AM
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Thanks for the input! I will post a photo of the center when it arrives (about two weeks). Wendell did say that is the same length as the CC3, but five inches taller and is a True Ribbon Planar.
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Old 10-14-2009, 12:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawk View Post
I just ordered new Magnepan speakers to replace my current home theater setup. I will be getting the 3.6's for the mains and 1.6's for the surrounds. After talking to Wendell at Magnepan I discovered something my dealer was not aware of. They just released the new CCR center channel that was designed to match the 20.1, so I will be getting one of those.

My dealer also suggested that since I am only doing a 5.1 system with my McIntosh MC207 amp that I bi-amp the mains with the extra two channels. Not being familiar with the process, I understand that you would remove the external crossover that many owners have expressed is sub-par anyway.

Any thoughts?
1.6's for rears? you must have a large room... but not so fast with the active bi-amping; if you don't have a good baseline for how they sound stock (which is not bad by any means...) you won't appreciate how much better they will be using a better crossover. Removing the crossover means active biamping; First break them in; they take about 100 good thumping hours. Get some Mye stands; then worry about going active.

You can passively bi-amp them first right out of the box retaining the stock crossover; this means using a stereo amp for the mids/highs, and a stereo amp for the bass panels; in this case the same amp. But is it a possibility You could also bridge the two stereo channels of the 207? I am not familiar with the options on that amp...that would save you a set of speaker cables for now.
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Old 10-14-2009, 07:37 AM
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I am curious about new crossover's for my Magnepan MGIII's, any information appreciated. I also am running my MC207 with these speakers and am not aware of a way to bridge 2 channels. Lastly, how do you run the speakers without a crossover doing what you called "active biamping" ? Won't this mess up the timing between the ribbon tweeter,midrange and bass ?
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Old 10-15-2009, 12:25 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1KW View Post
I am curious about new crossover's for my Magnepan MGIII's, any information appreciated. I also am running my MC207 with these speakers and am not aware of a way to bridge 2 channels. Lastly, how do you run the speakers without a crossover doing what you called "active biamping" ? Won't this mess up the timing between the ribbon tweeter,midrange and bass ?
Quick answer is nope. Long answer is it depends on how you configure your filter settings; if you stay with stock settings no problems, if you do something more radical you may need to change phase on the drivers. I don't know about your III's, but the 3.6's have the tweeter and bass panels in phase with one another, while the midrange is out of phase. When I put in a symmetrical filter setup (fourth order 24db per octave high pass and low pass, same frequency); as opposed to a non-symmetrical stock set up which is a first order (6db per octave) 250hz low pass and 200hz 3rd order (18db per octave) high pass, I need to change the mid and bass in phase, and have the tweeter out of phase. If that sounds incredibly complicated then stay with stock crossover frequencies and slopes and still enjoy the 30% increase in speaker performance.

Basically I have gone with some previous advice from many who have done this on the planar asylum; some are quite knowledgeable and have software to run to narrow down the slopes and frequencies on what to start with; or what is in theory the best thing to do.

You don't run the speakers without a crossover; you just get rid of the passive one (which is very low quality from Magneplanar) and replace it with an electronic one or "active" crossover. I use a Marchand. Basically only the specific frequencies are amplified, as the active crossover is before the amps, so the amps only send the select frequencies to the drivers, whereas with passive the amplified signal goes into the passive crossover which converts alot of the signal to heat, diminishes dynamics and absorbs details of the music. For some more detailed reading on benefits etc. try this; go down to active.

How good is it going active? If you did this there is a decent chance you might sell the Cremonas...
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Old 11-05-2009, 10:31 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1KW View Post
Hi and welcome to AA. Congrats on your new speakers. I am using Magnepan MGIII's as my main left/right with a MC207 and have not had any problem driving them with just 200 watts . If you want to try bi amping you still use the crossover as this will help with the timing. Your midrange and high's go through the crossover. Your bass part of speaker can go direct from the amp. I am curious about the center channel speaker, can you post a picture ?
Magnepan just posted the new CCR on their website: Magnepan: CCR

My dealer says I have now moved up to number 2 on a very fast growing list for delivery from the factory. They seem to be only making one of these a week.

Now my dilemma is in finding a new TV stand for my 73" DLP with a shelf below it to accommodate the 15" height of the CCR. Any suggestions?
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