Can the MMG do rock?

organ

I've read mixed reviews about them.

For anyone who have had experience with them, can you please chime in?
For less than $600, I think it's stupid of me to not give them a try in the near future. I'd have to get a powerful amp first.

I hope they have good bass. How is the soundstage? Some people say they beam, but I want a very large and airy soundstage that is laid back.

And I didn't mean just rock. I also love jazz with female vocals. The more modern happy stuff like Bet.e and Emilie-Claire Barlow, they're not mellow like Norah Jones and Diana Krall. So there are plenty of dynamics there too.

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

dorokusai

No, they cannot cover the generic gamut you suggested.

organ

What type of music do you think they're suited to?

dorokusai

Vocals and Acoustic.

organ

AAh. Thanks

heiney9

They do vocals and acoustic, jazz and light music very well. Not sure what you mean by beaming, but they have a very small sweet spot and need to be set-up properly. But once in that sweet spot with well recorded lighter music you get rewarded.

One of reasons I like my SDA's is they are a good all purpose speaker. They play rock, hard rock, classic rock, jazz, vocal, instrumental, female, world music, techno and more and they do a pretty good job with all of them. Could I find speakers that do specific genre's better? Sure..........but the SDA's do all these very well.

I've heard Doug's Maggies and another friends Maggies (smaller) really liked them with the right type of music while sitting in the perfect position. Move out of that position and listen to types of music not well suited to the Maggies and it goes down hill.

Do the Maggies do vocals, acoustic music better than the SDA's?......I'd have to say yes...but the trade off for other types of music is too great IMO.

YMMV

H9

Face

organ wrote: »

I hope they have good bass.

Nope!

They're great if you like easy listening.

dkg999

As I set here listening to Golden Earring on my Magnepan 1.6's, I'm inclined to answer the question a little differently. If you want Maggies that do a wider range of music well, you'll need to move up the food chain a little. However, the MMG's with a good sub will surprise you with how well they will do rock. A few weeks ago we were driving the MMG's with a Cayin 50 wpc tube integrated and one of the Paradigm servo subs, and the Led Zep and Janis Joplin were sounding pretty good!

One of my favorite things is to listen to Black Sabbath or other heavy metal rock at low SPL on my 1.6's. The detail and presence in the room is absolutely eerie!

If you expecting typical monkey coffin slam you in the chest at high SPL, then the MMG's won't do that.

Ern Dog

I found the MMG's to be the most difficult speaker to place in my room as they are very sensitive and picky. I thought they did an incredible job with strings, very realistic. Bass isn't their strong point, but they did a lot of other things right. If I ever tried Maggies again, I would get the BIG ones for greater bass extension.

Ricardo

I love the MMG's. They do need a sub if you want pounding bass, but they do everything else very good.

reeltrouble1

I would say that since Rock in general is not all that musical when compared to other genre's that the higher the resolution of the system the worse most Rock sounds, there are of course notable exceptions, but in general Rock provides a collage of sound intended to raise emotion by sheer pressure, it is Rock afterall.

RT1

organ

Thanks for help.
I was hoping they would have enough bass because I'm not a fan of subs for 2ch.
Now when it comes to dynamics, like a loud snare hit or rim shot, do they compress or can they handle large dynamic swings like that?

organ

I think I just found a good alternative to the MMG. Found a local sell for a pair of Mirage M3si. Did some reasearch on them and like what I've read so far. Going to call seller tomorrow to see if they're still available.

organ

OMG OMG OMG Getting the giant Mirage's. Will have them Mon morning. I am so excited. They should give me a presentation close to maggies with a lot more bass.

lakesailor

Congrat’s on the M-3…..nice speaker and a very different animal from the MMG. Heiney9 provided a great summary. You have a far more well rounded; more SDA like speaker in the M-3. Enjoy !

heiney9

lakesailor wrote: »

Congrat’s on the M-3…..nice speaker and a very different animal from the MMG. Heiney9 provided a great summary. You have a far more well rounded; more SDA like speaker in the M-3. Enjoy !

Right on the money. The Mirage's will not really be at all like Maggies. They are bi-polar and present a very wide sound field and a large radiation pattern. They aren't really like SDA's either in the strict sense that they don't reproduce the same type of soundstage. Two different animals

You won't get that rock solid center image. It's hard to explain as there will still be a center image but it won;t be as focused and the soundstage won;t have as much depth, but it tends to be large because of the bi-polar design.

They are a really nice speaker however and more "general" purpose than Maggies, IMO. They aren't to finicky about placement as that's one of the positives of being bi-polar but the better they are set-up the better the final sound.

You should like them a lot but they will be a little different (not nec in a negative way) than the Maggies or SDA's. Closer to a conventional speaker with a twist.

Here's a link to another discussion if you haven't already read it

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45018&highlight=mirage

Good luck and enjoy.

H9

lakesailor

heiney9 wrote: »

Right on the money. The Mirage's will not really be at all like Maggies. They are bi-polar and present a very wide sound field and a large radiation pattern. They aren't really like SDA's either in the strict sense that they don't reproduce the same type of soundstage. Two different animals

You won't get that rock solid center image. It's hard to explain as there will still be a center image but it won;t be as focused and the soundstage won;t have as much depth, but it tends to be large because of the bi-polar design.

They are a really nice speaker however and more "general" purpose than Maggies, IMO. They aren't to finicky about placement as that's one of the positives of being bi-polar but the better they are set-up the better the final sound.

You should like them a lot but they will be a little different (not nec in a negative way) than the Maggies or SDA's. Closer to a conventional speaker with a twist.

Here's a link to another discussion if you haven't already read it

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45018&highlight=mirage

Good luck and enjoy.

H9

Just to clarify when I stated “more SDA like” with respect to the Mirage vs. the Polk’s I meant to suggest that the Mirage is a more versatile speaker with a wider variety of music compared to the MMG. As a former SDA owner; I feel my comment “well rounded abilities” also applies to the SDA as well.

I did not mean to give the impressions that there will not be sonic differences between the SDA and M3, apologies to Heiney if my comments created the wrong impression.

heiney9

Not at all, I agree with your statements 100%

organ

Thanks Hiney and Lakesailor. This will be my frist experience with bi-polar speakers. The stereophile review really got me excited. They will be placed along the long wall with 2ft of clearance between the speakers and front/side walls. The side walls are my 'artificial' walls. I'm using my big Klipsch speakers to make the fake corners. I hope I can achieve the wall to wall sound stereophile described.

ND13

heiney9 wrote: »

They are bi-polar
H9

I loan them some of my Lithium!!!;):eek:

Congrats on the Mirages, Maurice.

organ

Thanks Noel. They're superb speakers.