Magnepan 1.7i

Maggie’s love current and the more the merrier. I personally love them, and sometimes wish I had my 20.1’s back. They image like no other, but need a nice musical sub to give some weight to the bottom end.

Once dialed in, the midrange can be spooky good, with vocalists seeming to actually be in the room with you, and I have yet to hear a speaker that can give life to acoustic guitars and woodwinds like they can.

I have not heard that particular model, but I've been feeling an itch for a few years to get a pair of those because of the value they apparently present. Maybe in a few months. The price is reasonable as far as speakers go even if there's not much to them physically. Subwoofer required, but I have that covered.

I decided to order a pair of the 1.7i model yesterday. There’s an 8 week production backlog now. Not in a hurry, but looking forward to getting them. Black cloth/dark cherry trim.

The long term Magnepan dealer closest to me in Virginia, The Gifted Listener, shut down after the owner decided to retire once Covid shutdowns closed his doors last spring. So the dealer closest to me in Baltimore now delivers from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.

Price new is $2,399 a pair for any of the finishes.

I ordered them in black cloth with dark cherry trim. Red trim was preferred but they don't offer that in this model. The dealer said the factory could make a special pair on request, but I decided to just go with the wood trim instead.

Anymore insights to the sound as these speakers break in ?

Those Maggies have gotten some rave reviews. I would expect their imagining to be above par than the others you have on hand.

Very narrow sweet spot, but when you are in it..... it’s awesome.....

Bass is present and fills the room and appears and just is “there” but does not punch you in the gut like other systems.....

Aka I agree with Troy lol....

My apogee duetta 2 seem to have plenty of bass for music listening, not enough low bass for home theater.

Yeah, 2 channel...I'm not really a sub guy either, but for those that are, they have options when pursuing ribbons. Very few systems I've ever listened to have that sub integrated so well you can't tell there is one. But, to each their own, enjoy as you see fit.

Personally I'm more like you Troy, I'd like a speaker that can do it all, low end, airy high end, dynamics, soundstage, and can play any genre you throw at it. One of my criticisms of certain speakers is how some are fantastic for only a few genres of music. Great on classical and jazz, but fall apart on classic rock , as an example. Maybe that works for someone who is narrow in their musical choices, but I'm all over the map as I think most are too.

I'll have to give the newer iterations of Thiel a solid listen. My perspective was based on older models. Hopefully they trickle down some of that goodness to lessor model series.

Initial impression on setup is the bass is different in a good way. Seamless wall of sound listening to Chameleon on Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters album. Got A Thousand Beautiful Things from Annie Lennox’s Bare album on now. Subwoofer not really needed for music so far. Tweeters on the outside to start with.

Good thing about the size is I can tuck one under my arm to carry it up stairs.

Impressed already.

I'm finding I like the 1.7i without the addition of a subwoofer. As of now, I've been breaking them in in my home theater system with a Marantz receiver going to a Parasound A31. Experimenting with spacing in a 20 by 24 foot room starting about 6 feet from the front wall. One important and noticeable thing is the speakers are very revealing of the quality of what's being fed to them so using them with a receiver in the signal chain is not a good thing in the long term. I do have a Parasound JC2 BP that I can put in for two channel.

With a point source speaker every time the listening distance doubles the volume decreases by 6dB. With a line source speaker when the listening distance doubles the volume decreases by 3dB. This means that a line source speaker and a point source subwoofer will only have matching volumes at one specific listening distance. If the balance is adjusted so the levels are equal at a central listening distance then at every other distance in the room they will not be in balance.
The way to imagine a point source or line source speaker is to have two rooms that share a wall. In one room have a music source, say a jazz quartet and in the other room is the listener. If you cut two holes in the adjoining wall, say 8" in diameter 36" up from the floor spaced at 6' this would be equivalent to a medium sized pair of bookshelf speakers that are point sources. Instead if you cut two narrow but tall rectangles in the wall, say 10" wide and 72" tall spaced 6' apart this would present a line source speaker.

After some more break-in of the 1.7i I'm liking them. I prefer to listen to them without a subwoofer but I'm like that with all speakers for music including bookshelf speakers. They're not for rocking out but they produce a lot of sound in the room without really sounding loud if that makes sense. The music seems to come from all over. Running them with a Parasound A21 amp but they could take more power. They're not efficient speakers but they sound good at low volume as well as at high volume. Got to watch the volume control though. The best feature to me is the sound reflects from the backs of the speakers too and it's like music comes from all around the room including from behind the listening area. I was listening to Yes last night and it sounded like music was coming out of rear surround speakers. Definitely worth the money spent but I also like good box speakers for cranking rock music. They're just different.