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Magnepan 3.7i full-range ribbon/quasi-ribbon panel speakers Review

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Magnepan3.7i-1

Wendell Diller, Magnepan’s marketing manager for forty-three years will not attempt to sell his company’s products to you by describing the strengths or weaknesses of any of them. He has such confidence on the uniqueness and performance of his speakers that he prefers to quote his customers on their satisfactory purchases and user experiences. Diller believes their company is to survive and flourish by developing speaker models at marketable price points, as well as by dropping those that don’t sell. Diller has a point. What good is a product, however resplendent it is in offering the latest in technologies if it doesn’t sell?

High-end audio speakers are the bane of a self-respecting salesperson’s efforts. The luckier salesperson will have a product that looks attractive, sounds spectacular, works reliably and feels right at home as the subject of its owner’s flamboyancy. Market analysis is of no consequence if real-world customers don’t come knocking. Therefore, the present series of speakers offered by Magnepan, according to Diller, is consisted of speakers in real demand. The subject of this review, the 3.7i, retails at $5,000 with no option. Only one other model exists beyond the 3.7i and that is the 20.7 beginning at $13,850 the pair, depending on finish. On looks, my wife found the resemblance of the Magnepan to large room divider panels as the least obtrusive among loudspeakers, noting that the speakers were not placed in the middle of the room. The pair of 3.7i being reviewed was finished in red aluminum trim and off-white fabric.

As a dipole, the Magnepan was highly directional with negligible side issues and thus did not require a large room in which to function properly neither, provided strategic acoustic treatment was applied. To reduce the reflection from the front wall in my 14 by 30 by 9 feet room, I placed four stacked pairs of ASC TubeTraps at primary reflection points. As a bonus, the setup also reinforced bottom-end definition without sacrificing dimensionality. Now, I got to have the cake and eat it, too. The Magnepan 3.7i were set nine feet apart inner edge to inner edge, and I sat at the tip of a near equilateral triangle eleven feet away to the center-stage, thus sitting nowhere near the rear wall.

The beaming dispersion of the dipoles necessitated toe-in to the point that the tweeters should be slightly further to the listening spot in an angle than the woofer panels. Arranging the tweeter panels onto the inside created a stronger sense of three-dimensionality while arranging them to the outside would create a larger sweet spot. This review was conducted with the tweeters on the inside.

 

Spatiality

Diller loves to explain how “the ideal speaker would look like a pole going from floor to ceiling,” and how the 3.7i and 20.7 are created in an attempt to replicate that ideal. I had an encounter of a similar ideal a decade ago at a dealership, where I experienced a $30k pair of line source speakers, five-times the price of the Magnepan 3.7i, featuring an array of small midrange, tweeter drivers and woofer towers over six feet tall. In creating some of the most realistic dimensionality and spatiality of symphony orchestras ever attempted by loudspeakers of any design, that line source was not as ideal in reproducing solo vocalists or instruments nonetheless. For one, all that multitude of drivers only served to recreate a bloated, out-of-place image of an otherwise small-footprint performance.

Within the Magnepan 3.7i’s frame of 24-inch width and 71-inch height was a line source ribbon tweeter array at 55 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide, plus a quasi-ribbon midrange array of equal size right next to it. This is equivalent to 137.5 square inches of radiating area for the tweeter and midrange each! And these ribbon arrays’ behavior bore no resemblance to that of the other, $30k line source. With a crossover frequency of 300 and 2k Hz, the behavior of the tall and narrow Magnepan ribbon tweeter and midrange sections in rendering the physique of a lone flute in track 5 of the JVC XRCD2 disc, Dotou Banri by Ondekoza would best be described as delicate and coherent.

As driven by the Pass Labs XA200.8 pure Class A high-current monoblock amplifiers and the Xs Preamp via MIT Cables Oracle cable system, sourced from the Esoteric K-03 SACD player/G-01 rubidium clock  with the Bricasti M-1 dual-mono DAC alternating as my reference DAC, all feeding from MIT Cables ACII power cables and a Z Powerbar except for the power amplifiers which were plugged directly into the AC outlets, the expeditious transients of the Magnepan was of reference caliber among speakers, and the highly focused spatial portrayal of the flute conjured up the finesse of the best of soft-dome tweeters. Considering the physical vastness of the Magnepan tweeter array, the fact that, to boot, it did not throw out a huge soundstage with a disproportionately wide flute image like the expensive line source and still managed to render the ferocious energy output of the petite flute at its maddest and mightiest was a feat.

In recreating venue acoustics, that energetic output of the Magnepan was equal to that of the $50k Tannoy Westminster Royal SE as produced by the tweeter in the throat of the dual-concentric horn woofer. The coupling of air by that combination attained a speed and low-mass coefficient  that vividly portrayed minute ambience details. Imagine a ribbon possessing the speed and output of such finer horns at a scant portion of the footprint and cost.

In rendering the 24/96 HDTracks Bruckner Symphony No. 9 , in which Claudio Abbado (26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) conducted the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in one of his last recorded live performances in August, 2014 , the Magnepan 3.7i coerced me into taking an auditory adventure to the venue, where the acoustics of the famed Swiss concert hall was in full bloom. My audiophile mind told me to relish in the hall acoustics, while my inner child kept wanting to open my eyes to the physique of the panels. Another recording that captured a good deal of hall acoustics was Orfeo’s 1996 re-release of the 1984 live recording of the late Carlos Kleiber conducting the Bavarian State Orchestra in the Beethoven Symphony No. 4. A dome tweeter in high-efficiency speakers, such as the Audio Note AN-E SEC Silver of old, captured that ambience quite spectacularly as well.

Magnepan3.7i-2

 

Tonal definition

As critical as the Tannoy was in rendering recordings of questionable quality, the Magnepan was more critical of suboptimal sources and powerfully transparent of various levels of recording competency. A good deal of my favorite recordings from Deustche Grammophon were now revealed as mere medium-grade whereas the likes from XRCD,  Telarc and several smaller audiophile labels were now set on a higher pedestal. Thus, the high level of transparency of the Magnepan ribbon arrays was arguably its ultimate attribute among driver designs and were a natural in reproducing the piano’s dynamic scale and tonal lightness within the confines of my listening room. For example, the tonal clarity of the 24/96 HDTracks Return to Chicago by pianist Horowitz through the Magnepan 3.7i surpassed that of the dual-concentric, double-wired Tannoy Westminster Royal SE. Per the PDF liner note, “the original analogue recordings were made using B&K 4006 microphones through a Neotek console. They were recorded two-track onto Studer B-67 tape recorders, on 1/4″ tape, onto 10 1/2″ reels at a speed of 7.5 inches per second, with Dolby ‘A’ encoding …. Remastered was done at 24 bit/96 kHz.”

The liquidity of the piano’s tone and the beautiful, complex harmonics of its reverberation heightened a surrealism quite rare to behold. In this regard, the Magnepan sections was at their finest arguably with the Pass Labs monoblocks and acting seemingly as one single entity, producing delicate low-level detail that did justice to instruments solo or group, shooting out such precision and flamboyant tonal energy that the listening experience was the most realistic and haunting in memory. This was high-end audio at its most fun and enjoyable. The slightly larger 20.7 should surpass the 3.7i in this regard for more than twice the money, the question is by what extent. “The 20.7 is the 3.7i on steroids. As with much of high-end it is a non-linear relationship,” Wendell offered. As non-linear as it is, this non-linearity is modest in all fairness to the industry.

The Magnepan 3.7i came with two extra resistors that, when inserted into the special terminals at the back, would reduce the output of the top-end. I ran the panels straight from the Pass Labs XA200.8 via the MIT Cables Oracle system without attenuation of any kind, and while I found the Maggie top-end initially to be softer than silk-dome tweeters, I had become aware later on of its accuracy and wholesomeness. Hence, it follows that these tweeters are quite possibly among the purest and most direct in passing the top-end. By the virtue of the Magnepan midrange and up, instrumentations from Louis Armstrong’s otherwise archaic “We have all the time in the world” had rarely been more seductive.

All the while the speaker itself was hardly breaking a sweat, I was breathless. For such a large panel to emit such feebleness and in the proportionally correct dimensionality was an extraordinary engineering feat. The last speaker that exhibited similar force and finesse, albeit a vastly different tonal palate, was the Tannoy and at eight times the price.

 

Depth charge

While the Magnepan 3.7i is six-foot tall, over 70% of the 3.7i’s panel is dedicated to sub-300Hz outputting. The solid-state, $10,000, 47 Lab 4739 Fuduo with 70 Wpc into 4 ohms made the quasi-ribbon bass panels expressive and meticulous, while the $3,499, Wells Audio Majestic solid-state integrated amplifier with 150 Wpc at 8 ohms seemed to pack quite a wallop towards the bottom-end driving the 3.7i. Ultimately where budget allows, to drive the Magneplanar bass panel into complete deployment while still exerting refined top-end utterance on the speakers, the use of pure class A, high-current designs such as the Pass Labs monoblocks seemed mandatory.

The company used to recommend placing the speaker closer to the front wall to augment the bottom-end performance; these days, they encourage users to experiment. I placed the speakers five feet into the listening room initially, and the bass cut off precipitously. Now, they were three and a half feet from the front wall, and the bass drum in the 24 Bit 88kHz HDTracks download of Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra was not only strong and full, but quick, sophisticated and precise. It was room pressurizing most satisfactorily and yet overwhelming not with force but grace. To say the Magnepan bass was the most accomplished was to admit I’ve never experienced as evocative and natural a sound like this. Hence, the Magnepan’s bottom-end was one of the most accomplished I’ve experienced. In other words, the dipole bass was truly exceptional.

Nowadays, I don’t mind parking my car just a bit further in the parking garage so I get to walk a bit more. Nor do I eat all the way to 110% full, despite my Texan wife’s customary beckoning. On listening to music, I hit the loudness level that most conjure up the level of a live performance then I turn it down just a bit. On using the Magnepan, however, it’s another story.

With such beautifully rendered bass notes, I took to rock music. Between Metallica’s spellbinding music-making and the dance-worthy beats from the Twilight soundtrack of “Supermassive Black Hole,” even Sting sounded fantastical in “Windmills of your mind” with the lovely bass lines from the rock solid drum and artsy electric bass. Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Seal even Jim Croce got air time with the Magnepan 3.7i.

I even put the 3.7i through test tracks of the landing of passenger jets, thunderstorms, fireworks and so forth, with the volume at ear splitting level. The Maggie was unharmed, the Pass Labs and MIT Cables provided clean and potent power to the 3.7i and I had a blast. The best part was, whether the Maggie was playing orchestral music or sound effects, they were the only speaker I’ve come across whose spectral coherency remained intact at a stand-up listening height. After sitting for hours on, I could now stand up and still enjoy the same level of performance of the Magnepans.

So, the Magnepan 3.7i was a bass panel of speed and force without equal, truly. And all for a pittance in the world of high-end audio. For the budget-minded, I say get a smaller, $6,750 Pass Labs X150.8 stereo amplifier and revel in the wonder.

 

Conclusion

The Magnepan 3.7i is a world class performer that costs pittance in today’s terms. Its suite of performance attributes calls for it to be priced competitively at a much higher price point. The manufacturing and materials of the Magnepan 3.7i may or may not have become revolutionarily cost-effective, it boasts a construction perfected through years of continuous refinement and its performance exceeds those of many other companies’ products at the same price point. The 20.7 at $13,850 may reflect a more economically sensible and sustainable profit-to-cost ratio in the books. Readers are advised to direct the savings gained in the purchase of the Magnepan 3.7i into purchasing a high-current power amplifier for driving the panels.

While the 20.7’s superiority is almost guaranteed, the tall and slender Maggie 3.7i at 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide is only five inches slenderer, eight inches shorter than the 20.7 and costs less than half. While the degree of superiority of  the larger Maggie over the 3.7i is worth the extra eight grand must reside in the ear of the beholder, the 3.7i, and the it follows that the 20.7i, too, have upped the ante of the high-end audio loudspeaker arena collectively and profoundly.

 

Copy editor: Laurence A. Borden
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40 Responses to Magnepan 3.7i full-range ribbon/quasi-ribbon panel speakers Review


  1. Gerrit Friderichsohn says:

    have you found that these speakers need to be turned up a little more than some others? In other words, do they perhaps lack a little low level resolution. I just don’t listen as loud as I once did.

    • Gerrit,

      Thank you for your readership and comment. High volume listening is a non-unifying issue. What is loud to me may not be loud to you; what is soft to you may not be that soft to me. That said, I am of the opinion that high-current, class A amplifiers are necessary for feeding the Magnepan 3.7i for them to produce higher performance. Now, if you sit closer, say within 10 feet, then you won’t need to play them overly loud and still enjoy a high density of sound.

      If space is of concern, then Magnepan does have smaller and even more economical models for you to consider.

      Sincerely,
      Constantine Soo

    • Ramo says:

      Yes, Maggies do tend to have that property. They cannot do well at low volume.

      • LS says:

        I been a Magnepan owner for a long time.
        Years ago, I’d face my MG-1 directly AT one another and maybe 1 meter apart. Than, fetching a pillow, would LIE DOWN between them. Ever had Non-Contact headphones? Even and perfect sound at levels which would NOT disturb the lightest sleeper in the next room.

  2. Constantine, would not two stereo pair of Maggie 3.7i speakers wired in series for left and right channels, respectively (tweeters on both sides of a pair for a left channel and the same for a right channel and bass panels touching side by side sound better. And, is not two pair of maggies less money than then their flagship pair? In this manner, you will have increased your bass output, have a broader array of tweeters and midrange panels to cover a greater listening area so seating does not have to be locked into a sweet central spot for good imaging and it would greatly reduce nulls and peaks in your lsitening room, thus have a flatter freuqency in room response. Yes, it would take twice the amps running from a Y chord out of your preamp, but oh my gosh, what an amazing sounding system you would then have for far-far less money than super highend speakers cost. Your thoughts on this idea would be appreciated.

    • Bob, leave it to you to come up with an outside-the-box idea! If the reader has a larger room, then buying two pairs of the 3.7i in the base finish will only cost him/her $10,000. This will seemingly yield a saving of nearly $4,000 with a Magnepan system featuring nearly twice the bass radiating area of just one pair of the flagship 20.7.

      For the record, Wendell Diller of Magnepan responded to my request for comment via a phone call, in which he opined that putting two pairs of lesser speakers together will not surpass a superior model, and that it seldom performed as expected. Pass Labs also responded with a concern on the destructive interference of having two sources producing sound. I agree. After all, we will be trying to make two pairs of speakers that are not factory-synchronized at the crossover level with the output levels matched to perform as one. The reader considering such a system is advised to contact Magnepan and Pass Labs further to ascertain absolute viability.

      • Sandy Gross says:

        Clearly, you will get destructive interference between the two tweeters as well as the two midrange panels. Frequency response will look like a sawtooth, a continual series of peaks and valleys.

  3. Gentlemen; Thank you for the comment on using two medium size Maggies rather than a large one. I truly stood to be corrected. And, isn’t that how we learn as audiophiles? I think, at least for me, it is.

    Regards;
    Dr. Bob Dean

  4. Gentlemen,
    God’s Joy to you,

    I will chime in on the paired panel question; I strongly urge not to do so if the goal is the most pristine performance. I experimented with “stacked” Eminent Technology LFT-8 speakers years ago – my how the time flies! – and while it was obviously more grand in terms of scale it was not an improvement holistically in terms of quality of sound. Sure, the bass was more prodigious, but the comment by Sandy, above, is absolutely correct. Over time I came to abandon the stacked panel speaker concept through use, as I found that the imaging was hurt significantly by it.

    In terms of performance, Wendell is spot on; a stacked Maggie panel system of any size would be far worse in terms of most parameters of performance compared to the 20.7. Those seeking extreme sound I would advice to avoid such a setup, as much money would be put into additional amplification and cables, and the result would suffer unnecessarily. I would not return to such a setup after having experience with it. I was glad to experiment, to learn and experience it, as in one or two respects it was more “gargantuan” than normal, but imo overall it does not lead to superior performance. I realize that my enthusiasm at the time was very high and I was all in favor of it, but over time, and with comparisons of larger panels my opinion has reversed.

    If one is bound to try the stacked panel concept, I suggest that the tweeters be “joined” together in placement and that a slight toe in of both speakers toward each other be used to focus the tweeters’ output better. But, this is simply fixing a problem with the use of multiple tweeters.

    Blessings,
    Douglas Schroeder

  5. Harvey says:

    I have the Maggie 3.7’s . I’m wondering if the “i” upgrade which I believe is $500 would be worth the expense. With the shipping it would total to app. $1,ooo . What would this upgrade do for the sound?

    • Harvey,

      Thank you for your email and readership. I’ve forwarded your question to Magnepan and requested a response in this space. Magnepan asks that you call its office directly.

      Sincerely,

      Constantine

  6. Charlie Mathews says:

    Good evening Constantine I am curious do you still have the 3.7i’s and do you still like the speakers after having listened to them for last 5 months? Also have you discovered any quirks with the speakers that someone should be aware before they purchase the speakers? BTW thank you for your review.
    Best wishes Charlie

    • Charlie,

      Thank you for your email and readership. Since reviewing the Magnepan 3.7i, I have also auditioned another reputable make of planar speakers and dynamic ones and the $6,000/pair Maggie continues to be a best buy in the full-range, floorstanding speaker category. In terms of quirkiness, no design is perfect to everybody, so in the following it goes.

      The Magnepan takes up a minimal footprint but considerable airspace. As visually spectacular as two six-foot red aluminum panels are in rooms large and small, the Maggies are semi room dividers and removing them restored the openness of the living space. Secondly, the very hardcore audiophiles seem to appreciate the Maggies more than those who can easily afford them, for the latter group often choose to direct the conversation towards speakers ten times the Magnepan’s cost. Buying a pair of the 3.7i will give you no bragging rights.

      Lastly, after experiencing the Magnepan 3.7i over a period of time, going back to dynamic speakers did not conjure up remorse as feared. I am exploring this aspect in an upcoming dynamic speaker Review. Stay tuned.

      Constantine

      • charlie mathews says:

        Thank you Constantine for such a quick response to my query. As my students say often, “you’re the best”!
        Charlie

  7. Charlie Mathews says:

    Hi Constantine,

    Are you able to name the dynamic speaker that you think does not lack in comparison to the maggie 3.7i’s?

    Thank you and happy holidays!

    Charlie

  8. Sky says:

    Consider that the 20.7 do not cost $8,000 more that the 3.7i but rather, the 20.7 cost more than two pair of 3.7i speakers. That really puts perspective on the price differential for the very modest extra 5″ width and 8″ height of the larger 20.7 speakers.

    • Very well said, Sky. Wendell Diller of Magnepan reminded me that the cost-to-performance ratio of costlier products such as the company’s 20.7 are not linear to the lower cost siblings. Supposing the company has been undercutting competitions by an ungodly lowering of the 3.7i’s prices, then the 20.7 represents a very legitimate attempt in recouping some of the margins.

      Or, we can look at the 20.7 in a different way: What are the alternatives to the 20.7 in its price range?

      In either case, the 3.7i is a tremendous deal, if one doesn’t mind the equally tremendous room-dividing effect.

  9. Tony says:

    Constantine, thank you for your review. I am currently looking to update my system Meridian G68 processor and Meridian 5200 DSP speakers. I have auditioned the Janszen hybrid Valentina and was very impressed by their natural sound. Do you have any experience with Janszen and if so how would you compare to the 3.7i’s?

    Thank you,
    Tony

    • Tony,

      Thank you for your readership and question. I have experience with neither the Meridian or the Janszen, but these two employ different technologies in producing sound hence they will sound very differently from the Magnepan. What performance aspects are you pursuing? Why do you think the Janszen or the Magnepan could be the answer? How large is your listening room and what type of music do you listen to most?

      In addition, both the Meridian and Janszen are self-powered and cost more than twice of the Magnepan 3.7i, which means you will have to acquire new amplifier and cables with which to use the Magnepan. The Meridian G68 processor, however, is over 12 years old and I would recommend the $8,000 Bricasti M1 dual-mono DAC or the Esoteric D-07X DAC as replacement. If you’re on a tight budget, then the Exogal Comet DAC is a marvel for less than $4,000.

      Constantine

  10. Jo Klein says:

    Dear all MG 3.7 users,

    I wonder about the effective listening zone – there is the fear that this is – compared to other speakers – rather a small limited area in which you have the real experience.
    It would be unacceptable for my better half if there are discussions who will have the sweet spot.

    Is this sort of apprehension correct or what is your experience ?

    So far I have only listened to smaller / older models.

    Any comments are welcome

    Jo

  11. Tony says:

    Hi Constantine,

    First and foremost sir I love your work and reviews. Please keep them coming! I own a pair of MG 1.7i’s and I’m looking to upgrade to the 3.7i within the next two weeks. I own a ARC REF 5 preamp and ARC DS450 monoblocks with Taralab speaker cables and interconnects. Do you think the 3.7i’s will provide greater substantial sonic performance over the smaller sibling? My room dimensions are 16Lx12.6Wx8H. In my current setup I have the 1.7s, 5 feet from the wall and 8ft apart. I sit approx 8ft away.

    Thanks,
    Tony

    • Dear Tony,

      Thank you for your readership and kind words. I am excited to know you will be upgrading to the 3.7i soon. For less than $6,000, the Magnepan 3.7i packs a lot of sonic prowess. The larger bass panel of the 3.7i should provide you with a new definition of bottom-end resolution and fun. From your system description, you have amplification with sufficient power for the job. For all the reasons you love about your 1.7i, the 3.7i will give you more provided you pay close attention to the acoustics. Side wall reflection with the Maggie is not as prominent and problematic as with conventional dynamic cone speakers because of its dipolar nature.

      I informed Wendell Diller of your question and he has also invited you to call him. 800-474-1646 M-F 8-4 CT. Tell me how it went.

      Sincerely,

      Constantine Soo

  12. Dynaudio Lover says:

    Another great review, and very insightful comments.

  13. Constantine,
    God’s Joy,

    Oh, wow! Two juicy fuses to change! SO much performance left on the table if they are not!

    Blessings,
    Douglas Schroeder
    Dagogo.com
    You know me.

  14. richard pfeffer says:

    In the matter of loudness, however approximate the readings, the little Radio Shack (or similar) dB Meters can provide a rough basis for comparative volume. I use this meter all the time because questions of how loud is too loud can be effectively, if not precisely, measured.

    I do 90% of my listening to classical orchestra music, with or without voices. I know from years of listening and measuring that my reference for loud enough to be satisfying at orchestral climaxes is at least 100dB. I am happy, if my speakers can handle it, with big bass transients coming in over 103dB. With my 1200 clean watts @4 ohms, this seems to be close to the limit in my 2000 cubic foot room for the MG3.7i. The enormous bass drum roll in the middle of the Reference HDCD of Bernstein’s Candide overwhelmed the woofers. (This, by the way, is a hell of a torture test for woofers and subwoofers, as are a few others in this series of discs from the Minnesota Orchestra.)

    I always quantified info invaluable in comparisons between speakers. I do not see the harm in using a meter and just saying what it reads when you talk about high volume.

    Magnepan told me that my speakers were safe–including the un-fused woofer panels–if I wasn’t blowing fuses. Well, when that bass drum was rolling out its crescendo thunder, I did not believe the factory. It seems, however, not to have done any damage to anything after all.

    I would like to see in all speaker reviews, two simple and easily obtained measurements: dB level and size, in cubic units, of the listening space.

  15. chris Trautmann says:

    I have Magnepan 3.7i’s and love them…upgraded from maggie 1.6’s…definitely worth the jump.

    Associated equipment: Audio Research SP-9 MKIII, Esoteric 50dvs SACD player, PS Audio HCA-2 amp, 28 strand litz speaker cable (custom-made), JPS hollow aluminum interconnects.

    My contribution: remove fuses and replace with hollow copper piping 1.4 inches long to fit. Stereo clarity, definition and sound stage totally improved…any and all veils gone!

    If you have a reliable power amp that hopefully is not going to send DC back to the speakers, I feel then you can replace the heavily restricted fuses with some real conductive connections to deliver the real music…the difference was like I just spent 50 grand for some powerful full class A tube Mono-blocks…splitting hairs? NO…… more like “A jump to light speed!”

    Chris

    To our readers: Read the owner’s manual of your equipment and be aware of manufacturers’ advice in regards to the fuses. Inquire about replacing the recommended fuse with substitutes and understand the pros and cons. -Publisher

  16. Horace Brown Jr says:

    Constantine,
    I do enjoy your reviews. I am considering purchasing the 3.7i. My current setup is 1.7 powered by Bryston 4b cube, McIntosh C47 preamp, Shunyata power cables, WireWorld Eclipse 8 speaker cables and Eclipse 8 interconnects XLR to XLR. Do you believe I need to change anything with respect to the 3.7i? Thanks

    • Hello, Horace,

      Thank you for your comment and your readership.

      Your Bryston 4b cubed is more than enough to drive the 3.7i, assuming the 1.7i is performing to your liking in the same space. I also recommend experimenting with the 3.7i tweeter column placements, and see if having the columns on the outside gives you a presentation you may prefer.

      Have fun!

  17. Gentlemen,
    God’s joy to you,

    Also, experiment with some degree of toe in versus parallel to head (front ) wall. Preferences vary, but I always enjoy a bit of toe in because it sharpens the center image with such a diffuse sounding speaker.

    If you are hard core, try no less than 3 sets of cables. All speakers change performance markedly by the cable loom used.

    Blessings,
    Douglas Schroeder

  18. Hal Morrison says:

    These will be the ramblings of a LONG time Magnepan believer. My first was the MG3A with Threshold electronics. The true ribbon tweeter ALWAYS stood out from the rest of the panel. The addition of a resistor was a frustrating patch at best. Next was the Tympany 4A. Much more coherent top to bottom (should have kept these). Then my 13 years with the original MG20. Great yes but always that ribbon tweeter on certain recordings. My quasi-ribbon 1.7is are better in top to bottom coherence than any of these. No, that top end magic is not there. No, that bottom weight is not there. There is just more there, there. Don’t we love struggling to find the adjective or expression to capture the aural event.

    Unfortunately, yesterday one of my favorite audio retailers, Gifted Listener, announced his retirement with a fire sale. Wonderful for him, his family and me. I came home with a beautiful red and black 3.7i. Now I am back in the fold with that magical true ribbon tweeter and quasi-ribbon panels. So what about the bass kick?

    There are too many excellent direct servo subs available to worry about that difference between the 3.7i and the 20.7. Leave that 20-80Hz to a cone driver! Do a GR Research dipole setup. Swarm setup. Ascend Audio or Rythmik Audio setup. Build some Linkwitz Lab dipole woofers!

    I too am a Eminent Technology believer. I feel truly sad for those that will never hear these speakers. In fact I have a Magnepan True Ribbon Tweeter mounted between two Eminent Technology LFT 8s (tweeters disabled). A really unwieldy thing. My point? The 3.7i is the deal of a lifetime. Use the money saved to purchase clean Class A or A/AB watts. Remember, the fuses will protect your speakers and ears.

  19. Raymond Flores says:

    hello there,
    i owned Maggies 1.7i and I’m ready to upgrade to 3.7i. my Maggies are powered by Mcintosh MC152 and the Anthem AV60. Will I notice the difference in sound performance of the 3.7i vs 1.7i? what’s your recommendation? Thanks…

  20. Raymond Flores says:

    Hello,

    I just upgraded my Maggie 1.7i into 3.7i. It is driven by McIntosh MC152 witch is 150W per channel. Should I upgrade my Power amp to drive my 3.7i? I’m thinking of the Anthem STR power amp with 600W of power. Thanks.

    • Dear Raymond,

      Congratulations on the upgrade! The 3.7i does have a higher capacity to play louder with superior presentation of onstage details than the smaller and/or older models.
      Assuming you are contemplating more powerful amplifications because of the music genres you listen to and you have the space, then I can concur that more clean power is always preferred with the 3.7i. Quality of amplifier is therefore crucial and I’d trust McIntosh for the cleanliness of power with which to feed your 3.7i. I would stick with McIntosh and look for more powerful models if you are happy with the sound of your MC152.

  21. Doug Reed says:

    My (custom crossover and stand) modded MG-1.5’s now use a First Watt M2 (40 watt) … and sound (in my small room) SO much better than my old Parasound A21. I added missing bass (and volume) with another M2 powering WRM panels arrayed between the 1.5’s (with a Wilson Benesch Torus for 35Hz and below). But, my problem is still the 1.5’s missing highs. From the WRM’s “High Out” I could feed Beryllium super tweeters crossed at 8,000 Hz … in addition to my current center mounted Mag Mini satellites (and their ribbon tweeters) … BUT do I get comb filtering if I just array them all horizontally? With the M2s equally cabled off the same preamp, it seems that I get better (phantom) center imaging than with the stand alone 1.5’s (with outboard tweeters). Any thoughts?

  22. zheng wang says:

    hi sir today is my first time seeing your forum, sorry to bother you with a question: do you think mg3.7i is suitable for new mcintosh ma 12000 integrated amplifier?

    • Dear Zheng,

      Thank you for your readership and question. The $14,000 McIntosh MA 12000 integrated amplifier outputs 350 watts per channel into all impedance, which is more than enough for driving the Magnepan 3.7i in most living rooms except those of tremendous proportions.

      Enjoy!

  23. Alvin says:

    Hello sir,
    I just upgraded to a pair of magnepan 3.7i speakers. Before I am driving 1.6qr with odyssey stratos monoblock 180w per channel. Is this monoblock amplifier enough power to drive the 3.7i ? My room size is 19fts×14fts×8fts and l listen not more than 85db.

    • Dear Alvin,

      Thank you for your readership and comment. If you listen at below 85 dB largely, then the 3.7i is more than enough to fill your listening space with very realistic sounds.

      Your pair of 180 wpc Odyssey Stratos monoblocks is also more than adequate in driving the panels. Monoblocks are generally preferred, even at a lower output power for the dedicated power supplies that provide lowered distortions at high volumes. I also recommend placing the panels along the long wall so your listening position is inside the equilateral triangle. Experiment with toe-in to radiating at your ears head-on. Enjoy!

  24. Oh Translate says:

    I’m intrigued by the concept of quasi-ribbon panels and how they differ from traditional ribbons in terms of sound quality. It would be interesting to read more about this unique speaker design and its performance in your review.

  25. Wow, thank you for this in-depth review of the Magnepan 3.7i speakers! I’ve been considering purchasing a new pair of speakers for my home theater setup and these seem like an excellent choice. The detail and clarity you provided in your review are incredibly helpful in making my decision. I especially appreciated the comparison to other speakers in the same category. Looking forward to hearing more from you in the future!

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