How long should the ribbon tweeter on the Magneplanar 1.7i roughly last?

M

Mike Gillespie

New member
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
19
A friend who is a prominent tube amplifier and speaker designer (mostly horns but some box speakers) had Maggies in the 70's and 80's and said that every year, to get them to sound good, he had to open them up and stretch the ribbons. That normal temperature changes from hot to cold, and just normal playing weaken the ribbons and stretch them out. As they stretch, the sound quality diminishes.

I have a pair of new 1.7i's on trial, and I'm concerned about how much of an issue this really is with the newer Maggies.

How many years have you been able to still get great sound out of your Maggies? What vintage are they?

Any further thoughts would be much appreciated.

Mike
 
i never experienced that (nor did any friends) with my Maggies 3s.

Since you mentioned 70s and 80s, what model is he referring to?
 
the ribbons in my Maggie IIIa's would fail completely before I noticed any sagging. A friend recently had his IIIa ribbon tweeters rebuilt at the factory, it was fairly reasonable at ~$400/pr. sagging ribbons in general are a common problem in many Apogee speakers, there are many that come up for sale that have had the panels rebuilt or are in need of being rebuilt.
 
He had a couple models including the big 6 footers with 3 panels on each side one -- I believe they're the Tympani 1 C. His partner used to work for Magneplanar and that's why they knew this was an issue. Again, this was years ago, but even last night he expressed his concern about my purchasing them. He doesn't know if the newer Maggies ever solved this problem.
 
The 1Cs are pretty old models by today's standards. But I was expecting you to say 1Us. :)

I had three friends with 3s and one with 20s and they never had any issues with the ribbons. Perhaps your friend kept them in direct sunlight and that affected the ribbons? I do know along the way Magnepan also changed the power handling capability of the ribbon.

Apogees though a ribbon are a bit different design.
 
Mike, I have a pair of 1.6's with heavy use and they are over 10 years old and I have had no problems with them. I also have an almost 20 year old pair of MMG's and the tweeters are fine. Magnepans have come a long way since the 70's. I am sure that Magnepan has fixed the issue as they are as popular as every. If there was an issue with the tweeter, then every one would know about it. I have 2 friends with Maggies-1.7's and 3.7's and they have had no problems.


Larry
 
Thanks, guys, for all the reassurance.

Mechnutt, are your speakers subject to a lot of weather changes?

I'm on the Central Coast of California and I had a pair of Raidho D-1's, virtually new, and the glue went bad on the woofer, and they had to be returned for repair. Raidho was great about it, but said the issue may have been humidity.

We do have a good amount of fog in the summer... and the windows in my office (where main stereo is) are often open.
 
Mike, I am in the Twin Cities and we have a lot of humidity during the summer. No problems so far although we keep out house cool and dry all year round at about 71 during the day and 67 at night during the winter. My MMG's have been in my basement for 11 years and there is higher humidity there.

Are you going to give the 3.7i's a try? I keep thinking that I will get a pair but my 1.6's sound damn good. Years ago my wife wanted me to buy a pair of 3.6's but I thought that they would over power the room. I regret not getting them when I was not having to pay tuition for 2 kids.
 
Mechnutt, thanks for the information.

I'm going to try the 3.7i's in a few months... soon as I'm back from a business trip. I've got the Cardas jumpers on order and some new fuses for the 1.7i's -- just to see if they work. My dealer is doubtful. And he didn't think the Mye stands would help much either... as I believe you said your friend found.

I would wait on even trying the Mye stands until I figure out which model I'm keeping. In the meantime, I'm going to decouple the speakers with the floor by using a Symposium platform and some Roller blocks, which I happened to have around from a pair of Dynaudio Confidence 1 speakers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top