Right now, I am using a pair of Polk Lsi9 as my main speakers, and of course I paired it up with LsiC for the center channel. With my NAD T742av reciever and, just added, Marsh A200s power amp, they worked great. Nevertheless, recently I started to feel unsatisfy about these speakers. As I listen to classical music mainly, I started to figure that these Polk speakers cannot handle some difficult passage, such as some high notes in a string quartet or an aria by a tenor. The sound from the speakers seems to be cracking at certain points. I think it may be the limit of these speakers? Amazingly, for some of the more complex passages such as Mozart's requiem, there seems to no problem at all!
I am a bit confused about the performance of these speakers.
As for MMG speakers, I heard a lot about them but I never auditioned one before. Are these speakers a better choice for my musical needs?
Also, I found their website and they are offering $550 for a pair of MMG, how about ths shipping? I guess it should be extra, right?
I may have a trip to St. Paul later this week, is their factory open for customer to audition their speakers and if I decided to buy MMG, is it cheaper to get it directly from their factory?
I hear that those Polks are pretty good. However, like some other listeners here, I really feel that you hit a wall with the typical cone 'n dome speakers. I would say to try the MMG or the 1.6. I think the deal with the MMG is that they're only available factory direct. You'll have to ask them if you can just pick them up yourself.
for your music listening i would think you would be very happy with the Magneplaner they are 1 heck of speaker.
not to knock the polks but the planer is such a different sound, truly amazing. i'm not sure about $550 a pair might want to see exactly what those ones are.
and i can't see them turning someone away at their facility that wants to hear there speakers.
Thanks Cornelius for your reply, but I am ever more confuse after reading your post. As you said I hit the wall with the typical cone and dome speakers, does it mean that even if I get a pair of $10k cone and dome speakers, I will be still facing the same problem?
I know that Polk Lsi series is good at its price, and that's why I got it in the first place. However, say I am going to get B&W (I believe they are also very good for classical music), am I gonna hear the same cracking sound as they are still same old fashion cone and dome design?
Back to the the MMG speakers, since they are using very different design, does it mean that they can overcome this kind of cracking sound problem?
I think I may also like to hear about the last question from KEGGER. Thank you.
Let me clarify. I have a (really) old pair of Polk Audio Monitor 10s, and although they're not in my main system, I still like those speakers. Don't be offended by my description. What I'm saying, is you may be pleased with an alternate design. You mentioned the Maggies and the possible "limits" with the Polks. I just interpreted you're interest in Maggies as a possible desire to move to something different. Actually, I AM a big fan of B&Ws, they depart from the basic box (still using "typical" drivers).
Thanks Cornelius for your quick respond. I am not offended by your post, it just kinda confirm what I heard before that the old fashion speakers really got some limits when reprodcing difficult passages.
Basically, I like my Polk speakers, they are fine speakers and produce accurate and clear sound. But during some difficult passages, the high notes are kinda cracking and producing some small clicking sound, and I can definately tell that there is something abnormal during those passage. At first I thought that might be because of my power amp, but when I hooked up with my receiver only, the same thing occurs. Well, I didn't try to turn on the clipping option on my receiver, so I don't know does this function helps or not.
As I only have one CD player (Cambridge Audio 300SE), I cannot tell is the problem from the source (CD player, DAC inside the player, etc.), or from the speakers. Though it seems to me that I might actually hit the limit of these speakers.
For the B&W speakers, I didn't actually auditioned any before neither. So I can not tell are they a better speakers or not. Though for the price of decent B&W speakers, my budget may be more tends to try the MMG speakers as they are really cheap (comparatively speaking). If for that price and I can get the sound I want, MMG might be the best buy for me.
BTW, I also read some of the reviews about MMG and they mentioned the weak side the these speakers, as I already got a HSU VTF-2 as subwoofer, there shouldn't be any problem for my set up if I switched to MMG speakers. Right?
Anyway, I think I may just call Magnepan and visit their factory this weekend. But that will be a long 5+ hours drive from my place.
J. Vigne
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Be aware MMG's require rather specific placement in your room to give the best sound. More so than many other speakers.
Thank J. Vigne for your post. I think my room should be fine, it is about 15'x16', rather square shape and I am still single that there is no WAF for my set up. i.e. I can put these speakers whereever I want.