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March 28, 2003
Magnaplanar MG 1.6 QR vs. Spendor SP 1/2
I recently sold my Magnaplanars and bought Spendors. Folks have asked me my impressions between the two. Here are my notes:
The Maggies are wonderful. They have amazing clarity, accuracy, and are very crisp. Contrary to what people will tell you, they actually do have bass (not thumping) but can be quite warm. They love vinyl, thrive with CD's. They provide a great sound stage, with amazing depth, and side to side imaging. I loved them. But, they're just too big in my space (physically, the sound didn't suffer at all from space constraints). They're thin, but pretty tall and wide, and take up a surprising amount of visual space. My wife almost lost it when she saw them, but then heard them and all was forgiven. People will also say that Maggies are power hogs, but I actually found them to be pretty efficient. Not much power needed to drive them to a loud state. They can distort, with higher volumes, especially with recordings heavy on bass. Just the nature of planar speakers.
So I started to do research, and spent a couple of years trying to find an alternative to the size, but preserving the sound. Spendor's seemed to be the best bet. They're quite a bit more expensive, but much smaller.
I looked at the sp100's, and they were just too much for my smallish space (it's about 20 x 10, with the speakers facing the 20' length). I chose the SP 1/2's. At first I was really disappointed, the sound was flat, shrill and they had to be toe-ed towards one another at an extreme angle to get imaging. But now it's changed, I've listened to them for maybe 100-125 hours, and they're breaking in nicely. Much warmer, stronger bass than the Maggies. Very Very Warm. The imaging issue is mainly due to my placement, and they sound great with no toe, but for a true listening session, I need to toe them. One major difference: They are much less forgiving to electronics and recordings. If the recordings are poorly done, they show every flaw. And my electronics? I use mid--range electronics, solid state. Most of my equipment is from 1998, Carver pre-amp, and a proton amp. I use Kimber 8TC cable (my opinions weigh heavily on the theory that cable and speakers are the most important components). I now know that the Proton isn't really up to snuff, but I'm growing used to it. The speakers are efficient, so I'm looking into a low-wattage tube amp, which should do the trick in balancing the minor shrill, high end that shows up with some cd's (a small number, mind you).
And, really, the Spendors have amazing detail. They really shine in music that has space between notes. Guitar, even electronic beats sound great. I was listening to a singer songwriter album (Bonnie Prince Billy) that made my jaw drop in terms of sound detail and imaging.
Posted by tdotjay at March 28, 2003 9:54 AM
