Practically a whole generation of audiophiles-m-m-m-my generation-cut their teeth on planar magnetic loudspeakers from the (now venerable) firm of Magnepan, Inc. In the mid-Seventies, a few hundred bucks got you a pair of Maggie Is or Ils that could make Lou Reed's walk on the wild side (and those colored girls going "doot-dadoot-dadoot"), or George Szell and Rafael Druian's incomparable Mozart sonatas, or the Duke's men taking the A train come alive with a trippy presence and immediacy that no other loudspeaker of that day could quite equal.

True, Maggies were large beasts, and more difficult to place than "box" speakers (or so it seemed in those innocent, park-'emin-a-corner-and-forget-'em years). But who cared? Back then, all you had was a beat-up couch with a Madras throw, some slung-canvas chairs, a stack of brick 'n' board bookshelves, album covers like a second rug on your floor, your stash, and your stereo. Somewhere out in the world, there were classes you were supposed to be showing up for, exams you were scheduled to take, futures yawning like wolf traps. Sooner or later-it took another decade for me-you got around to losing a paw. But for a sweet time, there was no need to lose anything. It was just you, the wild night, and the music. I wonder, sometimes, how those gray engineers who made Maggies and SP-3s and Dual-76s, all of them from M-m-m-mom's generation, would have felt had they known the infinite varieties of sloth and ecstasy their products were aiding and abetting? I wonder if Jim Winey would've sold me a pair of Maggie Is, if he'd known the timewasting, time-enhancing, time-obliterating uses I'd put them to?

Well ... times have changed.

Oh, from the top of their line to the bottom Maggies are still the fairest values in all the high end. And, as you will shortly see, they still sound great. But those of us who learned what high fidelity was all about (and I don't mean specs) via Mylar 'n' magnets have grown older (sigh). We've got jobs and kids and wives and houses and-Lord help us-futures. And the Maggies ... the Maggies just aren't tailor-made for the man with a future.

Their size-or, as they say nowadays, their "footprint"-makes 'em the very definition of obtrusive, and their looks... well, you can't see through 'em, and you can't shoot 'em. On top of that, they gotta be placed away from walls and each other, meaning you have to fit everything else in the room around them. Is it any wonder that Magnepan has lost marketshare to those sleek, half-naked nymphs from Martin-Logan, or the innumerable lunchboxes-on-a-stand from Great Britain and Italy? When you're a man with a future, sound takes second-place to hearth and home. Indeed, I strongly fear that will be the swan song of all two-channel stereos.

All right, shake it off for a momentthe accumulated frustration of living two minutes ahead of yourself, of constantly looking over your shoulder and wondering what the wife, the kids, the neighbors, the decorator will think. Go back... back ... back.

It's the late Sixties/early Seventies again! And, guess what, all you care about is getting the most fun out of Now. Your great aunt died and left you six hundred bucks to spend (fifteen hundred in 1998 dollars), and you want the best sound you can buy. 'Cause music means everything to you, man. It gets you high, gets you laid, joins you at the forehead with other slackers who live to the beat. You don't worry about how your new speakers are gonna fit your "lifestyle" or ,'decor" (so long as they're not hideously uncool-looking, or made by a company that exploits Chicanos or contributes to the war effort). All you care about is that, like an inexplicable, inexhaustible parlor trick, they thrill you with the sleight-of-hand magic of making Mick Jagger, Jascha Heifetz, and Joan Baez (hey, it's twenty, thirty years ago) appear in front of you.

You there, yet? Well, if you are ... dude, have I got the speaker for you!

Actually, these latest numbers from Jim Winey & Co., the 1.6 Q(uasi)R(ibbons), are down-sized as Maggies go, standing a little over five feet tall, about a foot-and-a-half wide, and literally thin as a board. In hardwood trim and black grillecloths they're handsome in a KLH Nine School of Design sorta way, meaning they're about as good-looking as floorstanding, cloth-covered rectangular panels get. While not quite entry-level, they're very reasonably priced at $1725, and when it comes to making music-any kind of music-they're simply terrific.

I never got the chance to fool with the Maggie 1.5s, which these babies replace, but I did live with and (very favorably) reviewed the $1995 2.7s awhile back-well, quite awhile back, actually, in Fi No. 9 (No. 9, No. 9). And I can tell you that, as good as the 2.7s were and are, the 1.6s may be a bit better.

In my room, from an honest 35 Hertz to a (slightly less honest) l6k, these things are hard to fault. Oh, I guess there's a wee bit of the old ribbon brightness in the upper midrange, but nowhere near enough to sharpen violin E-strings to razor edges, or add a tea-kettle whistle to flutes or piccolos, or make ol'Joan Baez sound like she's singing through a hole in her teeth. And I suppose that the very top octaves are a bit soft compared to something like Genesis' ribbon tweets (or Maggie's own version of same), so, while you get the full percussive impact of a sharp stroke on a high-hat, you don't quite get the refulgent wave of air that follows. (The 1.6s' softness on top is slight and not nearly as subtractive as what you hear through the $2000 Aerii from M-L, or from the majority of dynamic tweeters at this price point.) And I suppose that if you're used to listening down into the low thirties and upper twenties (and I mean to well-defined pitches down there, not ill-defined noise), the 1.6s won't float your boat, although they go low enough for most music and where they play they play with the definition and authority that Maggies are famous for-the kind of definition and authority that turns cellos playing in their lower octaves and contrabasses playing in their mid-to-upper ones into veritable forests of flashing bows and vibrating strings, or a single, plucked bass-fiddle into a three-dimensional object with a huge, pear-shaped sounding box and strings that stand out like the muscles in a sprinter's neck. And, finally, compared to their elder brothers, the 3.5s and the 20Rs, or Quads or Bella Voces Sigs or Gen 300s (properly driven), the 1.6s are not the Very Last Word in detail. But compared to everything else, they are. (And believe me, you'll never pine for the little bit you're missing.)

Enough of what the 1.6s don't do. What the 1.6s do do is make vocalists and most instrumentalists sound like they're cut from the same sonic cloth-dynamically, timbrally, and imagistically-regardless of what octaves they're playing in. Although this "single-driver sound" is something I've discussed many times before (most recently in my review of the Bella Voce Signatures), perhaps I should remind you of why it's important. When drivers are made of different materials or housed in different containers or powered by different drive systems, you inevitably hear those differences along with the music. Take the M-L ReQuests, for example. This is a speaker with a superb midrange, as good as anything I've heard in my home (indeed, better in this one regard than the speaker under review). BUT, the M-L's bass is produced by a single woofer housed in a box; everything from 200 Hz up by a boxless, curvilinear, electrostatic dipole. The different ways these disparate drivers are driven and enclosed (or unenclosed), and the different speeds and radiation patterns of each, produce a discontinuity between the bass and the midrange/treble, and that means a discontinuity in the size, speed, and timbres of instruments whose pitch ranges span these octaves. A piano, for instance, will blossom gloriously in the midband via the ReQuests; but once that same piano dips into the bottom octaves, it shrinks in size, loses a good deal of its bloom, detail, and color, and stalls on transients. The result is a mermaid-like instrument-purely gorgeous from the waist up, but a different animal down below. (Lest you think I'm picking on M-L, you can hear this same discontinuity, to lesser degrees, with Genesis 300s, AvantGarde Trios, and, even, slightly, the Shun Mook Bella Voce Signatures-all of them speakers I have recommended highly.)

Now, when it comes to producing a single-driver sound the Maggie 1.6s aren't perfection, but they are superior to the (fine) speakers I've just mentioned. The reasons, I think, are five-fold. First, like all Maggies the 1.6s don't have a box; hence no box-like colorations. Second, they are large dipoles, which, among other things good and bad, means that instrumental images and acoustic spaces are naturally sized, and don't change size on ya from octave to octave. Third, as I said in my review of the 2.7s, Magnepan's "quasiribbon" tweeters make a good blend with its magnetic planar woofers. Although marginally faster than these very fast (sorry, Robert) woofers, they are not so much faster that they produce a discontinuity in speed between top and bottom. Fourth, in the 1.6s that slightly faster quasi-ribbon driver is being allowed to do more work in the midrange, crossing over at 600 Hz (compared to 1000 Hz in the 1.5s). As a result, transient response through the midrange is more in line with transient response in the treble range and the low bass. Something like the harp and string pizzicatos in the scherzo of Kleinpeter's Mahler Fourth or the thunderous midband sforzandos in Byron Janis' Pictures are reproduced with a high measure of the "jump," the gunshot-like alacrity, they have in life. Fifth, because of their sheer acreage and the amount of air those acres move, large-diaphragm dipoles reproduce what I've called instrumental "action" better than smaller-sized drivers do. With first-rate recordings by vocalists like Kendra Shanks (Afterglow [Mapleshade]) or Mary Stallings (Fine and Mellow [Clarity]), or, more impressively, with big orchestral pieces like the aforementioned Mahler Fourth [Testament/ EMI] or the Varese Arcana [Speaker's Corner/ Deccal, you not only get a natural sense of the size of instruments and of the acoustical space they are filling with sound; you get a real taste of how they work-of the amount of air they move when they play, the direction(s) that air radiates in, and the intensity with which that air is launched and projected. As they used to say about car engines, there's simply no substitute for cubic inches. In short, 0 Man With A Future, you simply can't get this coherent and realistic an illusion of the size, dynamic scale, and action, of the sheer physical presence of instruments from smaller footprint drivers.

Let me tell you a true story that will illustrate all of these things. My wife (a Maggie fan) and I were listening to music one evening when I decided to put on the Mehta/LA Philharmonic LP of the Varese Arcana mentioned above. As is often the case with Varese half the audience (meaning Kathy) immediately left the room (in her case to potter around the kitchen).

Now Arcana is a big, noisy string, wind, and percussion piece, and Decca's Seventies-style multi-miking makes it seem immense, with no fewer than thirtynine spot-lighted percussion instruments and noisemakers scattered all over the stage, far left, far right, far rear. Because of the huge, cohesive soundfield that they throw, the Maggies are simply terrific on this kind of thing. The 1.6s' superior transient response, their exemplary way with the action and natural sizing of instruments, front-to-back, side-to-side, means that you can pinpoint the locations and identities of an enormous number of instruments. (Transient response, particularly what acousticians call "jitter"-their term for very low-level transient information-is intimately tied to our ability to locate and identify instruments of all kinds, and to recognize the way they are being played.)

Anyway, there I was listening to this very realistic barrage of drums and shakers and woodblocks and bells, much of it originating from way outside the 1.6s' physical boundaries, when I heard an instrument I couldn't identify coming from the far right side of the stage. It sounded like a slightly out-of-phase drumstick being tapped against a slightly out-of-phase tambourine. Save for the phasiness, it didn't stand out, in dynamics or size, from the rest of the percussion; but since the rest of the percussion was relatively easy to identify, I became curious. I picked up the paltry liner notes to see if they could give me a clue as to what odd-ball (maybe African or Native American) instrument Varese had thrown into the stew. But the notes didn't say. As I leaned over to put the album cover back on the floor (some things never change), I happened to glance through the portal on the right leading to the kitchen. There stood my wife, peeling potatoes for supper!

What I'd heard-and thought was part of Varese's Arcana-was the sound of the potato-peeler! Talking about throwing in the kitchen sink!

Now, this will tell you something about Varese's music (and something about me), but it will also tell you something about the Maggie 1.6s. The fact that I could be footed into thinking that a "real" transient sound, coming from a distance, was part of a recorded event should confirm just how natural these things are when it comes to recreating the physical presence of instruments-or potato-peelers-and just how big a soundstage they throw.

The Maggies aren't merely wonders at staging and imaging widely-spaced percussion-firework shows. On something like the Mahler Fourth, which depends musically on antiphonal effects, the 1.6s' frontto-back, side-to-side clarity is revelatory.

For example, one of Mahler's favorite strategies in the Adagio of the Fourth Symphony is to "terrace" a melody from foreground to middle to back. He will begin a theme in the foreground as a tutti, with strings dominant. He then pares the orchestration down so that the tune is passed from strings and piano winds and brass to winds alone, still playing piano, while strings and brass stand mute or play a ppp ostinato. Those winds were playing all along-at the selfsame intensity-but you didn't hear the theme dressed in their pastel colors and birdsong dynamic until Mahler "lifted the curtain" of strings and revealed what was happening in the middle distance. In a few bars, he may "lower the curtain" again then lift it further to reveal the richer hues and parade ground intensities of the even more distant brasses. Many composers use such chamber-like and antiphonal effects, but in Mahler's Fourth they are so subtly orchestrated that where you hear a tune becomes as important as when you hear it. Space becomes thematically relevant, as if you are not looking into a "soundstage" but into layers of memory and musical imagination.

With a great recording, like the Klempeter Mahler Fourth on Testament, this terracing from front to middle to back and side-to-side is especially clear (thanks to Klemperer's seating, balances, and reading-and EMI's engineering). But you need a loudspeaker that can do justice to the vast stage and complex orchestration of this intricate drama. The 1.6s do soas well as, or better than, anything I have in house.

When it comes to lifelike size, intensity, duration, location, number, and action, the 1.6s are marvelous, incredibly so for the bucks. When it comes to timbres ... well, they're very damn good. Not great like Bella Voce Sigs, because not as neutral as BVSes. Remember you're dealing with big panels, which means you're dealing with big room effects (and, doubtless, some undamped ringing and/or panel resonances).

Big diaphragm dipoles like Magneplanar 1.6s are just not the kind of loudspeakers that are going to bench-test ruler-flat. That bit of softness at the extreme top, that bit of added energy in the upper mids, a small bit of suckout in the crossover region (these are two-ways, after all), and the emphatic authority of its mid-to-upper bass combine to give you a sweet, slight tly-darker- than -I ife sound (unusual for Maggies, which tend toward the dry, bright, up-front sound of magnet-driven plastic). There is nothing egregious about this balance (indeed, the 1.6s measure flatter than other Maggies); it just isn't textbook.

Don't give it a second thought. Rulerflat frequency response is oversold. Better the lightning transients, the superb dynamic scaling, the remarkable spaciousness, the nearly world-class inner detail, the single-driver coherence, and sheer presencing power-all of which the Maggie 1.6s have in abundance.

When it comes to break-in, give these things a long leash. As Magnepan itself notes, the bass panels take a coupla months to loosen up, so don't judge the 1.6s prematurely. Let 'em cook. As for amplification ... don't skimp. While not as critical of source as some loudspeakers I can think of, the 1.6s will definitely tell you what's upstream of them. At $3800, the one -hundred - and- twenty-five -watt Goldmund SRMs are very nearly ideal for solid-state amps. Although I don't usually recommend tube amps with Maggies, the expensive-but-worth-it Atma-Sphere MA 11 Mk. 11 OTIs-which may be the best two -hundred -watt amps I've ever heard (review forthcoming)-do a helluva good job. There are bound to be other combos, for more money and considerably less, just make sure you have enough juice (at least one-hundred-watts into 8 ohms), because, like all Maggies, the 1.6s need sufficient power to come to life. Well, that's it. Show's over, and we're back in 1998. Time to make up your mind, dude. Are you gonna worry about footprints and decor and settle for lesser sound, or are you gonna spring for the best-for-the-buck, right now? 'Cause, in my opinion, that's what the 1.6s are-the best sound you can buy for fifteen-hundred dollars. Your call.


MANUFACTURER
Magnepan, Inc.
1645 Ninth St.
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
Tel.: 800-474-1646; Fax: 612-426-0441

Product Type: Floor-standing, two-way, full-range, planar- magnetic, dipole loudspeaker

Dimensions: 19.25" x 64.5" x 2"
Warranty: Three years (to original owner)
Shipping Weight: 92 lbs.
Price: $1725 the pair

I begin every Audiophiles Anonymous meeting with "My name is Brian and I'm a Magnepan kind of guy."

I've been a Maggie fan ever since I heard my first pair in the late '70s. My first real high-end speakers were Magnepan's MG1 Improved, and I even took a pair of Maggies when I spent a year in Australia. The unique strengths of the large panel/dipole radiator concept-their coherence and soundstage reproduction -have always worked for me, and outweighed their shortcomings in low-level detail and dynamics. I couldn't help wishing, however, for the magic combination that would blend the planar's strengths with those of a topnotch dynamic system. In fact, my two long-term reference speakers, the Infinity RS-113 and the Audio Artistry Dvorak, are attempts at just such a blend, though each is as much a compromise as a combination of strengths.

Designer Jim Winey and Magnepan have been addressing the same issues for the past two decades. Each succeeding generation of Magneplanars has been more dynamic, detailed, and articulate than the previous one, all the while maintaining and even refining Magnepan's wonderful, seamless sound. About two years ago I had their MG3.5/R in for review and was delighted and amazed by how successful the evolution and refinement has been. The '3.5/R is a sensational speaker, and, at $3150/pair, one of the High End's most spectacular bargains.

I first heard Jim Winey's latest creation, the $1725/pair MG1.6/QR, at the 1998 WCES, and was more than a little interested. When Magnepan's marketing manager, Wendell Diller, told me that the 'l.6/QR improved on the '3.5/R in a number of ways, I was hooked.

Technology: The MG1.6/QR's family tree can be traced back to my MG1s, but Magnepan's driver technology and designs have evolved so far that it would be a stretch to call them "descendants." The look is familiar, however, and the large planar configuration still draws attention. Even guests with years of exposure to audio exotica at Casa Damkroger y McKenzie are taken aback by the Maggies. "That's a speaker? How does it work? Can you hang it on the wall?" Combined with the awesome VPI TNT and the wall-of-tubesVTL Ichibans, the '1.6/QRs make quite an impression on the uninitiated.

The 1.6's outward appearance is standard Magnepan: a slim, elegant panel about 5' 6" tall, 19" wide, and 2" deep. My pair was covered in off-white cloth, with inset cherry wood side aim. The terminal panel is centered at the bottom of the back side, and the '1.6 is biwirable. The terminals accept only banana plugs, but Magnepan supplies an adapter to allow the use of speaker cables with spade lugs.

The '1.6 is a two-way design that crosses over at 60OHz. The speakers are mirror-imaged, the 9"-wide bass portion running up the inside of each panel from about 11" off the floor to 61" up, and the 2" by 48" tweeter adjacent and outboard. The bass driver is a planar magnetic design, specifically a 9" by 50" section of the 0.5-mil-thick Mylax diaphragm, attached to the frame a-round its perimeter. The grid of wires that carries the audio signal is affixed to the diaphragm; it interacts with an array of magnets attached to a screenjust behind the diaphragm.

Magnepan refers to the tweeter as a "Quasi-Ribbon" design to distinguish it from both the planar magnetic driver and a "true" ribbon of the sort they use in the MG3.5/R. The Quasi-Ribbon uses the outer 2" of the same 0.5-mil Mylar diaphragm as the bass panel with "some tricks along the intersection to avoid IM distortion," according to Wendell Diller. The signal is carried by wide aluminum-foil traces rather than wires, so that a much greater portion of the driver's surface area is actually driven. The MG3.5/R's true ribbon, in contrast, is suspended only at its ends, and.

Available in natural, black and dark cherry hardwood trim, with off-white, cherry-white, black and gray fabric options. the signal is carried by the driving element itself, as opposed to an applique' of aluminum.

Compared to the MG1.5/QR, which preceded it, the '1.6 incorporates two major changes, according to Diller: "The first is that the Quasi-Ribbon driver is increased in size, which allows the crossover point to be shifted about an octave lower, so that the Quasi-Ribbon covers more of the midrange." The second is that the midbass has been improved by refinements in the damping and tensioning systems used to control panel resonances, refinements that Diller laughingly refers to as "black art."

The design of the MG1.6/QR, and of Magnepans in general, gives rise to some unusual characteristics. First of all, there's no box, hence no box resonances. Second, the 'l.6 is a dipole radiator, meaning that its rear-firing wave front is exactly out of phase with the front. Combined with the driver's large area, this results in a more or less planar wave front at low frequencies instead of a traditional dynamic system's omnidirectional radiation. Imagine a barn door moving back and forth, as contrasted to an expanding and contracting ball. Thus, the Maggies and typical speakers will load a room very differently, and get different levels of bass reinforcement from walls behind and beside the speaker. One result is the articulate midbass that Magnepans are noted for; another is that large, planar dipoles can seem to have less bass than they should , due to cancellation between the front and rear wavefronts as they overlap around the edges of the panel.

Setup: An integral part of Magneplanar lore is that they're difficult to set up. True? Well, yes and no. Yes, they're unusual, and yes, small adjustments do make a big difference. But no, it's not really difficult to do, and the factory instructions are pretty straightforward. Besides, Maggies sound pretty good right out of the box -a few feet from any adjacent wall, a little bit of toe-in, and voila -you're ready to listen.

The next step is to follow the manual's instructions, which will give you pretty close to the smoothest response you're going to get, and a decent soundstage. Beyond that, it's just a matter of careful listening and progressively smaller movements, down to about 1/2" at a time. I ended up with the speakers' outer edges 4' from the front wall and just under 58" from the side walls. For reference, my unbox'n'plop-'em-down distances were 4' 6" and 5', respectively.

My listening chair is approximately 7' from the rear wall, which places me about 11' from a line drawn between the speakers. Both speakers were toedin slightly, with their axes intersecting perhaps 10' to 12' behind MY head, and the right speaker angled in slightly less than the right. My ear height is about 40", midway up the 'I.6's panels. I got the best results from the Maggies with VTL Ichibans and a biwire combination of Synergistic Research Resolution Reference on the bottom, Designer's Reference on top.

Sound: The dominant characteristic of Magnepan speakers over the years has been their uncanny coherence. The Maggie I lived with most recently, the MG3.5/R, was incredible in this regard. With the '3.5s, individual images were distinct and detailed, yet continuous. They were cut from a single cloth, so to speak, with no sense that the signal was being fragmented and routed through separate drivers and crossovers. Images struck just the right balance between edge definition and coherence with the surrounding space, all wrapped up in a seamless, rich portrayal of the original ambient environment. The result was a performance that seemed holographic in a way that other speakers couldn't match.

Once the MG1.6/QRs were dialed in, I sat down with the Mannheim Trio's three-LP Vox Box of Mozart's Piano Trios (Vox SVBX 568) to see how well the little Maggies could pull off this vanishing act. First up was side 4, the "Kegelstatt" Trio (K.498 in E-flat Major), and the '1.6/QRs; did quite well, thank you very much. My listening room seemed to melt away, morphing into a seamless sonic portrait of the original performance and space. With the lights out, I felt as if I could have gotten up and walked in between the players, or walked over and touched the back and side walls of the recording venue. The viola was at the left front, the clarinet at the right front, and the piano slightly behind -and they were tight there.

Dave Bailey's One Foot in the Gutter (Epic/Classic BA 17008) was another great example. The instruments seemed dimensional and solid enough to touch, but the real kick was how well the ambient environment was reproduced. The space between instruments, the walls-even the people laughing and talking in the background -seemed live and, well, right there.

The '1.6/QRs were equally proficient at portraying spaces and performances of all sizes. Solo instruments and small ensembles had the proper size and weight, and the balance of distance and space -listener to performer to surrounding space -seemed appropriate for the scale of the instrument or group. Large orchestras were handled unusually well too, much better than I've heard out of box speakers at anywhere near the Maggies' $1725/pair price. The '1.6/QRs' soundstage was quite large, particularly in the width and height directions, and there was never the sense you get with a lot of speakers: of a miniature orchestra on a toy stage . A round of thrift-store shopping one weekend led to my having a Scheherazade Festival, comparing London, RCA, Columbia, and Everest versions. The '1.6/QRs did a greatjob of portraying the different views of the orchestra and space, and always seemed consistent in how they balanced perspective, scale, and distance.

The MG1.6/QR's ability to disappear was outstanding, but didn't quite match up to that of the MG3.5/R. The 1.6 simply didn't sound as neutral or as transparent as the '3.5/R. The 'l.6/QR's top-end response didn't match the transparency of the '3.5/R's ribbon tweeter, for one thing. The '1.6 sounded sweet and extended, but slightly thick in comparison to the '3.5. Second, although the 'l.6/QR was unfailingly musical and engaging, it didn't sound particularly flat in my room. I'll leave the measurements to JA, but they sounded a bit boosted in the upper bass and the low treble. The latter affected the perspective, as I'll discuss in a minute, and seemed to emphasize both record-surface noise and the hashy digititis that's woven into some CDs and inexpensive CD players.

I did measure the 1.6's bottom-end response in my room, and found it to roll off pretty sharply below about 50Hz. Wendell Diller, who presided over setup, noted that the '1.6/QRs didn't have the bottom-end extension and power in my room that they had in some other installations. In most rooms, he said, the '1.6/QR should be good to at least 35-4OHz.

The biggest component of the '1.6/QRs' sonic thumbprint, however, was a slight but consistent forward perspective. Instruments seemed a little bunched up toward the front of the soundstage, which was projected slightly in front of the speakers. The '3.5/Rs, in contrast, had a slightly recessed perspective -no more correct, perhaps, but one that made the images seem more integral with the surrounding space.

Where the '1.6/QR's performance was an improvement over the '3.5's - and a big surprise -was in its reproduction of detail and dynamics. Each' generation of Winey designs has improved on these traditional Magnepan bugaboos, but the MG1.6 actually moved them from the "Weaknesses" column solidly over into "Strengths." Its reproduction of dynamic transients, both macro and micro, was outstanding. I never thought I'd say this about a Magnepan, but the MG1.6/QR had me digging out rock and jazz favorites just to revel in their dynamic transients. AC/DC, Dire Straits, John Hiatt, Jonny Lang, Tommy Castro -all sensational. Ray Brown's "Mistreated But Undefeated Blues," from Soular Energy (Concord jazz/ Bellaphon LELP 111), was a particularly great cut. Brown's bass snapped and bounced, digging woodily into the low notes. The shimmering cymbals and brushed snares had an electric presence that permeated and supercharged the air around them. Gene Harris' piano, Emily Remler's guitar chops, Red Holloway's sax solos -all jumped, popped, and rang with a speed and snap I never expected from Magnepans.

Another LP that blew me away was a Japanese pressing of Steely Dan's Gaucho (MCA VIM-6234). It was super clean and super fast, with huge, stunning dynamic transients that exploded out of a rich, black silence. The leading edges of transients were laser sharp, their dynamic swings, huge and precise, had not the faintest hint of softening or overshoot. The transient speed and accuracy seemed to make the images even more three-dimensional, clearly outlining their sides and back edges. I'd heard "Babylon Sisters" used as a demonstration of huge dynamic transients many times over the years, but had always accepted that my Magnepans would never have that kind of impact and punch. Let me tell you, the '1.6/QR most definitely did! Wow!

The '1.6/QR's resolution of inner detail was another area of surprising strength and a contributor to its vivid presentation. Instruments and voices were dense and dimensional, and rich with tonal and dynamic subtleties. Album after album, my notes were filled with comments like "clear," "precise," or "great inner detail -individual voices and instruments within a section are wonderfully distinct." I was repeatedly taken aback by how complex and real a familiar voice -say, Joni Mitchell's or Rickie Lee Jones's -sounded through the '1.6.

Similarly, its reproduction of solo piano-Artur Rubinstein on the Reiner/Rachmaninoff, Wallenstein/ Liszt LP (RCA LCS-2068), for example -always seemed to reveal subtleties that I'd not noticed before. That RCA album is a particularly good example. All of the instruments and sections of the orchestra, even the soft trumpets and cymbals at the very rear of the stage, were reproduced with the same level of inner detail, the same wonderful coherence and placement, as Rubinstein's piano.

The 1.6/QRs' exceptional ability to resolve low-level details and weave them into a coherent picture was a big component of their magic. I mentioned the Dave Bailey album; another good example was Johnnie Johnson's "Tanqueray," from Johnny B. Bad (Elektra 61149-2). The Maggies uncovered background details without making them seem overetched or unnaturally spotlit. They were just an integral component of the coherent, live ambience. Pick your favorite recording, whether it be a symphony, a live clubjazz performance, or an all-out rocker -I think you'll like the Maggies' presentation.

Summing up: A few things stand out very clearly from my time with the Magnepan MG1.6/QRs. First, this is a spectacularly enjoyable loudspeakerthe sort that a music lover could happily buy and never look back, spending the rest of her time and money on building and enjoying a music collection. On the other hand, a die-hard audiophile could assemble a killer budget system around the'l.6/QRs and spend the rest of his life upgrading components around them. The little Maggies won't bite die heads off of lesser upstream components, but they will most definitely respond to the quality of signal they're fed.

The second thing that strikes me is how impressive an evolution of the Magneplanar design the MG1.6/QR is. It manages to retain all of the traditional Magnepan strengths -the coherence and the wonderful disappearing act - while spectacularly improving on the company's past performance in the areas of dynamics and resolution of detail. These are now arresting, outstanding performance attributes, not areas where compromises must be made.

Last but certainly not least, I find it incredible that Magnepan has achieved this level of performance in a speaker that retails for $1725/pair. In my 20 years of involvement in the audio hobby, I can't think of another product that has offered as much performance for as little money as the MGI.6/QR. Highly - very highly - recommended.

Home Theater & Sound · www.hometheatersound.com

Features SnapShot!
Description	Features
Model: Magnepan MG1.6/QR speakers Price: $1725 USD per pair Dimensions: 19.25"W x 64.5"H x 2"D Weight: 45 pounds each Model: Magnepan MGCC2 center-channel speaker Price: $1,199 USD Dimensions: 35"W x 10.5"H x 8" D Weight: 22 pounds Model: Magnepan MGMC1 surround speakers Price: $750 USD per pair Dimensions: 10.25"W x 46"H x 1"D Weight: 12 pounds each Model: Outlaw Audio Magneplanar-specific ICBM Price: $325 USD Dimensions: 17.5"W x 1.75H" x 7"D Weight: 10 pounds Warranty: Three years parts and labor	· Cabinetless design · Quasi-ribbon tweeters · Planar-magnetic drivers · Dipole radiation pattern · Outlaw Audio Magneplanar-specific ICBM (80Hz, 120Hz, 200Hz, 240Hz center-channel crossover selection) · Metal-frame stands · Wall- or floor-mount surround brackets (MGMC1) · Natural oak, black, or dark cherry hardwood trim · Off-white, black or gray fabric grille material

In 1988, Stereophile magazine conducted a reader survey asking which speakers its readers were using and how satisfied they were with them. The answers astounded me. Not only was Magnepan the most-owned speaker brand among the respondents, but a full 99% of Magneplanar owners would buy them again (Magnepan is the company, Magneplanar the technology). That kind of customer loyalty is impressive, but it does make you wonder. If Maggies score so high among the people who already own them, why aren't they better known?

At least part of the answer is that Magneplanar speakers are different. Unlike conventional box loudspeakers, which use the speaker enclosure to reinforce the sound created by the drivers, Magnepan's flat panels couple directly to the air, producing sound waves that radiate from the front and back of the panels.

The panels themselves consist of a 0.5mm Mylar diaphragm bonded to current-carrying wire grids, which are "driven" by permanent bar magnets spaced behind the diaphragm. The phenomenally light diaphragm is excited by the reaction between the current and the magnets, generating sound with its vibrations. In recent years, Magnepan has teamed this quasi-ribbon magnetic-panel technology with a vertical, direct-coupled true-ribbon transducer, which acts as a tweeter, reproducing the sound from 1kHz on up. (For more on Magnepan's technology and construction methods, see the SoundStage! factory tour.)

The system

Over the years, Magnepan has endeavored to improve its speaker line with each successive generation. In addition to its popular MMG entry-level loudspeaker, the company has produced the MG1.6/QR, a loudspeaker that has garnered almost universal praise -- and has enabled Magnepan to move into home theater with an affordable and attractive system.

The $3676 home-theater speaker system under review here is anchored by the MG1.6/QR, which serves as the front speakers. This 64.5" tower seems, at first glance, more imposing than most speakers out there, certainly the ones in its price class. Tall? Yes. Wide? Fairly. But at only 2" deep, it's remarkably unobtrusive.

Still, why so large? Because, when it comes to creating sound, exciting air is key -- and nothing excites like displacement. Planar drivers don’t have high excursion, so the more surface they have, the louder they can play. The MG1.6/QR's 442 square inches of radiating surface -- and its 2"-by-48" quasi-ribbon tweeter -- enables it to produce a fairly sizable wave-launch.

Dialogue duties fall to a completely new speaker. Reckoning the dialogue channel to be essential to the success of a home-theater system, Magnepan went back to the drawing board and came up with a curved, two-way design, the MGCC2, which incorporates variations on the quasi-ribbon driver and ribbon tweeter used in the MG1.6/QR. Oriented horizontally, its curved shape provides broad dispersion.

However, the relatively small size of the MGCC2 necessitates a significant compromise. With a scant 198 square inches of radiating surface, the speaker does not match the larger Maggies in size, and therefore cannot produce the same bass output as its larger siblings. It can't even reach the 80Hz shutoff imposed by most home-theater processors. (Though some processors, such as the B&K Reference 30, do allow for an appropriate crossover.)

To overcome the MGCC2’s 160Hz lower-frequency limit, Magnepan went to Internet-based Outlaw Audio, which designed a Magneplanar-specific version of their Integrated Controlled Bass Manager (ICBM). Purchased separately for $325, the Magneplanar-specific ICBM offers a high-pass-filtered center-channel output appropriate for use with the MGCC2. Once set up, this version of the ICBM will high-pass filter the signal going to the MGCC2 at frequencies up to 240Hz and, as you choose, it will redirect bass frequencies to your front right and left speakers, to your subwoofer(s), or to all three. Outlaw’s ICBM is a full-featured bass-management system that is far more flexible than any I’ve encountered in surround processors. As Jeff Fritz found in his SoundStage! review of the ICBM, it is a transparent and easy-to-use addition to any multichannel system.

Surround duties are performed by the MGMC1, a two-way design that also incorporates Magnepan’s quasi-ribbon tweeter. The MGMC1 can be stand- or wall-mounted and has a hinged bracket system that allows it to be positioned flush against the wall when not in use.

Brass tacks

The Maggie system does have a few limitations, which, at first glance, might rule it out for some buyers. First, the size of the speakers may put off consumers concerned over spousal acceptance. But before you make up your mind on the acceptability of these speakers, I highly recommend that you get a look at them in person. They are just not as imposing as you might think. They also have the added benefits of being light and movable. When not in use, they can be easily slid out of the way. My wife prefers their appearance to that of any box speaker I’ve had through here.

The next caveat is that they do like power. Their 4-ohm rating is not ultra-punishing, but they crave wattage, and there's no getting around it.

Also, this system includes no subwoofer, so you'll have to add one or choose to use the system as I did, without a subwoofer.

Finally, the speakers will not play as loudly as most dynamic-driver-based loudspeakers. They have a dynamic threshold beyond which they should not be taken. However, this dynamic ceiling never bothered me because I never bumped against it in day-to-day use. These Magneplanar speakers played plenty loud enough for me, and given their propensity for lightning-fast transient response and for illustrating microdynamic contrasts, I never felt the need for higher output.

When you want to get someone’s attention…whisper

I think the reason so many home-theater owners are inclined to drive their systems to deafening levels is because they are trying to overcome a lack of quality with quantity. When a system lacks finesse and nuance, an emotional connection can be next to impossible to make. Frustrated, the listener strives to make that emotional connection through higher SPLs.

On the other hand, those with musically detailed systems know that when it comes to SPLs, sometimes just a little dab will do ya. All you need to do is rise above the room’s noise floor and everything becomes crystal clear. This is how I felt about the Magneplanar system. It is so utterly detailed and uncolored, so sprightly and so involving.

Anyone who has experienced a football game on HDTV knows that while players are a little more three-dimensional and focused, the real difference is in the new level of ambient detail. Where before the game was played on a featureless sea of green, you now see individual blades of grass. Rather than a blurred background of undistinguished humanity, you now see real human faces. The Magneplanar system is HDTV's sonic equivalent. What it does is highlight previously unnoticed ambient details that draw you into the experience to a whole new level.

But I don’t want to give the impression that this Magneplanar system is wimpy. Far from it. On a tip from Magnepan’s Wendell Diller, I unplugged the front right- and left-channel inputs at the ICBM. Then I cued up the defense-of-the-bridge scene from Saving Private Ryan. With the ICBM redirecting the MGCC2's bass frequencies to the MG1.6/QRs, I listened to the center-channel speaker, the center channel's bass through the MG1.6/QRs and the two surrounds.

Wimpy? Heck no! What I heard was amazing in its brawn, not to mention its finesse. The MG1.6/QRs delivered a level of bass that would shock those who criticize planar-bass reproduction, and the level of detail I gleaned from the center-channel speaker was startling and revelatory.

With all five speakers in action, try the bedroom scene from The Haunting. Listen to the delicate sound of the burning candles; you can hear the gentle crackling of the burning wax. Then there's the surprisingly authentic sound of windows frosting over as the temperature of the room plummets. And when all hell breaks loose (literally), the Magneplanar system is fully capable of reproducing the raucous mayhem.

You have probably observed the ongoing debate between music and movie aficionados concerning the requirements for music versus movie-soundstrack reproduction. I find that, while a mediocre system is more tolerable with movies, a really good system takes the home-cinema experience to a new level. The Maggie system proves my point. It brings a sense of realism to the forefront, as I have never experienced it before. Take, for instance, the opening battle scene from Gladiator. The Magneplanars showed me detail like no system has before. The thunder of hooves, for instance, took on newfound realism as the Magneplanar system differentiated the strikes from one another. The ensuing battle scene seemed remarkably non-chaotic as the action all around me was portrayed in a manner that made sense, rather than sounding like a mass of sonic debris.

Reproduction of concert videos was nothing short of artful. This system raises the bar for cohesiveness with a completely seamless quality of surround sound. Magneplanar owners know how easily the speakers completely disappear, leaving behind only the soundstage, and now home-theater owners will find that the surround speakers do so too. In fact, even turning my head toward the speaker and looking at it usually provided no sonic clue as to its existence. All I heard (sensed!) was enveloping sound. And, oh, what sound it was.

James Taylor’s Live At Beacon Theater was absolutely stunning over this system. The opening acoustic-guitar riff on "Daddy’s All Gone" was reproduced so precisely, and with such microdynamic detail, that I could easily hear the instrument’s reverberation spread like rings in a pond until, reaching the auditorium walls, it clearly revealed the hall’s size and signature. Later in the song, when the electric guitar entered, its reverb was a delicately nuanced shimmer that I doubt most people in the audience fully appreciated. "Shower the People," a wonderful song performed here in elegant simplicity, was elevated to goose-bump territory by Arnold McCuller’s accompanying vocals. This system conveys emotion as well as it does space.

Comparison

Comparison with other systems I’ve reviewed for HT&S is a little difficult, but perhaps the system that came as close to the Magnepan both in terms of quality and price would be the Tannoy Saturn system that I reviewed last April. A Reviewers’ Choice-designated system, the Tannoy system had similar bass extension (without its subwoofer) as the Magnepan and came in at $3300, so less than the system from Magnepan sans ICBM (which would be a great addition to both systems). Aesthetically, you can make up your own mind about which system you would rather look at, but for me, the Maggie system just exudes class. Others will prefer the smaller, traditional boxes of the Tannoy system. Where sound is concerned, there’s just no contest -- the Maggie system is more musically refined and offers greater detail and transparency. On the other hand, the Tannoy system will probably play louder and will ultimately require fewer watts no matter what your listening level.

Conclusion

As a reviewer, I try to describe what I hear and describe what sets one system apart from the rest. Some systems are more difficult to write about than others, but this Magneplanar review almost wrote itself. Those who have not read enough here should keep an eye out at SoundStage! for a comprehensive multichannel-music-oriented review on a similar Magneplanar system.

No doubt some will find it unorthodox that Magnepan has turned to Outlaw Audio, an Internet-based company, for their ICBM, which may or may not be required for use depending on the adjustability of the bass-management system of your processor. Personally, I applaud Magnepan for doing what it takes to bring to market a home-theater system that is purely Magneplanar in spirit. However, the ICBM is an extra $325, and you'll have to buy it over the Internet unless Magnepan can work something out with Outlaw Audio and its own dealer network. As a customer myself, and in the face of rising Internet sales that bypass the traditional brick-and-mortar shops, I would encourage support of any dealer who stocked the Magneplanar-specific ICBM so that customers could buy this complete system in one place. If you find such a dealer, treasure him -- he's clearly one of the good guys.

In the meantime, I can only try to sum up this Magneplanar system as the most revealing, the most emotionally evocative, and the most reasonably priced system that I’ve ever reviewed for Home Theater & Sound. Adding to this system’s wonder is that you don’t have to break the bank on electronics to experience this level of reproduction either. This system is so utterly clean, detailed and transparent that those forced to use ultra-polite levels (such as apartment dwellers) will not miss a trick. And while bass performance was very good on its own, it will require a good subwoofer to plumb the depths of deep bass, just as do most systems comprised of even more expensive speakers.

But this Magneplanar speaker system does everything else so exceedingly well that I can only urge you to go listen for yourself and determine if it raises the bar of performance for you -- as it has done for me.

Review System
Receiver - B&K Reference 30
Amplifier - Adcom GFA 7000
Source - Pioneer DV525 DVD player
Cables - DH Labs BL-1 interconnects, D-75 digital interconnect and original Monster Cable speaker cables
Monitor - Proscan PS36700 direct-view TV

Magnepan
1645 Ninth Street
White Bear, MN 55110
USA
Phone: 1-800-474-1646