In 1975 I bought my first pair of Magnepans, the single panel MG2s for $700. They changed my relationship with the audio hobby. They are to blame for taking me from modest “using” into full blown addiction!
My first speakers were Advents. They were good for the price because of respectable driver blending. With Sherwood 7100 receiver, B&O 3000 table and Teac 450 cassette deck, I was happy with my system. What I really enjoyed was making zillions of tapes, mostly for friends. Remember making BEST OF tapes?
Then I bumped into a pair of Magnepans and was RUINED. The Pans made the Advents sound like they had dingy army blankets for grill cloths.
The Pans provided an intimate relationship with the music. Plucked strings on guitars and breathy vocals brought much improved immediacy to the musical presentation. Hearing a great female singer like Linda Ronstadt IN your living room, was goose bump inducing. Pans could let you appreciate the unique character of voices like Willie Nelson, Cat Stevens and Neil Young like no box could. Hearing these singers on Pans was like hearing them IN PERSON, instead of through a hi-fi system.
Magnepan’s early design was called MAGNEPLANAR. They used a Mylar diaphragm and glued on skinny piano wires. The diaphragm had short excursion and delivered excellent detail.
By 2010 Magnepan updated its design from Magneplanar to Quasi Ribbon (QR). QR differed in that the speakers had relatively wide foil strips covering virtually the entire diaphragm, instead of skinny wires covering about 10% of it. Because there was much greater coverage of the diaphragm, the new QR speakers sounded cleaner and more powerful than the prior Magneplanar design. The QR sound was a distinct improvement that Magnepan implemented throughout its lineup.
Fast Forward to today. We have a broad lineup of QR speakers in the Magnepan family. They’re better than ever and obscenely FAIRLY priced. The Magnepan MG .7 runs $2000 per pair today. They’re a huge upgrade over my $700 per pair MG2s of 1975. $700 in 1975 is equal to $3964.52 today.
While speakers in general have improved dramatically over the years, if you’re primarily an acoustic fan and love a big soundstage, Magnepans would be well worth your time to audition. They hooked me in 1975!
