Magnepan MG .7, $2000 Per Pair

{54.25h, 15.25w, 1.25d, 86dB SPL, 4 ohms}

The most interesting man in the world may drink Dos Equis, but the most interesting speakers in the world come from White Bear Lake, Mn. Before getting specifically to the Maggie MG .7 speakers, permit me to lay some important ground work.

Magneplanar Vs Quasi Technology

Magnepan of Minnesota makes some of the most innovative speakers on the planet. If you’re a fan of singers, guitars, pianos and other acoustic instruments, you owe it to yourself to check out Magnepans. It all began in 1968.

Designer Jim Winey CREATED Magneplanar technology in his basement. Skinny piano wires were glued to a Mylar diaphragm the size of your front door. The panel was put in close proximity to a perforated steel plate with bar magnets running almost the whole length of the panel. The signal was fed into the wire and, voila! Great music! Again, this… was MAGNEPLANAR technology.

In 2010 Jim and Magnepan improved the design to QUASI technology. Quasi was a huge improvement because they changed from skinny piano wire to thick strips of foil. The coverage of the diaphragm went from about 10% to 90%. The speakers became more clear with stronger bass, higher efficiency and improved dynamics.

This Quasi tech was ground breaking and can be identified by the .7 suffix in the model numbers. The day the Quasi models came out- they were a substantial improvement over any Magneplanar models before them.

Magnepan MG .7, $2000 Per Pair

Maggie’s MG .7 delivers a big dose of Maggie Magic to barely above an entry level price point. Using Quasi design, MG .7 provides a realistic, tall, wide and deep panorama of sound. You’ll be shocked at hearing just a vocalist with guitar- that the stage is so BIG and realistic. You’ll hear a huge voice instead of a tiny one trying to fight its way out of a box. Just spin Shelby Lynne, “How Can I Be Sure.” You’ll be impressed at how EASY Shelby’s voice is taking over your room.

Maggies are fairly tall. The image comes at you in a uniform fashion. The image stays large and balanced as it reaches you. Most boxes are relatively short. As with a balloon, the image comes your way in a non linear, almost unpredictable pattern.

The definition of MG .7 is competitive with that of headphones. You can drink in a beautifully intimate picture of the music. MG .7 plays plenty loudly enough for most of us. If you’re a metal head or hip hop banger, you should try another door.

Within the perspective of acoustic music, MG .7 has quite respectable bass response. It’s much deeper than little brother, LRS+. MG .7 is also significantly more dynamic than its smaller sibling. When hearing piano, cello or a stand up bass, you’ll never think MG .7 runs dry. Where most of the music lives, MG .7 is unquestionably faithful.

Above… is the good news. The bad news is, Maggies are chameleons. They show you precisely what you’re feeding them with.

Because MG .7 costs only $2k, we see a fair number of buyers starting with tinny sounding Chinese amps. Well, we all have to start somewhere. But the Maggies are so good, and so revealing, that we can’t help but beg you to go a step higher on the electronic ladder.

How To Drive Maggies

As Magnepan has done audio SHOWS over the years, they’ve partnered with Bryston far more than any other company. It’s a perfect fit. Bryston amps are clean, fast and supply a tight grip to give Maggies solid bass.

The cheapest Bryston integrated amp is BI200, $8500. We love it. Yet… nobody is going to buy an $8500 integrated with $2k speakers. So… if your budget is $2k for speakers, what is the best balance in electronics?

In a word, Atoll of France. Atoll is built in France with a 3 year warranty. It’s built more like Bryston than any number of garden variety amps from China. Due to robust transformers and big power supply caps, ANY of the Atoll integrateds are a great handshake with Maggies.

Even the entry level Atoll IN50 ($1200, 50×2) will drive the MG .7 quite respectably. If you can go higher in the family, of course it makes sense. Yet I need to yell from the roof tops that IN50 is unlike any other amp near a grand and will make you love your new Maggie MG .7 speakers!