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From: 9221mac@hou2f.UUCP (M.CARLETTA)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Partially Electrostatic Speakers
Message-ID: <463@hou2f.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Apr-85 08:55:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hou2f.463
Posted: Thu Apr  4 08:55:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Apr-85 03:43:00 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 19

I have been surprised to read the favorable comments regarding Magnepan
speakers. I used to have a pair of the mid sized Magnepans (MG-2's?).
They did have a clean mid-range, but alas suffered mightily from the
following maladies:

	1) no bass response - rolled off sharply above 50hz.
	2) limited power handling - crank them up and they sound awful.
	3) beaming of high frequencies - great if you are in the "sweet-spot"
	4) They take over the living room (4' from the walls, remember)
	5) Very inefficient - need lots of power to drive them.
	6) bloated imaging- sopranos with six foot mouths.

To be fair, they have introduced new models with a tweeter, which may solve
the high frequency problems, and a good subwoofer will solve the low freq.
problems, but if these speakers are only the world's biggest mid-ranges,
who needs them? There are a number of "conventional" speakers on the market
that will destroy magnepans (JSE, KEF, Snell, etc.)

	Steve Johnson