Maggies 1.5

[peanutbutterjam]

Hi,

I've been looking for some speakers for a while. And these popped out.

However, my main 2 concerns are:

1. Lifespan. Apparently from what I've read, these speakers don't last long, with the delamination and whatsoever other issues. Frankly I don't know anything about them, but I was just concerned after reading through all the searches that popped out regarding issues with old planars. So how bad is it really? As in, does it really spoil so easily, and require high maintainance? And if so, is it easily repairable?

2. Performance. Now I know this is touchy, but while I've seen some great raving reviews about them, apparently there are some serious haters too. While I'm not surprised, since for everything there are their fan clubs and hate clubs, these ppl have pointed out flabby bass and what's not, but just REFUSE to give a comparison (i.e. bloated compared to what?). So in the more neutral opinion of ppl here, how does the maggies compare to other speakers of the price range?

The seller is asking for $435 neg, which from a quick search seem to be quite an ok price (pls do let me know your experienced opinion though), but the condition is not great. The seller claims that its sonically fine, but says it "needs a glue job", whatever that means. I'll have to call him later, but assuming that this glue job is purely cosmetic, should I grab 'em?

Thanks!

[cetoole]

Glue job sends up some warning bells for me, as this would seem to me to be the delamination issue you already know about. The Maggies bass portion is, IIRC, aluminum wires glued to a tensioned sheet of mylar, and has some longevity issues. That said, I dont own Maggies (yet), so could be completely off on this.

[moray james]

you can contact magnepan and they will tell you how much to restore to brand new. you would need to package them and cover shipping both ways as well. decide if that price is good for you for a brand new set of 1.5 maggies. you could also rebuild your self (project see diyaudio dot com MUG, maggie user group) but this is some work so your call there.

you can buy a set of factory brand nes MMG's direct from magnepan for about $600.00 which are probably a better speaker and smaller. Either speaker will ultimately require a sub so the smaller size is not a issue. all maggies are very inefficient so you will require a real amp to drive them if you want to make them do what they can so consider 100 watts minimun and 200 watts per channel a good working size amp. smaller tube amps can work but with a speaker of this sensitivity horsepower rules the day.

maggies will last a long time for the most part ever units with signs of starting delamination can run for years and years just fine. hope this helps to give you some options.