I listen to jazz fusion (Lorber), rock (Clapton) and these speakers for perfect for my musical preferences. I bought this pair at a small A/V shop in Edmond Oklahoma. The dealer gave me a price that I could not refuse.

There are no weaknesses.

A previous reviewer said his Maggies were distant and very laid back, suited mostly to jazz.

They require vareful choice of amps due to their 4ohm load and power requirements. They very much reflect the electronics in use - even the choice of CD player can affect the sound.

The speakers also very much reflect the recording being played. Laid back recordings sound laid back, forward or bright recordings sound forward or bright.

I find my Maggies have plenty of bass and are quite lively on lively recordings but laid back on more mellow, laid back recordings. I listen to rock, jazz/fusion, some classical - most anything but "tear in my beer" country and find my Maggies to be chameleons - they sound like my recordings.

They do require more attention to setup than a lot of speakers, need to be at least 3 feet from the back and side walls, and experimentation with toe-in and distance between speakers, and a decision about tweeters on the inside or outside edges of the speakers.

In my home, I find my Maggies to be very amazingly three-dimensional and alive sounding, detailed, and plenty of bass and impact on recordings that call for it. some say that Maggies can't rock, but they work well for me on rock and all other kinds of music. The three-dimensionslity can be spookily real at times!


One thing: if you feed them crappy recordings, the Maggies will let you hear how crappy the recording is. Ozomatli's "Fire Away" CD sounds OK on FM radio on my cheapie car system and sounds OK in bars and as background music in stores, but the Maggies let me know just how distorted and massively compressed this CD really is. I cannot listen to it on my Maggies. This is one of the worst mastered CDs I have ever heard (are you listening, Bob Ludwig?!). Maggies are very reveaing and can be unforgiving of bad recordings or poor electronics.

I could never go back to traditional box speakers again.

Realistic; Natural; especially with acoustic music where they are world class and compete with any speaker at ANY price.

Rap? If you like subwoofer type music or drive a Honda Civic with 18 inch woofers you will miss the unatural "Push of Air" I enjoy this with movies, but not music

(Price is Canadian) there has not been a review of these for almost a year, so I will add another. Well fresh off another critic claiming these as a product of the year for2008. (Steve Guttenberg-article at Cnet) A product that has been around unchanged for almost a decade, and still receiving product of the year? tell me another product that has happened with.

I do not need a critic to tell me how good these sound. I have owned them for a year now; so no new excitement here. They are the most satisfying speaker I have heard under ten grand, and they cost half that. And yes, I have heard speakers that cost twice that that I would not trade for them. And no, I have not
heard everything, and new speakers are always coming to market.

There are many tweaks one can do to improve upon these, such as aftermarker stands to stiffen them, and biamping going with an active crossover to even improve upon their accurate, tranparent sound, that is what I will do next.

And most negative reviews are due to setup problems, underamplication (maybe not in watts, but quality), or other issues such as room size;( they need plenty of space behind them) they are definitely an audiophile speaker, and lack of a serious setup will result in a much decreased enjoyment; they are not speakers to stick in living room and crank while you do housework!

After one year the thought of these doesnt even cross my mind. What better testimonial is there? Is there any reason to give less than 5 stars?

Similar Products Used:

using with Mcintosh pre/power, Linn source

Have considered on my short list Wilson, Sonus Faber, Linn, PMC

Resolution, soundstage, clarity, realism. Build quality

Requires lots of power so a big amp is needed. Footprint and form factor.

This is my 3rd pair of Magnepans, "Maggies" if you will. I started with MGIII's many years ago, and then a set of 1.6qr (Amazing Speakers) with many different famous brands in between.

I returned to Maggies and bought these 3.6's. Holy Guacomole are these good. The 1.6 was excellent, however the 3.6 has superior bass. Pipe organs were true and deep. No subwoofer needed.

The resolution of full symphony and voice is spectacular.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio, audio physic, quad, magnepan

The imaging was superior, almost three dimensional, or like being at a live performance. The price makes it a good bargin at half the price of other similar flat pannel speakers.

The bass is weak and sloppy with no impact.

These speakers would be great for those that prefer a soft, diffuse, laid back sound. The music sounds as if one were in the back of a symphony hall. The imaging is superior with a great dispersal of sound and absolutely no void in the center position. The bass is a different story. I found the entire spectrum of bass entirely lacking impact. Drums were weak or barely noticeable. A good analogy would be like listening to water fall off a roof into the gutter as opposed to listening to water gushing from the downspout. Both involve the same amount of water, but which is more stimulating to the ears? To me the bass was too weak to enjoy. While a subwoofer would help with the lower end of the bass, nothing would help with the upper bass range. Overlapping the subwoofer with frequencies of the main speaker would create a loud undesireable booming sensation.

Similar Products Used:

Klipschorns, LaScalas

Coherence and a HUGE soundstage.

they don't go below 35 hrtz.

I will keep it short, this is simply the finest speaker made, and I am not the only one to say that. If you consider price, there is no other speaker that is in the same league. They take a lot of power, but with the developement of digital switching amps such as Spectron, Innersound and Bel Canto that is no longer a problem. Feed them greater than 300 watts (more is better) into 4 ohms and you will be astonished.

Customer Service

incredible. they rebuilt my speaker panels for much less than I would have expected. they still rebuild Tympanis and IIIa's for resonable prices instead of trying to make you buy new models. along with Cary Audio the best CS in any industry.

Similar Products Used:

Martin Logan CLS
Innersound Eros
Quad 2805

Vandersteen 3a Sig (great speaker)

Sweet tube sound, very clear with no listener fatigue. You just know that it is right. Perfect for jazz and classical, good for rock, but not as good as jazz and classical.

Will not go to deafening sound levels, possible lack of power on high volume heavy bass passages, but I don't need it to be very loud.

I am writing this review to let people know that mega solid state amps are not crucial to enjoying these excellent speakers. To be cliche', if you are reading this review, you know about these speakers, they sound wonderful.

In the beginning, I used 2 McIntosh 400 watt solid state power amps, mono blocked, one per channel. Sure, I had plenty of power to drive us out of the house, but something was missing from the sound. After a time, I started dabbling with vintage Fisher amplifiers and components. To make a long story short, I am now using two Fisher SA 300 tube amps, one per channel. These amps are conservatively rated @ app 35 watts per channel. I am using one per channel, which is giving me about 70 watts per channel, with lots of current due to the large transformers. The sound has vastly improved to a sweet sound that both my wife and I love. This is also greatly helped by using The Fisher 400CX-2 preamp, which made a huge difference over my McIntosh C 29. The volume now goes "loud enough".

Customer Service

Excellent.

Similar Products Used:

Only used box speakers and solid state amps. Panel speakers and tubes are the way to go, in my opinion.

You are THERE.... right in the middle of the scene.

No holes in the HT soundstage.

Huge wall of sound.

Purity.

You must get the tweaks from Dedicated Audio to get the sound right. Which adds only a couple hundred to the cost of the 3.6s.

I have used MANY different systems.... usually of world class components.

Recently I decided to just use an HT system. I chose the Halcro Pre/pro and amp combo.

I also tried many dynamic speakers... ranging in cost from 4k for the mains to 18k. Filling in the center/sub and surrounds from the same company.

Fed up with the holes in the sound stage using HT, I went with the Maggie setup, including the 3.6r as the Mains... CC3, MC1 for surrounds and JM Lab Sub Utopia BE for the .1 channel.

I am convinced this is not only a great system for music, but unbeatable for HT.

The opening scene in Passion of the Christ has to be heard to be believed. No other system envelops you as the Maggies do. The sound is magical.

My pre/pro is on the way back from getting upgraded to TrueHD and DTS-MA capable. I can't wait to hear my Blu-Ray movies on the Maggies in the lossless formats.

If you have space for these and want the best HT experience... this is a no brainer!!!

Customer Service

Customer service is really poor. Everything is a secret. They won't even tell you if they have something in stock. You have to ask your dealer to call them to ask the same question. Then your dealer has to call them, then call you back. Silly, really. But they must have their reasons.

Similar Products Used:

Too may to list!

A wall of music, Detail galore, image layering, dynamic, smooth, comes close to live with acoustic insturment music. Correct timber. Great for Jazz , classical, and well recorded rock.

large, they need the room to breath, low end not real strong, inefficient, tweeter can be a harsh with the wrong electronics or poor recordings, small sweet spot.
Not for everybody.

Short and to the point! A wonderful speaker, the best I have owned to date. There are probably better out there but I am not looking for them at this time. Power amps do make a difference. Audio Research Corp. D 400 MKII is great... an ARC VT200 will make them sing, sing, sing. Don't short change yourself with infearior electronics. Get the best you can buy. Lager image and more delicate than the 1.6's.

Customer Service

none needed so far.

Similar Products Used:

Regnar/Dahlquist DQ 10, Rogers LS3/5a, Magnepan 1.6
Current system:
Linn LP12/Ittock/Denon 103D/ARC PH3,
ARC LS25MKII
ARC VT200
ARC D400 MKII (sub woofer amp)
DIY Madisound 1259 (sub woofer pair)
Dahlquist DQLP-1 (low pass only)
Marantz 8260
Black Mountain XLR interconnect
Kimber Cable Hero
Analysis Pluss Oval 9

This is reference. Nothing less!

Magnepan should offer upgrades. Stands, Crates, Crossovers, etc.
Polo Shirts and Key chains wouldn't be bad idea!

Since getting into the 3.6r, I tried different amps. First was the Ayre. Then came the ARC D400 MK ll. Now I am using 2 D400 MK ll. That's right, now it is mono blocks for me and mono blocks I will stay.
This is what reference is all about. If you here how Mags need current. That is the truth! I wasted G money on a amp before. Taken the wrong advice. Because of that, I will never shop there again. It's very important to know from the break, Mags need juice. The more the better. At first I used 200w into 4ohms. Then I doubled it to 400w into 4ohms, and now I am enjoying 800w into 4ohms! Each amp stores 600 joules and that is where it makes all the difference in the world. To have that much current in reserve is what the Mags need to really show what they can do.
Having said all that, it is very important to have mid to high level sources and a really good system of cable. Yes cable is a system within itself.
Please feel free to send a email for suggestions and if you are in the Northern VA area I will tell you the dealer to stay away from. I wouldn't dog him that bad to put him in print.....Yes I will.......The Gifted Listener!

Customer Service

A++++

Similar Products Used:

Martain Logan
Apogee