Purely musical, true timbre to instruments and voices, price

Unconventional speaker connector

I have been using a Jolida tube amp as front amp for my HT setup. Recently I removed it from the HT system and hooked it up with the CAL Delta/Alpha combo as the source and the MMG. Incredible! Back is the huge sense of real performance in my room, especially classical guitar and vocals. Everything suddenly comes closer to music. A very satisfying minimalist system at a affordable price.

Here's the setup:
CAL Delta/Alpha combo with Illuminati digital link
and Mapleshade Ultrathin interconnects
Jolida JD-502B
Kimber 8TC and power cord
Magnepan MMG
PS Audio PS300 and power cords

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Snell, NHT, RDL

As said before, Excellent Imaging and Soundstage, Overall realism is amazing, detail, lack of coloring.

None for the price, need a sub for low bass. Placement in room is critical.

I have been very impressed with the MMG's. If you build stands to lift them a bit and get them vertical, they sound very good. I have a complete set of Polk Audio speakers that my sister was very impressed with until I got the MMG. Now, after listening to the MMG's she said "the Polk sound like cr**". Warning, you may never be able to go back to regular speakers again.

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Polk, BSR, others, but none of this type.

Natural, open, clean, uncolored and airy sound that no box speaker anywhere near this price can approach.

No deep bass. Somewhat demanding as to placement in the room, and the amplifier it's paired with (those this latter factor is vastl overrated).

You know how it is...someone gets a giant killer component like this, they're blown away by it. Effusive praise follows. Only later do the weaknesses become apparent, of which one becomes increasingly intolerant. An "upgrade" ensues, the process repeats.
I'm happy to report that's NOT the case with these little wonders. I've had mine for 3 years now, and they sound a LOT better than when I got them, due to upgrades of components upstream of them, and continual refinement of their placement, and some mods. These speakers DO satisfy over the long term...I only wish they had more deep bass. The bass they do have is so quick, clean and natural that this just doesn't bother me very much. When I upgrade, it'll be to the MG 12's or 1.6's...count on it! I'm not going to repeat everything said by everyone else. Just know that these deliver the goods over the long term. I'll be a Magnepaner 'til I die.

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This is my 1st planar. It won't be my last.

The Magnapan MMG (mini Manaplaner) sells factory direct for $500. The MMG's offer a unique appearance standing 48" tall, 16" wide, but only 1" thick. Rather than conventional drivers the MMG's use 38" long aluminum strips to produce sound. The benefits of this format are awesome. Some of which are crystal clear music reproduction, lack of a box which would color the reproduction of sound, unbelievable imaging, and much more sound producing surface area. There are also some negatives. These would include low sens., and low impedance (4ohms), limited volume, and limited bass. What this means is you might not want these speakers if hip-hop music is your favorite type. However with a decent amp (best if not a reciever) this speaker system is unbelievable. Honestly a true value at ONLY $500!!

To put it bluntly, I can't imagine why anyone would want to own a pair of dynamic speakers ,at any price, after hearing these, the "lowliest" of the Magnepan family.Whatever kind of break-in they need, I'm sure they ain't had yet, but everything about their way of playing music is so "right",so natural, that I am aghast. I had to use the 1 ohm resistors on the tweeter panels to tame a little brightness in my system/room, but the tonal balance is without fault. These are absolutely full-range speakers (room-dependent, I would imagine-see bottom), the bass being fully present and very tight and controlled. I can't imagine mucking up these with a sub, unless you are a pipe organ fan, or need to watch movies with them. Bass-happy cds like "The Commitments", or Lenny Kravitz' "Let Love Rule" are reproduced with the bass guitar/drum fully intact, with very satisfying weight, and again, the bass is of higher quality than any sub I've heard.I've never been able to achieve this with any dynamic speakers. My room,almost a square, has consistently emasculated even the most potent full-rangers.Standing-wave heaven. Maybe the bipolar radiation is the key. Just guessing,here.
Vocals are incredible through the MMGs. Jewels "Foolish Game" was transcendent! CSN's cover of "Blackbird", from their anthology collection, is RIGHT THERE,man, but in a musically engaging way, not an audiophile visual- trick kind of way.On the Beatles' "Anthology 3", George Martin isolates the vocal tracks from "Because"(Abbey Road) so we just hear our heroes vocalizing as only they could. The experience was all one could hope while alone in a dark room.
Dynamics? You want dynamics? Gilbert Kaplan "Resurrected" ol' Gustav Mahler in my den last night. Suffice it to say, these are THE speakers for the classical enthusiast. Magnificent string tone, detail out the wazoo (unforced,though...musical), and the ability to nicely resolve the performance space,if that's your thing.
One bit of advice I read concerning these is that they're not for "rockers". BIG disagreement here. Metallica's "Metallica" sounded better than I've ever heard it. The MMGs do,indeed,rock.
POWER REQUIREMENTS:Another bit of oft-repeated advice is that these need "hundreds" of watts to work at all. Not so. I am using an NAD 314 integrated to achieve these results. 35wpc. Granted, this is not your typical 35 watts, as the 314 is spec'ed for 160 watts dynamic power into to maggies benign (resistive) 4 ohm load, buy don't be deterred from these guys by the prospect of needing a monster amp, it just isn't the case. As long as it doesn't break a sweat into 4 ohms, something like the 314 is ideal.At least in a small/medium-size room...
My room, at 12' x 13' x 9'H, is small.This is key. But I'd venture that it's not too far from the average room most folks would place MMgs in.In a larger room, you might need a larger amp. Then again, you might need larger Maggies.
It is a bit of a pain to mail-order speakers for an audition,and you are out the return freight if you return them. Listen, if you can, to any of the Magnepan lineup. There is a remarkable similarity between the sound of the MMG and the 1.6s I heard in a much larger room. At least you'll get an idea.
I've been a bit long-winded, and I know there's no one more annoying than the newly-converted, but these are truly state-of-the-art. For $500. Buy them. If any speakers are worthy of the highest rating, these are.
P.S. I'm using these with ancillaries of unabashed modesty, the NAD excluded:
A 4-year-old Music Hall CD32, and some 16 guage speaker wire. Things can only get better.

Stunning realism and soundstage; the music just floats in front of you

None whatsoever.

My equipment is as follows:

Onkyo Grand Integra M-510 (very high end amp by Onkyo)
Audible Illusions preamp
Musical Fidelity A3CD player
HSU powered sub
Cardas cables

The MMG's (and I would assume other Maggies) are amazing in that they provide a very accurate and believable reproduction of source material. The music's timbre is so natural to me, that I almost cried when I listened to my favorite performers thru these for the 1st time! All of a sudden, the music became more beautiful and emotional, and this is, after all why many of us listen in the first place. The MMG's bring you very very close to the performance, and acoustic instruments just float in front of you. You could almost swear you smelled the wood on those cellos and violins...

I am giving these 5 stars because I can't give them 10 here!

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Got rid of my Legacy Focus speakers for the MMG's. I don't miss the 'boxiness' at all, despite them being very nice sounding boxes. But SOMETHING was missing that the MMG's quite frankly have!!!

Drop dead accuracy. This is one uncolored speaker!

I don't hear or see any.

Firstly, to Bradley who gave these speakers a 1 star rating... we are here to rate the SOUND and quality of this speaker, and nothing else. Your rating is obviously based on some negative customer service issues you encountered, which is no doubt, dissapointing, but does not merit you giving a speaker which you've NEVER HEARD a 1 star! Customer service is a whole OTHER ISSUE.

I am not going to ramble on here, but in short this is the most incredible speaker buy at this price point IMHO. The sound is non fatiguing, involving, huge (for a smaller maggie), revealing, uncolored, etc. I could go on and on with the superlatives! What is truly amazing is that I am driving these beauties with a powerful Pioneer SX-980 receiver from the late 70's (which truly holds it's own!) in my home office, as a secondary system (my primary system has 1.6's)! This is back when receivers were built with heft and ample real power. Anywho, if they can sound this good with just a quality receiver, I can't imagine how much better they may sound with true high end separates!

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Joseph Audio, Legacy, Wharfedale, Jamo

A super speaker, truly a high-end speaker

Good bass quality but must combined with a sub for home video

Before I bought this speaker I had long listening sessions with the following top speakers: Martin Logan Aerius and Scenario and the B&W Nautilus 805 and 804. But I could not make a decision which one to buy. The transparency and openness of the Martin Logans is fantastic, but when played loud the story is different and suddenly the sound becomes sharp, voices become nasal, high tones become too loud and listening is not so nice any more. The don’ t match well with pop music.
The B&W’s behave excellent for dome speakers, they can play loud but both B&W’s lack bass. They behave too neat, gentle and meagre in the bass region. Did the engineers of B&W did this on purpose, because they wanted to show the world how a quality-bass should be? No of course not. You should listen to the Nautilus 802 and 801 and you get proof of the fact that high-end speakers from B&W can produce (tons) of (quality) bass.
So then I tried the smallest Magnepan, after reading so many enthusiastic reviews from users in audioreview.com. After a short listening session I was already completely convinced of the qualities of these speakers. These speakers are open and airy and they give the impression that you can look at the stage where the music is performed. No matter what sort of music! They reminded me of the sound of my Apogee Calipers. Unfortunately I spoiled one of these when I moved to another house. OK, just like the Martin Logans and the Nautilus 805 and 804 the MMG is lacking in (low-end) bass too, but one way or another this fact does not irritate me. The MMG does draw you in such a way to the music and delivers so much other qualities that you can live easily without the low-end bass. For normal use, even with pop or R&B they deliver enough quality bass. The lack of (low-end) bass becomes apparent with movies. Then you will miss a lot of special sound effects.
These speakers can be played rather loud when amplified by my Harman Kardon Citation. Sure they are power hunger. But, they also play loud and behave outstanding when connected to my Sony Dolby Digital receiver TA-VA777ES. Nevertheless I have decided to buy a Sub woofer within a short time. I am not sure whether I choose for the REL Q 400 or the B&W ASW 2500. I think that in connection with a high quality sub these speakers can be compared to the most expensive speakers in the world. And this can be realised for such a small amount of money. Well done Magnepan!!

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Apogee Caliper, Quadral Amun

Excellent Imaging and Soundstage, Overall realism quite amazing.

Placement-finicky, needs lots of high quality power

I don't think I can add much more to the comments that others have left, most of what has been said is absolutely true. I must say I cannot recommend them to other college students like myself as all Maggies are rather delicate devices and will not perform well in the college environment. I would say they are strictly a "stay at home in the listening room" speaker. I have grown to love my MMGs quite a bit for listening to jazz and instrumental music, where they really shine in performance. However, for larger scale music, and for less serious listening, I generally turn to tube-powered Altec horns. Very different systems, but I enjoy the sounds of both. Having two systems like this has eliminated the need for a subwoofer with the MMG's, which I found to be difficult to integrate well. Not perfect speakers for all kinds of music, but excellent overall.
EQUIPMENT USED (laugh if you would like)
Acoustic Research XA turntable
Modified Heathkit dual mono tube preamp (unknown model)
Musical Concepts Modified Hafler DH-220 power amplifier
KLH 18 solid state FM tuner
Home brewed interconnects and cables

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Quite unique, not much else like them

Natural sound for the money. Compeats with box speakers four times the price.

Resonance around 150 hz that ads a slight boom to upper bass. Inefficient (84db @ one watt).

I have owned MMGs since March 1998. The great thing about them is that they get you into "hi-end" audiophile, Magnepan sound at a reasonable price. I highly recomend them for someone who is just getting started out with a good stereo system but is on a budget.

There might be alot of people who come to this web page who listen to their stereos for gut shaking bass and treble that makes their ears bleed. If this is you, then please give these speakers a listen with a well recorded CD and hear what your music collection REALLY sounds like.

The flaws that I hear are a slightly boomy resonance at about 150 hz (the upper bass of a kick drum) and a slight lack of "slam" on complex orchestral climaxes. The transient response on less complicated music is great however and this may be improved with a larger, better quality amp. Mine is only a 30 watt Harman Kardon reciever.

My ratings are based on speakers under $1500.

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The only other speakers I have owned are a 12 year old pair of Boston Acoustic A60, series II.