Tweaking the Magnepan 1.7s


Looking to tap the Audiogon crowd to come up with inexpensive tweaks for my new Magnepan 1.7s. Here is what is planned so far:

Have room treatments. I am a bigger fan of sound absorption than sound dispursement. I have four 2' x 4' x 2" sound absorption panels that sit on each side of my stereo shelving unit between my speakers. Does a great job of removing the reflections off of my electronics.

Having Magnepans for 30+ years, I do like to deaden the front wall behind the speakers a little bit. From hanging an oriental rug to curtains or whatever. Will be trying out some of these ideas with my new location.

Mye stands. I am waiting for my bank account to grow a bit before I go for these. I believe Mye has the new updates for the 1.7s (although, I can't see any difference between the 1.7s and my old 1.6s).

I want to bypass the fuse and that stupid metal jumper with the least disruption of the speaker itself. Anyone remove the back panel and replace with better speaker connects? If so, what do you recommend? How about wiring tips - anything I should be know before I start the project?

Debating on using a 1 ohm resistor to tame the high end. Any suggestions for high quality 1 ohm resistors?

Anything I am missing?

Sound notes: full description of my experience with Magnepan 1.7s and the electronics I am using in other Audiogon threads, just search for ronwills.
ronwills
Is this kind of resistor good for audio purpose?
Vishay RWM8X450R475BO50E1
wirewound,vitreous enamel,12W,0.47 ohm
Josh,
Doesn't a wirewound rheostat have enough inductance to change things.....and not necessarily for the better?
Sure. The idea here is to use the rheostat to zero in on a figure, and then replace it with a non-inductive fixed resistor. I'm assuming that the series inductance won't make enough of a difference in the frequency response to render the results useless, but without running the numbers (or trying it) I can't be absolutely sure of that.

Wslam, a lot of people recommend the Duelund resistors. Whether they actually make an audible improvement over run-of-the-mill wirewounds, I don't know.
Yeah, Josh, I was being a stinker. The company I worked for and Vishay had a couple million dollar disagreement, so I'm not big on Vishay products.....

Now, about those awful jumpers.

The ones on my 1.6s are MAGNETIC, which as near as I can tell means steel.

I'm making replacements from 6ga copper wire, and whittled into shape.

First pair done and installed.

Does the 1.7 STILL use this jumper type? What have others done? Please don't suggest biwire....unless you can also tell me how to rid myself of those banana plugs, too.

sheesh.
How would one go about biwriing, or better yet, biamping 1.7s? I thought it was "not possible."

-Paul