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What are some of the downsides of owning a Magneplanar .7 or 1.7i ?

Thinking of moving up speaker wise, and so am considering  the fabled Magneplanar speakers, that is, either the  the .7, or supposedly new 1.7i.   (BTW, I am not sure the Maggie .7 is necessarily an upgrade, and has less bass than my current box speakers...see below)

Besides "Maggies" having outdated speaker terminals that might be a struggle with banana plugs,, and they are generally power hungry, I am curious if anyone can honestly tell me of any other downsides of this design.  For the last 30 years, I have owned several traditional box design speakers. 

I currently have a pair of Golden Ear Technology model 7's....which I like and generally sound good However, I  would like to confirm what a planar design brings to the table in sound quality. I have read many times about the box-less sound  provided by this design, and its wide sound staging and low distortion. 

I think I have enough power with BAT VK-200 amp (100RMS) to drive the .7, but not sure that is enough to drive the MG1.7i. to higher volumes The pre-amp is a Conrad Johnson PV-14SE. 

The listening room area 12 X15ft, but opens into kitchen/dining area divided by a medium size couch. The rest of the space is approximately 12X18ft behind the sofa with a stupid counter island ( so I cannot move the sofa back any further.. The ceiling is 8 to 9 ft feet high ( not a cathedral ceiling, praise the Lord) . It is a bit of haul to the dealer I bought the Golden Ear T's from who also carries Magneplanar line.  All advice welcomed.    Thanks, SJ   

sunnyjim
joejoe
58 posts
 
Aside from their physical size, lack of bass, their hunger for power, placement issues (need to be put well in your room),  nothing. 
dinasty's avatar
dinasty
11 posts
 
The biggest problem with Maggie's is they sound lifeless unless you listen at high volume levels.  If you like to listen moderately loud, you won't be able to find a conventional speaker less than $10k that sounds anywhere near as good, unless you like echoes from a box. But if you listen at lower levels, I think you would be happier with a Martin Logan planar.  At lower volumes you would again need the 10k to get close to the Logan planars, with the you might like echoes in a box caveat again.  
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
444 posts
 
Directionality, narrow sweetspot. They are a one-listener speaker.
Require lots of power to sound dynamic.
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
I don't find the criticisms by the last 2 posters true.  maybe they have not heard the latest ones?
fstary's avatar
fstary
3 posts
 
I bought a pair of Magneplanar 1.7 speakers. The bass is weak in my opinion. I put a Velodyne SPL-R1200 (12") one kilowatt sub with it and that was better. But, my Berning EA-230 tube power amp only puts out 30 watts per channel (I did not like the sound from my other amps as much). To get it to play louder I bought a a second pair of 1.7i Magneplanar speakers (the super-tweeter did not have a huge effect compared with the 1.7) and hooked these up in series with the original pair. Now it went louder with eight ohms being seen by the amp. I also added another SPL-R1200 Velodyne I got from a friend. So there is a separate sub for each of the two channels. The system now plays loudly enough for me and sounds similar to a piano in the same room on piano music. The room is about 21'x27', so it requires a fair amount of power.
In another system I have a REL S5 that may be better (that is, faster) than the Velodynes, but it is in a small 10'x12' room.
I have a big system in another location that plays much louder than the Magneplanars, but it does not sound as real, even though the dynamics are amazing. It seems each kind of system has certain things it does well. It is fun to have more than one system if you have enough room. The speakers made by Sandy Gross sound very nice as you know, since you have a pair. The XXL subs they make might have a big effect on your sound if you like bass. Best regards
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