Room Treatments for Maggies

Having owned several upper middle level amps (Krell FPB, Levinson, Pass, BAT etc. . ), preamps (ARC, Aesthetix, Ayre, McIntosh, etc. . ) and digital electronics (Esoteric, Levinson, DCS, EMM Labs, Wadia) and a slew of decent speakers (B&W, Von, Thiel, Wilson [4 dif pair], Gemme, Maggies, Martin Logans, etc. . .), I can say with absolute certainty that in 3 of the 4 different listening rooms I have set up in my house that acoustic treatments make as big or bigger of a difference than pretty much any single piece of electronics.

If you are blessed with a very good room, consider yourself lucky. But if you haven't player around with room treatments to some degree it is impossible to recognize the impact they can have.

Hey, Elizabeth, I have always had a lot of respect for your comments. This past weekend I was in Chicago picking up a pair of Thiel speakers and the shop had a used pair of SMG-A (??? I think that's the model) Maggies used - and they actually fit in my truck after putting in the Thiel CS6's, so I bought them ( to a large degree on your Maggie comments). Now I just need to figure out what to do with them (my 7th pair of speakers in my house!!!????) I have an pair of Bel Canto Ref 1000 lying around, are these any good with maggies?

I have owned the six foot Magnepans (IIa,IIIa,3.6) in 9 different rooms in the past 40 years.

Here is my advice.

1) they work best in rectangular rooms, set at the short end, 4 to 5 ft from the back wall. Rooms wider than 20 ft or longer then 30 ft are too big.

2) Sit about 10-12 ft from the speakers. No further. At least 3 or 4 ft from the rear wall. Chair height, ear level with the center of the speaker height.

3) Damp the wall behind the speaker, but not too dead. Keep the front corners and wall on the sides, bare or live. Keep the rear wall live.

4)Move the speakers, and listening spot, fore and aft, a few inches to a foot, to avoid bass peaks or nulls.

5)No bulky equipment between, or behind the speakers.

6)Minimum furniture except for a comfortable listening chair, or love seat
(why listen alone).

7) Nothing else is needed! Do not buy ANY room treatments!

Donc55 -

re 3 "3) Damp the wall behind the speaker, but not too dead. Keep the front corners and wall on the sides, bare or live. Keep the rear wall live."

How do you recommend damping the wall behind the speakers without room treatments?

if i didn,t dampen the upper corners and rear wall in my room [14 x 18 ft] i couldn,t stand to listen to my magnepans. standing wave boom is awful. and i have the spks 5 feet away from front wall and 3 feet in from sides with home made stands and support rods. but thats just my experience

@Jult52

I have used draps or hanging blinds over glass windows or sliding doors. Try large stretched fabric wall portrait art work, tapestry, or a Navaho rug, on the wall behind the speakers. Fake large plants look and work well also. Anything that scatters or slightly absorbs sound, and has decent WAF. After all, women also like to listen to good music. You do not want to insult them with poor taste.