Are Magnepan MG-IIIa speakers problematic?

Problematic?

Depends on whom you ask. Most have had very positive results with older Magnepans. Although Magnepans are not for everyone they can provide an incredibly musical experience for not a lot of $$.

Do you have the room for placement options?
It's preferred NOT to have anything in between them like a huge RPTV that is unless the RPTV is recessed into the wall.
Having the speakers 3-5 feet from the front wall and 1-3 feet from the sidewalls is preferred, but not always necessary. Once set up correctly wow!

The 3A's were built from 1987-1990 so you have about a 15+-year-old speaker.

Can you listen to the speaker before you buy?

If you can listen before you buy use material with good string bass notes. This will help detect any delaminating wires from the panels. You may not hear this with drum notes. I This can be repaired with some effort, but the toughest part is re stapling the sock covers. Factor this into the cost.

You can get pair of 3A's for about $600-1000 depending on condition. That's a very good price for the performance you will get from them. If ever you have to replace the tweeters it about $100 per side and can be done in your home. I do not know if Magnepan still offers refurbishing of the 3A's. A simple phone call to them will answer that. Consider cost of shipping in the equation.

You will need a high current amp not just a high watt amp. This will help in preventing blowing of fuses or the tweeters and bring the performance of the speakers to a higher level.

Another issue is that although the later version Magnepan are not as revealing as the newer Magnepan speakers you may find yourself upgrading your source, Amps, Preamp, cables...So consider that into the equation as well.

By the way I have never owned the 3A’s, but I have owned 4 of Magnepan later versions including the 1.6QR, 3.3R, 3.5R and now the 3.6R.

Hope this helps

I was a Maggie dealer for 11 years, and sold several pairs of III's. They were NEVER problematic to me.
They are large, and with enough heat build up, you can misshape the ribbon tweeter.Plus the resistor, allows for audible phase shift, (to me), and my ear. It does, tame the high frequency enery. But that problem with the lessening of THD, and TIM over the last several years, the speakers seem much less a problem. So where was the problem, really, to begin with.
I will bet that with Halcro amps, they sound delicious.
Don't hesitate to buy them if you have room for them.
They are good speakers, worth owning. Plus, Magnepan, has ALWAYS backed their products.
Good luck,
Larry

Even though I am now recieving Green Mountain C-3's,
one of my most loved speakers were a pair of MG IIIa's.
They are magic driven with Spectron digital amps.
I never had any problems with mine to the day I sold
them.
I love Maggies!!

I have owned 3 pair of the 3.6r's, 1 pair of the 1.6's
and 1 pair of IIIa's. Never any issues..except tired
mornings!

Maggies have the uncanny ability to darg the listener into dreamworld. Yes, a properly setup Maggie pair can put many speakers many times the price to shame. I owned MG1c back in the 90's and the only reason I had to give it up was due to space constraints in my present abode, I do have a listening room albeit, I consider it small for accomodating the maggies. Many think Maggies do not have bass, I think that the best bass I ever heard in any speaker were the Maggies. Its squeaky clean and without any boom whatsoever.

If you drive them with a good amp (high current, high damping factor, with a flat response) of say about 150-200 watts at least you will get them to sing. Although Krell amps are fantastic but somehow I did not like the sound of the Krell with Maggies at all. I did like the Quad 606 II and Perreaux 3150 paired with it.

Magnepan has fantastic service and they can provide anything you may need. I reckon that if the speakers have never been serviced they may need the internal wiring checked and if necessary re glued to the mylar diaphragm. I did that to my MG1c's and the glue is available with Magnepan and does not cost much.

I was a Maggie fan for quite a while, had MG-IIs and then MG-IIIs (not the IIIA). I was driving them with a pair of Conrad Johnson MV75A-1s (vertically biamped) plus an Audio Pro B-250 sub. They had plenty of room around them and sounded fine. Then I heard a pair of comparively tiny ProAc Response 2s and suddenly the Maggies didn't sound as good. In an A/B comparison there was no contest and I sold the Maggies. But I remember them fondly and never had a bit of rouble with them.